Horseradish makes everything better, from shrimp cocktails to mustard, giving it that unmistakable kick. If you’re a horseradish lover, then you probably love nothing more than slathering it on your favorite foods. Of course, the more we eat it, the more likely we are to spill it on our clothes at some point another. Fortunately, horseradish is a very easy stain to remove, so the likelihood that your favorite sweater or t-shirt is ruined is next to zero.
Better yet, to successfully remove a horseradish stain, all you need is a couple of nontoxic cleaning products that are already lying around the house, like baking soda and your favorite sustainable laundry pods, along with some natural dish soap that you keep next to your kitchen sink.
Getting Rid of Horseradish on Your Clothes
Fortunately, as long as you have some (eco-friendly) cleaning products lying around, you’ll be able to remove that horseradish stain in no time, with very little effort. As always, it’s best to address the stain as soon as possible, and remove the garment once you notice the stain to start treating it right away.
Step #1: Scrape Off the Excess
First, grab a dull knife and start scraping away the excess horseradish remaining on the surface of the garment. Otherwise, it’ll start to get crusty, which will make it harder to remove the stain entirely.
Step #2: Pretreat with Some Sustainable Dish Soap and Baking Soda
Get a small bowl and fill it with warm water and sustainable dish soap. Take a clean cloth and dip it into the bowl, and then blot the stain repeatedly and firmly. This step alone will get rid of most of the stain, if not all of it, as long as you’re thorough enough. As for the dish soap, go with an eco friendly dish soap formula such as Grab Green Liquid Dish Soap, since it has amazing cleansing properties while being free of toxic ingredients.
Step #3: Use a Bit of Baking Soda
Once you’re done blotting, sprinkle the stain with some baking soda, which will help remove the stain further. Leave it there for at least 15 minutes so that it can get to work breaking up the horseradish stain, and then give the garment a good rinse.
Step #4: Time to Run the Wash
From there, you can simply wash the garment using your favorite natural laundry pods, according to the garment’s care label. Use a gentle, nontoxic detergent like our 3 in 1 Laundry Detergent Pods, which are sustainable laundry pods known to fight stains very effectively. After that, you can go ahead and run the garment through a drying cycle, with some natural dryer sheets like Grab Green Classic Laundry Dryer Sheets, sustainable dryer sheets like Stoneworks Dryer Sheets, or even Grab Green Dryer Balls.
If it’s an Old Horseradish Stain
Good news: even if the horseradish stain has dried, since it took you a while to notice it on your clothing, you can still remove it effectively. Just use the same method as above, scraping away the dried horseradish before completing the other steps.
If the Clothing is Delicate
So, what if you have a delicate material that has special washing and drying requirements? First off, if the item needs to be air-dried rather than thrown into a dryer, that’s fine, since the drying method is done after the stain is removed anyway. You can hand-wash the item in the same detergent you’d use in the washing machine if hand-washing is required for your garment. And, if it’s dry-clean only, then go ahead and drop it off at your dry cleaner’s, letting them know that there’s a stain you’d like them to remove.
To summarize:
- Cotton clothing will offer the most stain removal options.
- Wool is more delicate than cotton and cannot endure repeated washing and also needs to be spread flat to dry.
- For silk clothing, it’s recommended you take it to a professional dry cleaner, due its extreme delicacy.
