The 3 Most Difficult Stains to Remove from Halloween Weekend

At DashLocker, we’re all about helping to make sure your clothes last, so here are some tips from removing the 3 most common stains from Halloween.  

1. Chocolate

Chocolate is delicious, but if you’ve ever tried eating candy in the car you know that in five seconds you can go from happily munching away to bewildered chocolate bomb survivor.   Halloween amplifies this chocolate experience by 1000x, because of the sheer volume of chocolate available for consumption. But don’t worry—there’s hope. We can’t prevent you from getting chocolate all over yourself, but we CAN help you make sure the affected clothing survives to do battle with another candy bar.

First scrape off as much chocolate as you can with a knife or spoon. Make sure not to rip the fabric, but removing the caked on chocolate will prevent you from rubbing more chocolate into your shirt when you start scrubbing later.

Next let cold water from the tap run over the back of the stain. This helps to loosen the chocolate.

Follow up with some laundry detergent. Rub the detergent into the stain gently, letting it sit for five or ten minutes. Then rinse with cold water. Repeat this step until there is no more brown in the stain.

Even though the chocolate may be gone, there can still be some greasy residue left over from the chocolate. Use a stain remover like Tide to cut through this grease. Then you can send it to the wash!

2. Dirt

It’s no secret—the ground is dirty. Whether your daughter stumbles on the sidewalk on the way to a particularly tasty candy bowl or you trip on the way to party in Williamsburg, a night full of traveling the busy streets can be hard on clothes (and knees).

To remove the dirt stain, scrape off any extra dirt using a knife or spoon.

Then cover the stain in liquid detergent and soak in cold water for 30 minutes.

Wash the clothing in cold water. Don't use hot water-- this could set the stain! Dirt contains protein and it's very important to only use cold water when cleaning protein stains.

If the stain is still there upon removal, scrub with dish soap and cold water and launder the item a second time.

3. Cider

You have two options to remove a cider stain. First, try scrubbing the stain with hot water and dish detergent. If this doesn’t work, mix one cup of vinegar and two cups of warm water. Spray the mixture on the stain and scrub until clean!

Make sure your clothes don’t suffer from a little fun on Halloween! Treat your stains as they happen or immediately afterwards to keep clothes fresh for as long as possible.