STAIN REMOVAL MADE EASY

The University of Illinois' Stain Solution web site gathers exhaustive remedies for hundreds of common, hard-to-remove stains in one easy-to-search resource—with surprising specificity. Did that coffee stain come with cream or no cream?

The site (link above) offers a variety of stain solutions, including for difficult ones like blood and ink (including fountain, red, and India ink). It'll tell you exactly what kind of tools you'll need to arm yourself with, and the procedure for removing it. Best of all, the explanations highlight how to remove the stain from different places, like from your carpet or your clothes, along with alternate methods.

The methods stain removal themselves are extremely thorough. If you had an unfortunate morning mishap with your coffee, just search the site for "coffee." The results suggest using liquid dishwashing detergent, white vinegar, rubbing alcohol, an enzyme pre-soak product, and chlorine bleach or oxygen bleach. Soak it for 15 minutes in a mixture of water, dishwashing detergent, and white vinegar. Rinse, and then sponge it with rubbing alcohol. Soak it again for 30 minutes in warm water with a bit of the enzyme pre-soak product and your stain shouldn't stand a chance.