Stain Removal Kit ~Pooja Chakrabarty Assembling a Stain Removal Kit There are many stain removal kits available in the market today. However they may not necessarily remove all kinds of stains. Hence you might have to make some effort in dealing with specific kinds of stains. You could assemble the various things that are required for removing different kinds of stains so that when they do happen you are prepared to deal with them effectively. Stains happen all the time. And although precaution is always better than cure, once you have stained your outfit, you need to find some way to get rid of the nasty stain. And in order to get rid of the stain you need weapons. This is where the concept of the stain removal kit comes in. If you have a well-equipped stain removal kit, you have won half the battle. If you have a well-equipped stain removal kit, you have won half the battle There are a number of things that you would have to place in your stain removal kit: a blunt knife sponges white clean lint-free cloth absorbent paper towels stain remover bleach detergent The function of the blunt knife is to scrape off solid particles from the stained area. The sponges are used to rub the stain. These are especially useful if the fabric is non-washable. A stain remover is an essential as it helps in pre-treating the stain. Stain removers mostly consist of a cleaning agent in a water-based solution. The job of a cleaning agent is to loosen the dirt or stain molecules so that they can get dissolved in water. Some molecules do not get dissolved in water. What they do instead is deposit itself once again on the fabric surface. Absorbent towels or pads help tackle this problem by attracting to themselves the loosened dirt molecules. A solution of the detergent should be used after the stain treatment. It should be worked into the stained area well. For non-washable materials be extra careful. Often it pays to avoid playing Ms Expert-at-Removing-Stains and take your outfit to the dry-cleaner. Materials like velvet, leather, and suede must be taken for professional dry-cleaning. The basic formula to remember is that like will dissolve like. First make it a point to find out what kind of stain it is, and act accordingly. Water-based stains are more easily removed by stain removers. However solvents that are petroleum-based are more effective in removing greasy stains than are stain removers (since stain removers are basically cleaning agents dissolved in water). Grease stains are especially difficult to remove from some kinds of synthetic fibers such as nylon, acrylic and polyester. This is because these fabrics naturally repel the water molecules. They instead attract other molecules which do not dissolve in water. Hence such stains need petroleum-based cleaning agents to remove such stains. Having a well-equipped stain removal kit will save you a great deal of time when the stain does happen. [The picture used in this article has been taken from the photo library of stock.xchng.]