Tomato stains are the pits. Whether it’s a health drink at breakfast or spaghetti sauce from dinner, the stain left behind on your favorite garment is not only ugly, but it can be challenging to remove. If you’re ready to throw away a perfectly good pair of pants because of an unsightly tomato stain, learn how to remove tomato stains with a few simple ingredients and keep your favorite garments out of the garbage.
Unfortunately, because tomatoes are such a favorite food item, tomato stains are quite common. If they are left to sit, the overwhelmingly pungent smell only gets worse.
Lots of foods from pizza to spaghetti include tomato sauce as their main ingredient. Unfortunately, if this tasty sauce spills it can leave behind a messy stain that is hard to remove. Remove orange stains from clothes with the right products and techniques.
How to Get Tomato Stains Out of Clothes
You may have accidentally dripped tomato sauce from the delicious homemade pizza that you were learning how to use a baking stone on. The key to removing tomato stains, just like any other stain, is to act quickly
Tomato sauce is destined, at some point, to stain your favorite shirt or pair of pants. Removing tomato stains that are fresh can be quickly tackled by washing the stained fabric with enzyme-based, heavy-duty laundry detergent.
Unfortunately, if the stain has sat for a while, or has been dried in the dryer, it is going to be much tougher to remove. Here’s how to get rid of the red stain in a few easy steps.
You first need to remove any excess sauce from the fabric. You can try using the back of a spoon or butter knife. Run cool water through the back of the stain quickly.
If you run water through the front of the stain, it will only cause the stain to penetrate more deeply into your clothing and spread. Continue to run the water through the back of the fabric for at least 15 minutes. Rub a small amount of detergent or dish soap into the stain.
Using a circular motion, gently rub the detergent into the stain, working from the outside inward. Allow the cleanser to sit for 10 minutes, then rinse thoroughly. Sponge the area with the vinegar. Rinse well. Repeat the process until you have removed as much of the stain as you can.
Pretreat the stain with the commercial stain remover. Wash as usual. If the stain remains, you’ll need to rub more laundry detergent into the area and soak the fabric in warm water for 30 minutes. Launder the clothing with fabric-appropriate bleach, if needed.
>> Further Cleaning Tips and Tricks: How to get chocolate stains out of clothes
How to Remove Ketchup Stains from Clothes and Carpet
Like most stains, ketchup stains are easier to remove when they are fresh. However, even if you’ve forgotten about the stain until it’s time to do laundry, you can still learn how to get ketchup stains out of your favorite pair of pants or shirt.
Tomato-based stains are notoriously difficult to eliminate, so this method may need to be repeated several times before you can successfully remove the ketchup stain.
Before getting started, you’ll need to remove any excess ketchup from the fabric. Any excess ketchup, even if it’s dried, that isn’t removed will smear and expand the stained area when you begin the process of cleaning. This cleaning recipe is a slight variation of our mustard stain cleaning recipe and also works quite well to get soy sauce out of clothes and other food-type stains.
Run cold water through the back of the stain as soon as it happens if possible. This will force the ketchup back through the fabric. It is essential that you only use cold water in this step because hot water will set the stain. Rub a small amount of liquid laundry detergent into the stain, gently working it in a circular motion from the outside edges inward.
You can also use this solution as a way to get tomato sauce out of clothes if you accidentally spilled a little on your favorite shirt or slacks.
For white garments, you can use white vinegar or hydrogen peroxide by applying the ingredient to the stained area with a sponge. Rinse the cleaner out and repeat the process, starting with the detergent, then using a bleaching agent until the stain is completely removed. Apply a commercial stain remover to the area and allow it to sit for five minutes. Wash as usual.
For difficult to clean tomato stains on the carpetwe recommend using our carpet stains cleaner from our how to remove coffee stains from carpet post. White vinegar with baking soda and warm water work wonders on tomato stains on the carpet.
To get even more homemade carpet stain remover recipes, make sure you check out our detailed article on 5 DIY Carpet stain removershere.
How to Remove Tomato Sauce Stains from Plastic
The acids that are found in tomato-based products can easily stain your plastic storage containers. If you’ve soaked the container overnight in soapy dish detergent, but the stain is still there, you may want to turn to the power of baking soda.
Create a thick paste of baking soda and water and use it to scrub the container thoroughly. The mildly abrasive solution and the bleaching power of the baking soda can eliminate those pesky tomato sauce stains for good.
Whenever you apply a new ingredient to any kind of fabric, you want to test a small, inconspicuous area to ensure you won’t further damage the fibers.
Don’t let the unsightly orange tomato sauce stains on your favorite clothes keep you from enjoying your favorite tomato-based dishes. Follow these simple cleaning tips for how to remove tomato stains and never worry again.
We hope you enjoyed learning about the different methods for removing tomato stains from your clothes. If you found the information in this article helpful, please feel free to share it with everyone you know.