In my house, I have to hide all of the pens. This is because if I don’t, my two-year-old tends to create ink drawings all over himself and occasionally on a casual tan couch that we have in the play area. That isn’t all. Once school starts, my oldest son is bound to come home with stray pen marks on his clothes. it is just inevitable (sigh). Fortunately, I have a few tricks up my sleeve for getting out the stains.
As with any new pretreatment or stain removal, you should test the fabric in an inconspicuous place, if you can, to make sure that the cleaning doesn’t affect the color in any way. This is one area where I never practice what I preach. For me, if the garment is stained, it is ruined anyway, so I go ahead and try what I can to get that stain out. So far, I have been really lucky!
Okay, on to the stain removal. My first line of ink stain removal is to wash the garment or upholstery cover if it is washable. I spray on some Shout pre-treater and then use powdered Tide (without bleach). I find that this usually takes out ink stains. It is important to catch and review the garment before it goes in the dryer, though, in case you need to treat the stain more aggressively. If washing doesn’t work, try the following methods.
Clothing and linens: Get that white towel or washcloth out and place it under the garment before you treat the stain. The towel will help absorb any ink that comes through. Saturate the ink stain with household rubbing alcohol. You don’t need to let it sit, but keep pouring until the stain seems mostly gone. Then rinse it all very well in tepid water.
Upholstery and carpets: Blot up any excess ink with a paper towel. Even if the stain looks dry, it will sometimes yield extra ink. Next, take a bit of that household rubbing alcohol on a white towel or washcloth and dab at the stain. Do not rub it in. Keep dabbing until the stain disappears.
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Mary Ann Romans writes about everything related to saving money in the Frugal Blog,, creating a home in the Home Blog and caring for little ones in the Baby Blog. You can read more of her articles by clicking here.
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