The Easy Salt Trick For Removing Wine Stains

Whether you're enjoying a nice glass of cabernet at the end of a long day, treating your friends to a leggy merlot at a dinner party, or experimenting with fun and versatile wine slushies to kick off the weekend, red wine stains are most likely at the back of everyone's mind. Maybe it's a splash from an overly full glass, a tipped bottle you thought was empty, or a poorly placed elbow during a lively conversation, but where there's red wine it almost seems inevitable that a stain on your furniture, carpet, or person is soon to follow.

Though the internet is awash (pun intended) with easy and effective methods for cleaning common food stains, red wine is still notoriously difficult to get out because it contains very strong pigments transferred from the grape skins used during the fermentation process. Just as they transferred easily to the wine, they can also soak into and transfer to fabric and carpet fibers. For this reason, these stains need to be treated as quickly as possible, which means you'll need to turn to items almost everyone has on hand: salt and boiling water.

Because of salt's chemical structure, it absorbs liquids quickly and easily. When sprinkled on a damp red wine stain, it can pull much of the wine from the fabric, including the pigments. The next step is to pour boiling water on it from a height — the combination of heat and force helps flush most or all of any remaining reddish pigment.

It's important to note that this method for removing red wine stains is best used on sturdy fabrics and fibers, such as upholstery, denim, area rugs, etc. Silk, linen, and other delicate fabrics might be damaged by coarse salt and boiling water, so in these cases club soda is your best friend when removing red wine stains. The carbonation and minerals in the soda help loosen pigments, while also flushing the area without damaging the fabric. It may seem odd to use hot water sometimes, and cold water others, but it's really about what the fabric can handle.

When working with a sturdy fabric, you should still use care and blot the area thoroughly with an absorbent towel or sponge, pressing down without scrubbing at all. Next, you'll coat the area in an even layer of salt and let it sit for several minutes to give it plenty of time to absorb as much wine as possible. If the stain is particularly saturated, you can even set the item aside or cover carpet stains with an overturned bowl for several hours, up to overnight.

Once the salt has done its work, you can gently brush it away with a dry towel to see how much of the stain is left, then apply the hot water as previously mentioned. Feel free to wash clothing in the washing machine set to cold, but avoid using the dryer until the stain is completely gone.