If you love your spaghetti dishes, you will certainly even know how to make your best spaghetti sauce. All you need is organic tomatoes, garlic, onions, favorite herbs, and the best blender. But, did you know this sauce, since it contains tomatoes, can leave nasty stains on any fabric? So, if you have soiled your best outfit or upholstery, here is how to get spaghetti sauce out of clothes.
How to Get Spaghetti Sauce Stains From Clothing
Also called marinara sauce, the tomato sauce contains healthy lycopene, a powerful antioxidant that can leave nasty stains on clothing and upholstery. If you have tomato sauce stains on your clothes, curtains, or dining chair fabrics, here is how you can easily remove them at home.
Here are all the supplies you need to get the job done;
- A spoon or butter knife
- Cold water
- A washing machine
- Liquid laundry detergent or liquid dishwashing detergent
- Mild bleaching agent (optional)
- White vinegar (optional)
- Hydrogen peroxide (optional)
- Brush with soft bristles
When you gather the supplies, here is how to remove tomato sauce stains from clothing.
Step 1: Scoop any excess tomato sauce from the cloth or fabric
If you have spilled too much tomato sauce on your fabric, the first thing you need to do is fetch the excess tomato sauce. While scooping the tomato sauce, it is best to avoid spreading it to other parts of your fabric, as this would only make the stain bigger. Scoop the excess tomato sauce as follows;
- With the spoon, fetch as much tomato sauce as you can. You can drive the spoon in a circular motion to get the most sauce without more fabric contact.
- If there is any pasta sauce left that you can't collect with the spoon, use the back of a butter knife to get it off the cloth.
Step 2: Understand your type of tomato sauce before attempting to remove the stain
While you can make your healthy vegan pasta sauce at home without oils, some sauces you get from the grocery store contain meats that have oil. Therefore, if you notice the stain on your clothing has oils, you will need to treat it with a mild soap such as dish soap to remove the oil. To do so:
- Wet the stained area.
- Apply your dish soap until it lathers.
- Gently scrub before rinsing.
You can now start working on the stain with oil out of the way in the following steps.
Step 3: Run cold water over the stained area
For this step, you need to run cold water through the back of the stain before the stain dries off. In addition, running the water from the back of the stain ensures you do not feed the stain deeper into the fabric. Since you want to loosen the tomato stain completely, run the fabric under cold water for at least 10 minutes or until the water looks clear.
Step 4: Apply your liquid laundry detergent to the stain
When the fabric is still wet, you can apply your laundry detergent or liquid dish washing detergent to the stained portion.
Apply a generous portion, working it into the fabric gently in circular motions. Begin applying the soap from the outside edges of the fresh tomato stains and work your way inward until the stain is fully covered in soap.
You can use the soft-bristle brush to scrub the tomato sauce stains gently, then leave the cloth soaking in the soap for 10 minutes.
Step 5: Rinse the soap thoroughly
After the stain sits covered in the laundry detergent for at least 10 minutes, you need to rinse the soap before it dries. Run cold water over the area until you get clear water.
After rinsing, observe the stained area to see if the tomato sauce stain is completely gone. If gone, you can machine wash the cloth normally before running it in the dryer.
However, if the stain is not removed, you will need to proceed to the following steps as running a stained fabric in the dryer will permanently feed the color into the cloth fibers.
Step 6: If the tomato stain remains, repeat the soap soak to remove it
If the stain removal process was unsuccessful the first time, apply the mild soap again, then rinse it off after 10 minutes.
However, if the tomato sauce stains remain after the second time, you can try a mild bleaching agent. But, ensure you are using bleach on white or colorfast fabrics. You can also use hydrogen peroxide, white vinegar, or lemon juice for this step. Follow the following steps;
- Apply a small amount of liquid laundry detergent or dish soap.
- Then, add your ideal bleaching agent, white vinegar, hydrogen peroxide, or lemon juice, and work it into the fabric.
- Rinse off completely, so the beach does not damage your cloth.
If you still have any remaining stain, you can apply a stain remover stick and then rinse off. If you want to guarantee you have removed the tomato sauce stains, hold the fabric against bright light and ensure you do not see any stain lines.
If the stain persists, you can soak the cloth in warm water after applying mild bleach. Leave it soaked in the mixture for 30 minutes. After, rinse it properly and proceed to the next step.
Step 7: Wash and dry the cloth after removing tomato sauce stains
When you successfully remove the tomato stains, you can wash the cloth in the washing machine. For this, you will need to use the normal laundry detergent and fabric softer in a normal wash cycle. You can then throw the cloth in the dryer after the wash cycle.
But, if you suspect the process did not completely remove tomato sauce stains, you need to air-dry the cloth and ensure your wash cycle does not use hot water.
Frequently Asked Questions About Removing Tomato Stains From Clothes and Upholstery
a) Can I get dry tomato stains out of clothes?
It is best to remove tomato sauce stains once freshly applied to clothes in most instances. While tomatoes are rich in antioxidants, they are given the orange and red color by lycopene, a healthy carotenoid. So when you get your tomato sauce on your fabrics, the red pigmentation will be fed into those fabrics, and it is best to remove them while fresh.
If your clothes stay with the fabric longer, it is likely you won't be able to remove the stain in its entirety. However, you can brush the set in tomato stains with a mixture of water, dish soap, and baking soda to minimize the stain appearance.
b) Do tomato stains smell?
Tomato stains can produce a bad smell if left on fabrics for too long. So, if you get your tomato sauce on upholstery and carpets, it is best to wash it off immediately.
But, if you find out about the stain when it is too late, and you notice a smell, you can try to get the stain off with the steps above, and you can use the best air purifier to rid your house of the smell.
c) Can I remove tomato sauce stains from my carpet?
If you or your loved one accidentally spill tomato sauce on the carpet, you will need to remove the stain as soon as possible before a permanent stain settles.
You can use equal parts cold water and liquid laundry agent, and a white cloth to wipe off the stain. However, unlike when removing pasta sauce from clothes and upholstery, you need to carefully work the mixture onto the stain, not from the back of the carpet.
Apply the cleaning solution from the outer edges of the stain and wipe it off until the stain disappears. If the tomato stain is too stubborn, you can use the dusting brush of your vacuum cleaner to brush the stained area. Then, dip a clean cloth into clean water, wring it out, and rinse the area free of all soap.
