Never fear a red wine stain again with this cleaning hack.
If you’re partial to a glass of red wine, you’ll probably also know the gutwrenching feeling that comes with accidentally spilling it. The deeply coloured beverage is well known for instantly staining carpets, soft furnishings, and clothing – and it’s an absolute nightmare to clean if you don’t know the right methods.
Red wine stains because it contains pigments called anthocyanins, which give grapes their purple hue, as well as tannins that act like a binding agent and allow pigments to easily attach to surfaces. This not only stains fabric but is also the reason you sometimes end up with red lips or teeth after drinking a glass.
Removing red wine stains is no easy task, but there are some steps you can take to make the process simpler. Your first instinct might be to rush out and buy expensive stain removers, but there’s actually a much cheaper way.
In fact, one popular cleaning tip involves using an item almost all of us have in our kitchen cupboards.
The hack was shared on Reddit after someone asked for help getting a red wine stain out of their “expensive” cream sofa. They said: “I spilt some Cabernet on my expensive couch, and my husband is gonna be p***ed! I poured soda water on it and used a white vinegar/soda water mixture, but it’s still badly stained. Any advice or tips?”
The most popular solution came from a commenter who told the poster to use salt to draw some of the stain out. They claimed that “salt and boiling water” can help lift a red wine stain, but they noted they’d never tried it specifically on a sofa.
They wrote: “Salt and boiling water. Usually done when fabric can be put over a pot so water can go through, such as a shirt. My ex was an alcoholic, and I learned quickly how to get red wine stains out. I never had to do it for a couch, but it might be worth a shot.”
According to La Crema wine company, the most important thing to remember when dealing with a red wine stain is that you should never scrub it. While it might seem like scrubbing helps to pull some of the stains out, you’ll actually be making it worse – as you’ll be spreading it out and pushing wine deeper into the fabric.
You should also work as quickly as possible to remove the stain, as red wine will sink and settle into the fibres the longer that it’s left to sit. Red wine can also dye white and cream fabrics, you need to work quickly if you don’t want to be left with a permanent red mark on your carpet or sofa.
La Crema recommends using salt or an alternative like baking soda to remove the stain. You can do this by sprinkling the substance over the stain and leaving it for a few minutes to soak up as much of the stain as possible. If you act quickly enough, this may be enough to remove the stain on its own.