Getting mud or dirt on clothes is the most unpleasant experience that comes with a rainy day – this is especially true if you have to deal with children’s laundry. Things can get bad to worse if you are wearing a white or pastel shaded cloth or if the fabric is very delicate.
We know how tricky this can be for anyone dealing with the laundry of their home. For this reason, we have decided to write this article on all our best tips and tricks on how to remove dirt or mud stains from clothing.
Here are a few tips:
Prepare the garment:
Normally, for removing stains, you should start cleaning the fabric when it is still wet. But in case of mud stain you should never do that. Cleaning wet mud can make the mud spread all over the cloth and can damage the fabric.
Instead, allow the mud to dry completely. You can lay it on a flat surface with a thick sheet of paper in between two layers so that the dirt does not spread. Once the mud is completely dry you can shake it and remove the mud. In case the dirt does not come off easily, you can use a blunt knife to remove it. For stiff fabric like denim, you can use a brush to scrub and remove the dry mud.
Pretreat the cloth
Apply liquid detergent on the mud. If you are using powdered detergent, then mix it with water and make a paste. Then apply it over the stain.
In case of a stubborn stain, you can use a stain remover available in local stores. Different types of stain removers with different formulas are available in the market. You can purchase one depending on how harsh the stain is.
Let it sit for around 15 minutes. Soaking the stain in detergent will help the stain to break down. You can then easily remove the stain.
In the case where the stain is all over the garment, then you can soak the entire garment in the detergent. If needed, you can even soak it overnight.
Washing the clothes:
You can either hand wash or machine wash the cloth as per your choice.
In the case of machine wash, wash the cloth in the ‘heavily soiled’ setting of the machine. The water in this mode will be very hot and thus, the stain is more likely to breakdown and be removed from the garment. In the case of white clothes, you can add bleach in the recommended quantity to bring back the original color – again, you can even bleach all-white garments overnight to get 100% removal of stains.
If the cloth is delicate, it is best to hand wash it. For this, you can fill a tub with warm water and detergent. You can use a scrub brush to remove the stain gently. We also recommend to wet clean the garment in this instance if the garment is made from delicate fabric or is expensive, wet cleaning is an eco-friendly alternative to traditional dry cleaning and described to be a machine hand wash due to how delicate the mode of cleaning is.
Dry the cloth:
Once you remove the stain, you can put the fabric in the dryer mode of the machine. Alternatively, you can even air dry the fabric.
Sometimes, the mud stain or dirt cannot be removed even after following the above procedures. In the case of the delicate fabric, you might be apprehensive about rubbing and removing the stain because of the soft nature of the cloth. In such a situation, it is best to take the fabric to your local dry-cleaner.
We recommend to wet clean the garment in this instance if the garment is made from delicate fabric or is expensive, wet cleaning is an eco-friendly alternative to traditional dry cleaning and described to be a machine hand wash due to how delicate the mode of cleaning is.
We hope our article on how to remove dirt or mud stains from clothing has been helpful. If you’re fed up of even thinking about how best to do laundry and want to save 3 hrs per week, then why not consider giving this responsibility to a laundry service. Here at 1 Stop Wash, we have over 100 5* reviews and are known by our customers to be expert stain removers.
Call us on 0207 837 4997 or book a pick up online to get freshly cleaned clothes within 48 hrs.