Despite its deliciousness, chocolate can be a nightmare to remove when it gets onto our clothes or upholstery, and if you’ve got small children in the home, you’ll doubtless have experienced this for yourself on many occasions!
However, there’s no need to despair completely, and even if you don’t get to the stain while its fresh, there are still ways to get rid of it effectively.
Take a look at the following tips for removing stubborn chocolate stains:
Items that can be laundered
Firstly, wash the item in cold water in the washing machine, using a heavy-duty detergent. If it’s a an old chocolate stain, try pre-treating the stain with detergent before running it through a cycle, and if possible, allow the detergent to sit and soak into the fabric for around half an hour.
Upholstered furniture
Ideally, chocolate stains on upholstered furniture should be tackled right away, and by doing the following:
- Take a spoon or butter knife and carefully remove the excess chocolate from the furniture – it’s important not to scrape and damage the furniture or risk spreading the stain even further
- Then, once you’ve removed as much chocolate as possible, rinse the stain with a cloth soaked in cold water.
- Take some heavy-duty liquid laundry soap (or liquid dish soap) and apply it to the stain. Leave it to sit for around 5 minutes before applying a little cold water to the stain with a clean, soft cloth or sponge and leave it for up to 15 minutes. However, since the detergent shouldn’t be fully wiped off at this stage, using your wet cloth or sponge, continue to rub the detergent into the stain. Once the 15 minutes are up, rinse the area thoroughly with cold water to remove the detergent, and hopefully, the stain.
If you’re finding that the chocolate stain still persists, and you’re worried about making the problem worse, switch to a store bought stain removing product and apply it using the manufacturers instructions.
Hire a cleaning service
Most cleaning services are experts at safely and effectively removing a variety of household stains, and if you’ve got fresh or old stains that are spoiling your clothes, furniture or soft furnishings, you may benefit from their expertise. They will always turn to natural, eco friendly stain removing solutions first, so you can rest assured that their methods won’t cause harm to you, other members of your household, or the environment.
Don’t let chocolate stains ruin your clothes or home furnishings; follow the steps above to safely get rid of them, or seek expert guidance from a local cleaning service.
