Faced with a stain on a fabric tablecloth, runner, curtain, clothing or any type of fabric in your home, you will want to take the best care to get that stain out. While we have compiled a complete listing of the various types of fabric stains that you will most often face, these are the general rules for cleaning fabric stains. 

One of the most important things that you can do when you are faced with a stain is to treat it right away. The longer that you let a stain sit, the harder it is going to be to work with any type of stain. Older stains are more difficult, but not always impossible to get out. 

The second most important thing that you can do when fighting a stain on fabrics is to read the tags. If the tag says to clean with cold water only, be sure to follow that advice.

• If you find a stain that is on a dry clean only fabric, be sure to take it to the dry cleaners as soon as possible and inform your drycleaner of the stain so they know exactly what they are up against in cleaning your fabrics. 
  
  
• No matter what type of cleaning methods you are using, you should always be testing the fabric with the stain remove you are using before cleaning the stained area. Test cleaning a fabric is done by using the inside seam of the fabric, applying the cleaner and waiting about ten minutes to make sure that the fabric can handle the cleaning methods that you are using. 
  
  
• When the fabric changes colors after the stain treatment is applied to the inside seam, this would be a method that you should not use on the particular fabric. After waiting the ten minutes and the fabric does not change colors you can assume that it is safe to use that particular cleaner or cleaning method on the fabric that is stained.

As you are reading through the Tip King site, learning more about fighting stains in fabrics, you will notice that the word detergent is used often. Your laundry detergent should be a clear bleach free liquid, but if you are good at mixing water with your laundry detergent powder, making a paste that is not going to stick to the fabric and rinse well, powder detergents will work just as well. 

If the cleaning method you are using includes soaking the stained fabric in bleach or an all color safe bleach, be sure to soak the entire fabric, and not just the stained area. Bleach, no matter how color safe it says it may be, will lighten the fabric even it only just a little bit so it is better to soak the entire garment so all of the fabric lightens just a little instead of just the stained area. 

Many of the cleaning and stain fighting methods include the use of stain sticks or sprays. Pre treatment stain sticks and sprays are fabricated with an enzyme based cleaner, which can be found in most all grocery stores or home centers. Stain sticks and pre treatment sprays are a method of fighting many types of stains in fabrics. 

One other thing that you will need to keep in mind when applying stain sticks or sprays to your fabrics is that you should always be applying the stain stick to the back side (or the inside of the fabric) so that you can work the stain out easily without forcing the stain to go completely through the fabric to work it out. 

Using dry cleaning solutions is a popular method for getting rid of those very difficult hard to handle stains. It is important to remember not to put the dry cleaning solutions in the washer. You can ruin many fabrics and your washer doing this. Just apply a few drops of dry cleaning liquid to the back of a stained fabric and let it dry, then rinsing the fabric before washing it will benefit your fight against the stain most. 

If you are using the methods for cleaning that include different types of cleaners such as vinegar, bleach, ammonia, dry cleaning solutions, and others, do not mix any of the different cleaners together. Toxic fumes; burns, and additional staining can take place when you mix items of different ingredients together. 

Additional damages to your fabrics can happen when you mix multiple chemical and cleaning agents together. If you really want to try various cleaning methods, use one at a time, and rinse the fabric thoroughly before applying the next cleaning or chemical agent to fight that stubborn stain.