5 Steps to Get Rid of Chocolate Stains Out of Clothes 

How to get chocolate out of clothes?

Chocolate is nice on sundaes and many other treats. However, everyone might agree that it does not go on clothes.

If you’ve got a sweet tooth or a child or two, you would probably have to deal with chocolate stains at some point. Well, you don’t have to worry. We’ve got five easy steps for this dilemma.

Step 1: Blot or Scrape

Chocolate comes in many different forms. If you’re dealing with chocolate in its liquid form, you’d want to blot it. For other types, scraping might be the best way to go. You could also freeze the chocolate stain before scraping it off. It’s a method that seems to have helped many.

Also, don’t forget not to rub or scrub! Over and over again, we’ve mentioned that you should not scrub a stain, even how tempting it might feel. Rubbing, usually, doesn’t help at this stage. Most of the time, all it does is spread the stain to other areas. At times it might look like the problem is fading when you scrub, but that’s not the case. Usually, it’s only fading because it’s spreading.

Blotting or scraping is vital. Not only does it help with getting the stain off, but it also helps with containing the problem.

The goal is to get as much of the stain off as soon as possible. If not, at least before you start with the other steps. However, quickly dealing with the problem increases the likelihood of getting it off, so try to do step 1 as soon as possible.

Step 2: Flush

Similar to other food stains like ketchup, you’d want to turn the garment inside out and flush the stain with some water.

You’d want to use cold water for this step. Hot water could be bad for the stain.

Step 3: Treat

We’ve got three cleaning partners here from which you can choose. You can take your pick from this list. However, don’t be afraid to try another option if the one you chose doesn’t seem to be doing it. Depending on the situation (e.g., type of chocolate stain, fabric, etc.), one would undoubtedly be better than the other.

As you will see in a bit, you can also use more than one thing on the list.

Dish Soap

When it comes to chocolate stains, two cleaning partners are favored by many. The first one is the dish soap (e.g., Dawn).

As with many other stains, you’d want to pour a generous amount of dish soap on the area and let it sit for a few minutes. Five minutes should be enough.

Dish soap is one of the favored options because it is usually mild, and it helps with the oil component of chocolate stains.

Detergent

The other favored cleaning agent is none other than the detergent (e.g., Persil).

Like with the dish soap, you’d want to pour a generous amount of it on the stain and let it sit for some time.

Milk

You might be surprised, but milk could also work! Check it out here:

Step 4: Soak

After treating the stain with either dish soap or detergent, you’d want to soak it in some cold water. This step should take around 15 to 30 minutes.

In this step, you might also want to work on the stain with your fingers or toothbrush to help loosen it further.

Step 5: Wash

Finally, you can wash the garment. To be extra sure, you might also want to employ another cleaning partner like a stain remover like Spray n Wash. If that still doesn’t work, you might have to use some bleach.

When it comes to bleach, you have many options. You can take a trip to the laundry aisle in the grocery near you and find all sorts of bleach from which you can choose.

However, as we’ve said before, bleach is not all that good for your clothes, you, or the environment. Bleach should only be a last resort kind of solution.

With that, we’ve also listed some mild bleach you might want to try before resorting to the ones you can get at the grocery.

Vinegar

Chocolate goes well together with many things, but not vinegar. The two don’t go well on the plate, and it’s the same on clothes. You can use vinegar to get rid of chocolate stains.

Vinegar is one of the crowd favorites when it comes to solving laundry problems. Vinegar is a great cleaning agent and can help with multiple laundry problems like smells and stains.

There are several ways you can use vinegar, but don’t forget to dilute it first! It might be a mild bleach, but it is still an acid, and it might ruin your clothes.

Hydrogen Peroxide

Like vinegar, you can also use hydrogen peroxide as a mild bleach. You might want to dilute it too before use.

Lemon Juice

Lemon juice is another known cleaning agent in the laundry room. Like vinegar, it can help with many laundry problems. Also, it is easy to find, and there are many different ways to use it.

When it comes to stains, you might want to partner lemon juice with salt. Juice a few lemons and sprinkle some salt on the affected area. Using an old toothbrush, work the lemon juice and salt on the stain.

It might be a good time to note that using bleach or a mild one is not necessary. It is an optional step in case you’re dealing with some tough stains.

After washing, take another look at the stain or where it is supposed to be. Take a good look at the affected area. You might even want to hold it up a light source since chocolates have some oil in them. It could look like the stain is gone but is actually still there.

If there is still some residue left, you might want to repeat the previous steps. Checking is especially vital if you plan on using the dryer. If there is still some stain left on the garment, using the dryer might make it permanent.

Things to Keep in Mind

Knowing the best cleaning partners around isn’t the only secret to successful stain removals. Here are a few things to remember before you start. You might want to keep them in mind. They don’t only work for chocolate stains! They’re essential to remember when dealing with other laundry problems too.

Dry Clean Only Clothes

You can’t treat all clothes.

First, check if you can treat the garment in question. Usually, dry clean only clothes are best left to the experts. However, if the clothes are dry clean only and you can’t take them to the dry cleaners immediately, you might want to use a dry cleaning kit then. [6 Steps To Dry Clean Clothes At Home]

Chemicals and Fabrics

As you might already know, some of the things we’ve listed are not actually for clothes. They’re not all safe for all types of fabrics. If you’re not sure how your clothes will react to your chosen cleaning partner, you might want to test them somewhere hidden first.

One of the best places to do a reaction check is inside the garment in question, at the bottom lining, to be exact.

Repetition

Is there still some chocolate stain after doing all that? Don’t worry. It’s normal. When dealing with this kind of problem, especially the tough ones, it is good to remember that you might have to do the pretreatment or washing more than once.

Air Drying

With that said, it is a good idea to air dry after washing stained clothes. As we have said earlier, if the stain is still there after washing, drying using the dryer might make it more difficult to remove the stain. Sometimes, it even sets the problem in place.

If you’re not a fan of air drying, you don’t have to worry. You can use the dryer instead of air drying. Only make sure that the stain is all gone when you do.

Summary

How to get chocolate out of clothes?

As you’ve seen, there are only five easy steps to get chocolate out of clothes.

First, you’d want to blot or scrape the excess chocolate out. You may not be able to treat the stain immediately, but you’d want to do this step as soon as possible. It could be the difference between getting rid of the problem or not.

Next, you’d want to flush and then treat the stain. After that, a good soaking and washing should do it. If not, you might have to consider using some bleach.

Chocolate might look like a tough stain to deal with, especially with its color and texture, but with the right steps and tools, it’ll be easy to deal with. It would be a piece of cake – chocolate cake, that is!

Need help with another kind of stain? Check out our past discussion. We might be able to help!