Beetroot is both delicious and it’s vibrant purple colour brightens up any dish. That being said, it is a natural, and permanent, dye, which makes beetroot stains on clothing lethal. Catch your stain early, and follow these steps, to ensure that your stain is lifted and your clothing isn’t dyed forever.
- Machine washable clothing
- Dry clean only clothing
- Laundryheap
Machine washable clothing
To remove beetroot stains from machine washable clothing you will need…
- Kitchen towel
- Cold water
- Laundry detergent
- Washing machine
- Chlorine bleach or colour-safe bleach (optional)
To begin removing your beetroot stain, soak a kitchen towel in cold water and gently blot at the stain. Make sure that you are blotting and not rubbing the stain as rubbing will only set the beetroot further into your garment. As you blot, you should notice the stain transferring to your kitchen cloth. Continue blotting until you are satisfied that no more of the stain will be lifted.
Once you are finished blotting, place your stain under a cold running tap. The water should turn a light purple colour as a result of it pushing more of the beetroot from your clothing. Continue holding your garment under the water until it runs clear.
After dabbing and holding it under cold water your stain may be lifted. If it has not, gently work a small amount of laundry detergent into the area, and leave it to sit for 15 minutes. After 15 minutes, rinse the laundry detergent from your garment, gently rubbing your stain with your fingers to encourage it to lift with the detergent. Continue rinsing until all of the detergent has been removed.
Once you have removed the detergent from your garment, check to see if your stain has lightened in colour or been lifted. If it has, wash your garment in your washing machine as you usually would. If your stain is still vibrant and visible, repeat the previous steps.
An alternative solution to lift your stain is to soak your item in chlorine or a colour safe bleach. Submerge your garment in a mixture of bleach and cold water for a minimum of 15 minutes. After 15 minutes, remove your item from the bleach solution and wash as you usually would.
Dry clean only clothing
To remove beetroot stains from dry clean only clothing you will need…
- Dry cloth
- Damp sponge
- Bread (optional)
Begin lifting your beetroot stain by blotting it with a clean dry cloth. Similarly to with machine washable clothing, you must make sure that you are blotting not rubbing the stain. This will help to soak up any excess beetroot liquid and begin lifting the stain. Continue to dab until no more colour is transferred to the cloth.
Next, dampen a clean sponge with cold water, and place it directly over the stain, making sure that it covers the full area. Do not rub or move the sponge as this can cause the beetroot to set further into the fibres of your garment. The sponge will begin absorbing the beetroot from your clothing, lifting it from your item and on to the sponge. After 5 minutes, check how much of your stain has been absorbed, and, if necessary, re-dampen the sponge and place it back on your stain for a further 5 minutes. Repeat this process until your stain has been lifted.
If you do not have a clean sponge on hand, an alternative option is to use bread. In the same way as you would use the sponge, dampen the bread using cold water and place it over the stain. The bread will absorb the beetroot from your garment, lifting the stain.
Once you have used either a sponge or bread to lift your beetroot stain, take a clean, dry, cloth and dab at any remnants of the stain. This should leave you with stain-free clothing.
Laundryheap
If you are struggling to lift your beetroot stain, or any other stain for that matter, let us take care of it for you. All you have to do is left us know what the stain is and where it is located, and we will do the rest. To book your Laundryheap order head to the Laundryheap website or download the free Laundryheap app.
