The 4-step mustard stain removal guide

If you are about to throw away that favourite shirt because you spilt mustard on it – wait! There’s an easy cleaning guide to remove the stain.

Of all the sauces and condiments that accompany your favourite foods – pizzas, sandwiches, salads, wraps – mustard is the one of the best. It imparts a wonderful flavour to the dish, making it slightly spicy and elevating it from drab to fab.

But while mustard tastes great in food, you revise your opinion of it when you accidently spill it on your clothes. It leaves behind an oily yellow residue that does not leave the clothing despite repeated washes. Often, the only alternative you have left is to discard the garment and buy another one like it.

Is mustard really such an impossible substance to remove from your clothes? Not really, if you follow a simple cleaning guide as outlined below:

1 Blot the stain. The very first thing to do on dripping mustard on your clothing, is to take a clean paper towel and blot out as much of the mustard as you can. Do not rub the stain, do not press into the fabric and do not run the paper towel across the fabric in circular motions. Simply blot straight into the stain to remove as much mustard stain as you can. Rubbing the stain into the clothing will only help it set in further, making it difficult to remove.

2 Flush with cold water. Turn the stain inside out and run it under cold running water. Cold running water helps dislodge as much of the mustard stain that has seeped into the fabric, as possible. It also keeps the stain wet, so that removing it becomes that much easier.

3 Soak in water and stain removing powder or liquid. The next step is to take a stain removing powder or liquid. If you like, you can apply the stain remover directly on the stain and set it aside as instructed. Or you can soak the stained garment in cold water, and add a scoop of the stain remover. Soak coloured clothes for one hour, and white garments for six hours. During this time, the stain remover isolates and lifts the mustard stain molecules out of the fabric.

4 Wash as usual. After soaking and treating with stain removing powder or liquid, wash the clothing in the washing machine as usual. Add a scoop of the powder or liquid to the laundry load and wash with your usual detergent. The clothing will emerge clean and stain free, as if mustard had never spilt on it in the first place.

This is our simple guide to washing out mustard stains from your clothes. Isn’t it great to know that you no longer have to discard stained clothing, but simply wash it in the right manner to remove the stains?