Accidents happen. Red wine gets tipped over onto the carpet. Food spills and makes clothing stains. Athletic activities, weekend sports and leisurely beach and park time all contribute to clothing stains. There’s no need for panicking though as some of the easiest products to remove clothing stains are stored right inside your house.

Common Household Stain Removal Agents

Cold Water

You won’t need a professional Arlington cleaning service crew to come to the rescue of your favorite dress, just some water. For many seemingly disastrous stains, it’s as easy as mixing a bit of cold water with the following common household products and rid your clothing of stains. Many stains can set when introduced to warm water. For blood stains, promptly rub the area with hand soap and rinse out with cold water. For tough grease stains, rub in dish-washing soap into the clothing stains until you can feel a change in the grease’s texture, then simply rinse out with cold water.

White Vinegar

Thankfully for your clothing stains, red colored foods and vinegar do not mix. Pouring white vinegar onto red wine clothing stains will decrease the pigment with each pour until the stain has dissipated. For other red foods like cherries, strawberries, tomatoes and watermelon – delicious in the summer time but not attractive to be worn – mix glycerine with vinegar, hang the item out in the sun to dry and let the natural light bleach out the stain for you.

Lemon Juice

Acidic lemon juice can help remove abrasive clothing stains caused by grass, coffee, tea and clingy substances such as glue, residue left behind from sticky items and tape. Squeeze the lemon juice on to the clothing stains, allow for saturation and wash.

Washing Techniques

Keep Time on Your Side

Once the deed has been done, timeliness is one of the most effective tools when dealing with tough clothing stains. The last thing you want to happen is to have the clothing stains set into the fabric. Once they’ve settled in, there’s not much wiggle room for them to go anywhere. If you are not at home or in close proximity to any cleaning solvents, remove any attire immediately that has clothing stains and either saturate or soak with water.

Keep Cool

Similar to the rules of the kitchen, keep away from the heat if you don’t want the clothing stains to make a permanent home in your new jacket or blouse. Avoid hot water when dealing with clothing stains. Heat seals stains in.

Keep it Light

Apply gentle pressure when dabbing water or any stain removal solvents into the clothing item. The fabric needs time to soak instead of harshly being scrubbed, which could damage the fabric or cause the stained area to look different than the rest of the untreated garment.

It’s a proven de-stresser

More clutter means more stress. So it shouldn’t be surprising that housework can cut stress and anxiety by 20 percent, according to a Scottish Health Survey. However, you do need 20 minutes of activity to get these effects. Using lemon-scented cleaning products can help you de-stress faster; studies show this happy smell reduces stress and leaves a positive impression on others. Here’s how to clean your house with real lemons instead of citrus-scented chemicals.

It helps you breathe better

If you’re prone to allergies or asthma attacks when spring rolls around, don’t assume pollen is the only culprit. Dust and pet dander are powerful asthma triggers, especially in children, says Jennifer McDonnell, MD, of Rush University Medical Center. These cleaning strategies will get rid of dust in your home.

It improves your mood

A thorough house cleaning—and then keeping it that way—is one mood boost you’ll definitely want to make a habit. In a study from the Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, women who described their homes as stressful, in particular talking about clutter and unfinished projects, were more likely to have an increasingly depressed mood throughout the day. That, in turn, led to more fatigue after work. On the flip side, women who described their homes as relaxing (and less cluttered) became less depressed as the day went on. Don’t miss these signs you’re stressed out by a messy house.

It gets you active without realizing it

Indiana University researchers made a surprising discovery about the correlation between physical activity and cleanliness: The cleaner the participants’ homes were, the more exercise they got. Simply burning calories while cleaning is one explanation for the find, but this relationship could be connected to self-regulation, the ability to act in a way that drives you toward your goals. If individuals were motivated to take control of how clean their homes were, they may be able to use that drive in another area of their lives, like physical fitness. Find out how many calories 15 different chores burn<span”>.

It can make you more productive at work

Spring cleaning your office is just as important as tidying up your house, especially if the papers and folders cluttering your desk hinder your ability to work. A whopping 77 percent of working Americans surveyed by OfficeMax agreed that clutter damages their productivity at work. Adding “Clean desk” as a calendar appointment can help hold you accountable, but why not start now? Get rid of these items you should never have on your desk at work, and go from there.

It could prevent sickness

Spring cleaning gives you an excuse to wash those spots you usually overlook in your daily or weekly cleanups. For instance, small kitchen appliances can be filled with old crumbs and oil splatters, while washing machines can harbor mold and bacteria from your dirty laundry. Washing away rid of food contamination or running vinegar and baking soda through a hot laundry cycle can get rid of the germs hiding inside. Learn the other signs your messy home is making you sick.

Okay, ladies. I swear I’m not here to pile on, but if you’re already a neat freak and finding new things to clean is fun for you, you should definitely check out our list of the most often overlooked places that need cleaning in your house. Or maybe you wish you were a neat freak, and a few extra tips on how to keep your home tidier than Mr. Clean’s grandma’s house could really benefit your progress.

Either way, we’ve targeted some spots that are definitely icky in your home. So don’t be a “Josie Grossie” (love you, Drew Barrymore!) and get these areas handled.

Remote controls

Web MD reported on a University of Virginia study that “showed the remote control’s surface is among the germiest” in a modern home. Researchers found that half of the remote controls tested were positive for cold viruses. Even if you’re only snacking on veggies and hummus while you watch TV, instead of a messier snack like Cheetos, you’re still definitely getting food particles on your remote. Or do you ever walk in the door and click on the TV without washing your hands first? Sure. Do you have little kiddos with icky hands or a messy roommate hanging around your living room?

There are a million common scenarios in which your remote collects germs and nastiness, and when is the last time you de-gunked it? A spritz of disinfectant, like Lysol, can do wonders here, as can a quick scrub between and over the buttons with a bleach wipe.

Light switches

I don’t want to scare you, but the dirtiest spot in your home isn’t your toilet seat. It’s likely the light switches in the kitchen, bathrooms, and common spaces.

Unless you have one of those old ’80s “clap on, clap off” hands free light devices, or a smart home system set up, then you are definitely spreading germs through touching your light switches. Healthline.com recommends wiping down all light switches with a disinfecting cloth once a week.

The wall behind the trash can

You don’t always make a perfect shot straight into the trash can, do you? Sometimes it takes a bounce off the backstop, if you know what I mean. When garbage bounces off the rim of the can and hits the floor, you sweep, mop, or wipe, right? Well, don’t forget to do the same to the wall behind the can, which can collect icky splatters and smears.

Inside your ice maker

You probably clean your fridge pretty regularly, and maybe even the inside of your freezer. But when is the last time you cleaned inside your ice maker? You get off easy if you just use manual ice trays, which can simply be thrown in the dishwasher between uses. But if you have a fancy freezer with an automatic ice maker, you’re probably overdue for a refresher.

How can you tell if your system needs a good cleaning? If even its fresh ice looks cloudy, smells weird or stale, or starts to taste a bit funky, it’s likely time to get in there and sanitize. The Housekeeping Channel recommends doing so at least twice per year.

Inside trash cans

Leaked trash juice? Um, nope! Even if you always keep your trash cans covered with a bin liner or tall kitchen bag, germs and gunk will find a way. Nobody is suggesting you need to clean your trash cans every time you empty the bag, but periodically, it’s necessary.

If you live in a house with an outside hose and a driveway, just take them outside, covering them inside and out with a cleaning solution (like Simple Green or bleach and water) and spray away. If you live in an apartment and can’t really take the mess outside, take it into your shower or bathtub and apply the same spraying ritual (on a slightly smaller scale).

Your washing machine

Newer front-loading washing machines are generally more energy-efficient than older or top-loading models, but they come with a nasty surprise: they get moldy more often and more easily. That’s why you might notice that your clothes have started smelling a bit mildewy even right after you’ve washed them. Instead of resorting to Febreze, or highly scented dryer sheets to mask the smell, take a page out of “green cleaning” expert, Leslie Reichert’s book, and give your washer a good cleansing every now and then. It’s as easy running a cycle on the hottest water setting with nothing inside, using vinegar in place of liquid detergent.

Yoga and exercise mats

Think about how much sweat, oil and grime gets on your yoga mat during normal use, before you even think about hot yoga or Bikram classes. You roll that thing out onto strange floors, and if your yoga teacher is like mine, she won’t mind jumping on your mat with her bare feet to show you some killer move — and then it’s time to go facedown on the mat.

Sky Meltzer, CEO of Manduka, a major yoga mat retailer, says (via SafeBee) that you can wipe down your mat with a cloth and “equal parts water and apple cider vinegar in a spray bottle.”