Getting a brand-new stain is pretty annoying. Maybe you knocked something over while rushing through a room or tripped and dropped a food item all over the floor. However you get a stain, you might be tempted to deal with it later. After all, you were likely in the middle of something when the spill happened.

But don’t be so hasty in your need to move on. The truth is, you need to clean a stain almost immediately. The longer you wait to clean up a stain, the harder it will be to remove it. But why is that? What’s happening to the stain?

Stains Over Time

While stains themselves are very visible, they’re happening on a microscopic level, lower than you can see. The way stains occur is actually quite similar to the way fabrics are dyed.

Stains often involve particles tangling and sticking to the fibers on your home’s carpet or clothes. The fibers absorb the staining substance, changing color to match what’s now coating them. 

But this absorbing process doesn’t actually stop at any point. The substance will continue to bond with the fibers until it’s removed. In fact, this bond becomes stronger and stronger over time. You need a Claremont cleaning company who can get stains out without harming the dyes that are meant to stain your fabric.

Harder Stains

So why do some substances stain better than others? Well, when you look at a list of the hardest stains to remove, you’ll see some patterns pop up. First, many very “stainy” substances are bright red, and second, many are acidic or fatty.

Red stains are full of tannins, which bind very well to fibers. The substance will be near-impossible to get out when it binds to the carpet or clothes. That’s not to mention that red stains are often more noticeable than other colors, making the staining look worse.

Acidic substances burn into fibers on a microscopic level, leaving more room to deposit residue. Many acidic foods are also often bright red and full of tannins, making the problem even harder to fix.

Finally, fatty substances don’t dissolve in water well. You can’t really clean without water, but you’ll need more than just a wash to get greasy stains out of a surface. And you don’t want just any household cleaning solution for this cleaning.

What To Do

Let’s say you have let a stain sit a little too long. What do you do now? Maybe you’ve already tried your usual cleaning methods, and they’re not getting the stain out. Do you give up? Or is it possible to get an old stain out?

When cleaning an old carpet stain, hiring a Claremont steam cleaner can help get the mark out once and for all. Steam cleaning uses chemicals, pressure, and heat to wash stains. It’s much better than other cleaning methods, giving your old stains a chance to actually be removed.

Dirty upholstery can also benefit from Claremont steam cleaning services, as can a stained mattress. Unfortunately, you can’t steam clean your clothes. For those, you’ll need white vinegar to get old stains out.

While old stains are tricky to remove,in the end, there are still options for dealing with them.