Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with stains and stainremoval

How do I get dirt stains out?

otherwordlyglow — Fri, 15 May 2009 08:22:55 -0800

How do I remove dirt stains on pants? My daughter came home from daycare with the knees of her pants totally saturated with a mixture of sand and dirt. She's a crawler and I expect this to happen a lot but have no experience with dirt stains. (I don't do a lot of stuff that leads to dirt stains on me). For the most part it doesn't matter too much: the pants were cheap and I'm sure she'll grow out of them in another month but what's the best way to treat these kinds of stains? I'm sure there will be plenty more.

The complicating factor is that they've already been washed and dried and still have stains on the knees. Is there any hope of getting them totally clean? Generally, I know to pre-treat stains but I neglected to do that this time. So the question really is two-fold: What are best practices for dirt stains and then what do I do in this case where it's already been laundered but the stain remains? I'm in the U.S., so product recommendations will be most helpful if they're available here.

Bonus side question: Does anyone remember a solvent/stain removal product that used to be available maybe up to the 70s and 80s? It was alcohol based and came in a narrow, tall-ish glass jar with a felt tip that you dabbed on to stains? I can't find it anymore which leads me to believe it was toxic and so they've taken it off the market but it worked like a charm on a lot of things.

How can I remove stains from my wall?

mateuslee — Fri, 13 Jul 2007 08:09:45 -0800

How to remove stains on my wall? I just moved to a new place, unfortunately it is less then clean - and though I'm not anal-retentive, I don't like to see brown splash marks on the wall (coffee? I choclate pie fight?). I sprayed some bleach soap on them but it only works a little.
Short of painting the wall, what can I buy or make? I live in Holland, so brand names are not so helpful - better to be general about what sort of product I need.

Thanks!

The Idiot Dog ate what?

onhazier — Wed, 13 Jun 2007 11:50:38 -0800

Dog + Pig Roast Charcoal Ashes = Dear God, how do I get this out? We had a great pig roast on Sunday. Yay! Monday evening, DH and I cleaned the grill, putting all the ashes and charcoal remains in a bucket. We moved one item from the backyard and returned to find the idiot dog with his face in the bucket. We got him away from it and removed it from his accessible area. No ashes were on his muzzle and he wasn't swallowing when we caught him so we thought we were lucky.

When we returned home from work yesterday, the idiot dog (his new official name, btw) had redecorated the carpet of one room. The mess came from the back end. This morning revealed a puke pile deposited overnight. How he didn't throw up the ashes earlier, I have no idea.

The idiot dog seems perfectly fine after his ash purgative. However, we have beige carpet with a hideous dark gray stain now. How do I get this out?

Out, vile, uh, crazy black streak!

schroedinger — Thu, 13 Apr 2006 16:02:48 -0800

Help removing unknown black streaks from a 100% cotton white shirt. My friend works as a waiter and periodically black marks show up on his work shirts, particularly around the cuffs. They're not ink or food--are they sweat stains? They almost look like dark pencil streaks. They've come out in the past, but this time they're all up and down one sleeve and bleach and stain removal spray aren't doing anything. Any recommendations?

Removing blood from leather?

jamesonandwater — Wed, 13 Jul 2005 10:18:45 -0800

Anyone know how to remove blood stains from leather? I cut my foot pretty badly the other day and there's a nasty-looking blood stain on one sandal I can't get rid of. Ideally I'd like to avoid throwing the shoes out, I love them and bought them abroad. Hydrogen peroxide didn't work.