Red wine is the perfect Christmas tipple for a cold, wintery night when you’re curled up on the sofa next to a roaring fire.
While a glass of red wine is delicious, if you spill it on your clothes, carpet or furnishings, it is notoriously tricky to remove and can quickly stain.
Ideally, red wine spills need to be treated immediately to prevent permanent staining and damage.
However, Laura Harnett from eco-cleaning brand Seep has shared her hacks for removing red wine stains even after they have dried.
If you’ve spilt red wine on your clothing, immediately take off the item and run it inside out under a cold tap.
According to Laura, running the stain under a cold tap will “push the red wine back to the surface that it landed on first.”
Continue running the item under the cold tap until the water runs completely clear.
Despite most people grabbing white wine when they’ve spilled red wine, Laura claimed this is a myth.
Instead, she recommended using salt to remove red wine stains. She explained: “Salt will attract the red wine molecules and pull them away from fabric, so add those to the stain and leave for at least 10 minutes.
“Never rub red wine stains as this will only push the colour further into the fabric and will make the stain even harder to get out. Instead, blot and pat the salt off with a dry kitchen towel.
“Your clothes should then be able to be washed as normal to remove anything that remains, but if the stain still looks quite dark, take a capful of eco-friendly clothing detergent and leave it to soak into the stain for about 20 minutes, then wash as normal.”
The salt method can also be used on carpets and soft furnishings. However, rather than pouring cold water on these stains, homeowners should first try to absorb as much as possible using tea towels or paper towels before applying the salt and leaving it overnight.
If you don’t have salt at hand, Laura said baking soda, talcum powder and clay-based cat litter will also work to soak up the stain.
In the morning, the stain should be pale grey and can be removed by dabbing it with white vinegar. Use a vacuum to remove any remaining salt.
Laura shared another method for removing red wine stains that involved mixing white vinegar with washing up liquid.
She said: “Another method is to mix white vinegar with eco-friendly washing up liquid onto the sofa or carpet and repeatedly dab and rinse afterwards.
“If the stain is dry then it needs to be dampened first to help loosen the molecules and then one of the above methods can be applied.”
