Day Forty: Stain Houdini

There are three things in life that are inevitable:  death, taxes and stains on my husband's clothes.  He's a stain magnet.  In fact, he can hardly wear a shirt for five minutes without getting something on it.  :certifiable fact:

Fortunately for this blog, he wore a new shirt and shorts today.  Within ten minutes both shirt and shorts had oil and grease on them.

Not oil and grease as in my-salad-dressing-just-landed-on-my-lap, or the cooking-oil-just-splattered-on-my-shirt, but honest to goodness oil and grease.

No, he is not a mechanic.  These stains came from walking within five feet of a bicycle.

With a stain-magnet like him, Martha's Stain removal guide  has become a dear friend.  I encourage you to print it off and hang it in your laundry room.  You may never actually use it, but it is reassuring.  Should you have a nasty stain on your hands, and feel like reprising your high school Chemistry final, you'll be ready.  Truly, it reads like a science experiment.  Armed with an eyedropper, a dull-egdged knife and petroleum jelly, you'll be amazed the stains you can vanquish.

You'll feel like a domestic Macgyver.

And so, with much enthusiasm, and very little confidence, I began to remove the stains from both pieces of clothing.

I first coated both stains with cornstarch:

Then blotted with acetone, a.k.a. fingernail polish remover.

Rinsed the stain with isopropyl alcohol (rubbing alcohol)....

At this point, the stain is supposed to be pretty much gone, but my stain was still there.  My confidence in Martha was at an all-time low.  So I soaked it in an enzyme detergent for a few minutes and when I scrubbed it with a toothbrush....

Voila!  I'm like a Stain Houdini.

In closing I have two acknowledgments:

To Martha, I'm sorry for ever doubting you.

To my husband, when I said I'd never buy you new clothes again...I take it back.