Your washing machine is a fast and easy way to get your clothes clean, but sometimes, it isn’t up to the job. Stubborn stains like wine and grease can cling to your favourite shirt even after a few cycles. But before you throw out that shirt or consider buying a new washing machine all together, try out these unusual but effective stain removal tips.

For the chronically messy eater, leaving a meal without food finding its way onto your clothes is a rarity. While some stains disappear after a short cycle in the washer, you’ll know that some are a little more tenacious. Grease and red wine are the worst culprits, and many times they are the cause of your favourite shirt, pair of pants, or dress going into the garbage bin instead of your laundry bin. But armed with a few techniques involving only household items, you no longer have to let go of your best duds just because you spilled something on them.

You can’t resist the siren’s call of sizzling bacon, but that strip from the pan is dripping with fat that always manages to land on your shirt. Grease is notorious for the damage it causes fabrics, but it can be removed with regular old sidewalk chalk or loose baby powder. While the stain is still wet, rub the chalk or sprinkle some powder over it. Let it sit for several minutes to absorb the oil (adding more if it’s a particularly large stain) before throwing it in the wash as per usual.

There’s no use crying over spilled milk, but it’s okay to shed a few tears over your spilled merlot. Infamous in the halls of fabric offences, red wine can permanently stain light coloured clothing. But with some quick thinking, you can remove it and pretend the spill never happened. Again, you’ll want to act while the stain is still wet. Depending on what you have in your house, pour club soda or vodka over the stain and blot using a cloth until the stain fades. Then toss it into the next load of laundry.

Sometimes, the stains that can ruin your clothes don’t come with your dinner. Sweat stains in a white shirt is a frustration that everyone shares. If you’ve noticed your pits have started to go yellow, you have a few options. Before laundering your shirt, create a paste using baking soda and water. Apply it to the stains and let sit for a few hours before you put it through a wash cycle. You can also apply hydrogen peroxide with equal parts water to the sweat stain for roughly 30 minutes before throwing it in the wash. Adding a cup of vinegar to your whites, on top of these concentrated stain fighting methods, will make your shirts dazzle. Vinegar is also a great addition to any load that is particularly dirty, like workout clothes or towels, as it helps remove odours without leaving behind its own.

By following these tips, you won’t be wasting a lot of time and money rewashing the same clothes over and over again in hopes of removing a stubborn stain. Treating the stain – food or otherwise – as soon as it happens will help you save your clothes and your washer in the long run. If your washing dilemma stems not from stains but from the machine itself, your local appliance repair experts are here to help. Simply give us a call when your washer fails to launder your clothes properly, and a technician can get it back to cleaning and removing stains in no time.