Removing Red Wine Stains

Aw, Man!  You just dripped red wine on your shirt, or worse yet, on your friend's light colored carpet.  Don't panic, but don't let it sit there too long, either.  First try to dab up the excess with something absorbent, like a white paper towel, or a clean rag.  Don't rub, Dab.  Also, try not to spread the stain over a larger area in the process.  Now you need two basic things you will likely find in any household:

• a bottle of dish soap, the kind with the squirty pop top, 
• and a bottle of plain old cheap hydrogen peroxide

Did you know that the size opening and threading on most dish soap bottles is exactly the same as the ones used on pretty much every hydrogen peroxide bottle?  Divine intervention?  Maybe?  Here's the trick....  Unscrew the pop top from the soap bottle, don't rinse the soap off of it, then screw it right onto the hydrogen peroxide bottle.  You now have the perfect tool for your wine removal.  The little bit of dish soap remaining on the pop top works with the hydrogen peroxide so you can apply it exactly where it needs to go.  Use the tip of the bottle to gently massage the fabric or carpet to get between the fibers and remove the stain.  If on a carpet, use a clean white paper towel or clean rag to soak up the excess liquid as you go, so the carpet doesn't get too soaked.  Like magic, the soap and peroxide mixture makes the stain almost vanish before your eyes.  After the stain has disappeared, rinse with cool, clean water and dab up the excess with a different clean white paper towel or clean rag.

Many online cleaning tips tell you to mix up a batch of this and that, using up a bulk of the hydrogen peroxide solution, and getting out more mixing stuff than what you actually need.  Don't waste time or more supplies than you really need.  The pop top allows for precision placement of your cleaning solution with little to no waste.

I used this trick for one of my parent's friends over the holidays.  They were shocked at how simple and quick it worked.  This trick will work on colored fabrics as well, but make sure you rinse it afterwards.  It will also work on many more organic type stains that are typically tough to get out.  Hydrogen peroxide is very similar to the active ingredient in cleaners like Clorox 2, so it will also be safe on most color fabrics.  On your fancier fabrics, you might want to spot test on a hidden area, just to make sure, but I've never found a problem when I have used it... knock on wood!