Skip to content
Search AI Powered

Latest Stories

How To Get Some of the Most Difficult Stains Out of Your Clothing (Yes, Even Red Wine)

How To Get Some of the Most Difficult Stains Out of Your Clothing (Yes, Even Red Wine)
Keith Beaty/Getty Images

Stains are an inevitable inconvenience we all must face. Sadly, however, most of us aren't equipped with an encyclopedic knowledge of how to clean any stain...that is, UNTIL NOW. The good people at Consumer Report recently compiled a list of best-practices when dealing with blotches from three of life's most problematic substances.


Yellow Mustard




It turns out mustard's color and its difficulty in stain removal are caused by the same ingredient: curcumin. The first thing you'll want to do is scrape the mustard off as much as possible without spreading it. Then, things get a little more interesting:

Mix 1 teaspoon of liquid dish detergent in 1 cup of warm water, work into fabric, rinse well, and hang the clothing item in the sun. (Curcumin is very sensitive to sunlight—nature's bleaching agent.)

Red Wine



Our mothers and grandmothers have long told us the secret to washing out a red wine stain is soaking the stain with soda water or white wine. THEY WERE WRONG. This will actually leave a long-lasting brown stain, though it appears to work at first. Consumer Report claims the regretful spiller should wet and blot the fabric with water as quickly as possible. Then, they continue:

Hand-wash in 2 cups of warm water mixed with 2 teaspoons of liquid dish detergent. While the fabric is wet, liberally apply 3 percent hydrogen peroxide to the garment and then lay it in the sun for several hours to bleach naturally.

Chewing Gum



While there's some success to be found in the common advice of freezing your garment then scraping the gum off, this may end up causing as much damage to the fabric as the gum! Experts actually suggest Bengay—both for topical pain relief, and to break down the chemical compounds found in chewing gum. Get ready, because these instructions are pretty heavy on the science:

Extra-strength Bengay is what you need. This analgesic rub contains methyl salicylate, which dissolves the gum base. Heat gum with a hair dryer, scrape off as much as possible with a plastic knife, work in a dab of Bengay, then use a zip-top bag to pick off the resulting goo that's chemically more attracted to the plastic than to a paper towel.

Now you're a master stain-remover!

Congratulations on your newfound skill. If possible, try to use your powers for good and not evil.


H/T - Consumer Report, Getty Images

More from Trending/video

unidentified female Trump supporter at MAGA rally
Eva Marie Uzcategui/Getty Images

MAGA Mom Goes Viral After Revealing Her Son Refuses To Talk To Her Because She Voted For Trump

While people grapple with how to handle family members and friends who voted against their basic human rights, the people in question are dealing with the fallout from their choices.

MAGA Republican President Donald Trump and the Republican Party's embrace of the Heritage Foundation's Project 2025 made clear the rights of women; ethnic, racial and religious minorities; the disabled; immigrants; and the LGBTQ+ community were at risk.

Keep ReadingShow less
Mike Lee
Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images

GOP Senator Faces MAGA Backlash Over Plan To Sell Millions Of Acres Of Public Land

Utah Republican Senator Mike Lee is facing harsh criticism—including from Team MAGA—over his proposal to sell off millions of acres of public land in the American West owned by the Bureau of Land Management and the U.S. Forest Service to supposedly create more affordable housing.

Lee claimed in his proposal that there is an "extensive process for interested parties like States and local governments to nominate land for disposal to meet housing and community needs," noting that it specifically exempts national parks, monuments, and federally designated wilderness areas from potential land sales.

Keep ReadingShow less
Donald Trump
Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images

Trump Ripped For Complaining That Americans Get 'Too Many' Federal Holidays Off Work

While it was ultimately former President Joe Biden who established Juneteenth as a federal holiday, President Donald Trump—who once campaigned on that promise—took to Truth Social on Juneteenth to whine about the number of "non-working holidays" Americans get, claiming that it costs businesses "billions of dollars."

Juneteenth is derived from June 19, 1865, when Union troops led by General Gordon Granger arrived in Galveston, Texas, and declared that all enslaved African Americans in the state were free.

Keep ReadingShow less
Donald Trump
Carlos Barria - Pool/Getty Images

Donald Trump Called Out After Awkwardly Misspelling His Own Name In Post About Iran Attack

President Donald Trump was ripped by critics after he awkwardly misspelled his own name while praising the B-2 pilots who flew the strikes on Iran—only to later delete the post and repost it as if nothing happened.

On Saturday, Trump authorized a series of intense U.S. air and submarine strikes targeting three Iranian nuclear facilities, amid ongoing uncertainty about the status of Tehran’s nuclear program.

Keep ReadingShow less
A woman sitting up in bed as a man sleeps next to her.
Florida State University Researchers Find Predictors for Infidelity in New Study
(Wodicka/ullstein bild via Getty Images)

The Biggest 'They're Definitely Cheating On Me!' Signs People Ignored

When our partner commits suspicious behavior, it's easy for us to jump to conclusions.

Most of the time, the conclusions we jump to are 100% wrong and are just our imaginations playing tricks with us.

Keep ReadingShow less