Salsa solidifies our theory that the yummiest foods are also the ones that are the most likely to stain our favorite pieces of clothing. Salsa also happens to be one of the messiest foods to eat. It’s not surprising then, too, that a lot of people search the internet every month for the best solution to addressing a salsa stain. Fortunately, although salsa is a tricky one, there’s a method that should give you a good chance of removing that stain for good.
Why are Salsa Stains Such a Pain to Remove?
Salsa’s staining superpowers can be blamed on tomatoes, which are notoriously good at staining fabrics. Tomatoes contain compounds that bind very efficiently to the fibers of clothing, and once they’re bound, it’s hard to remove them from your material. Not only that, but a lot of people immediately throw tomato-stained fabrics into the wash, using hot water before drying it, which is a bad idea because this cooks the tomato into the material, setting it permanently. But, the good news is that there is a method that’s very effective at removing salsa and other tomato-based stains.
Easy Steps for Removing a Salsa Stain
With a salsa stain, the sooner you act, the better. If you notice the stain as soon as it happens and take the necessary steps to remove it, you’ve a great chance of getting rid of it completely. However, the longer you wait, the more that tomato soaks into the fibers of the material and binds to them, to become incredibly difficult to remove.
So, shortly after noticing salsa on your clothing, you should then do the following below.
Step #1: Remove the garment and use a spoon or knife to scrape away the salsa on the surface, including any chunks of vegetables, seeds, and liquids. Do this as thoroughly as possible, and make sure not to actually push salsa deeper into the material while doing so.
Step #2: Hold the stain under cold running water, pushing water through the back of the stain after turning it inside out. This will force the salsa back out from where it came. Running water directly over the stain will end up pushing the salsa deeper into the material, which is exactly what you don’t want to happen. At this point, the stain should begin to fade.
Step #3: Now, use your fingers to work liquid detergent into the stain. You can also use Grab Green Liquid Dish Soap. Go get a clean sponge and using circular motions, gently scrub the stain starting from the outside edges toward the center.
Step #4: We recommend pouring a little bit of white vinegar onto the stain, which will do a good job at breaking up the tomato to make it easier to remove, by lifting it out of the fibers. Let it soak in the stain for about 5 minutes before rinsing again under cold water.
Step #5: Now, wash the clothing item as you normally would in the washing machine using Grab Green’s 3 in 1 Laundry Detergent Pods or 3 in 1 Laundry Detergent Powder. If the clothing is very delicate, then use our Delicate Laundry Detergent Pods.
Step #6: Before transferring it to the dryer, make sure the stain is gone – otherwise, the dryer will set it permanently. If it’s still there, follow the directions above to repeat the process.
Recap: It seems cruel that such a delicious dip is so great at staining our clothing, and so easy to spill onto our favorite garments. Fortunately, in most cases, a salsa stain can be completely removed. Just follow these steps above and you should be good to go, assuming you dealt with the stain as soon as it happened.
