Bloody Simple

It seemed appropriate to follow up my last post with some tips on how to deal with blood stains.

Since blood is protein-based, its worst enemy is heat. Don’t soak in hot water, don’t dry in the dryer and don’t iron the stain until it is removed to your satisfaction. If you do use heat in any form (wet or dry) you will never be able to remove the stain in all likelihood. The quicker you are able to deal with the blood stain, the better. Fresh blood is fairly easy to remove.

Rinse the garment under cold running water. Slightly agitate the fabric with your finger, ensuring that cold water reaches the interior of the fabric, make sure that you rinse liberally. Use lots and lots of cold water. You can typically see the blood stain start to lighten in color. If you’ve caught the stain early enough, you might even see it disappear under the running water.

If you are unable to launder the garment immediately, leave it to soak in cold water. There is no need to use any other detergents or laundry additives when soaking. Cold water will prevent the stain from setting in until you are able to launder it. You can leave the stain in water for 10-12 hours, but not much longer. Wash the garment on the setting you usually would using cool or warm water. As always I would recommend eco store laundry detergent rather than anything bleach based.

Let the item hang dry. When an item is wet, it will fool you into looking as if the stain has completely disappeared. The only real way to know if the stain is completely removed is when the clothing item is dry.

If you dry it in the dryer it will set the remaining stain in, so always hang dry.

Simple really.

MC