Here's How Hand Sanitizer May Rescue You From Stains

We've all had those moments where we notice an unsightly mark on our furniture and are looking for the best way to clean it. If you've tried other cleaning methods but are still stuck with the stain, enter hand sanitizer. It may be useful when you want to clean your hands on the go, but the germ-banishing product can be used for another cleaning task as well. Yes, that mini sanitizer you've been carrying around could be the trick to removing pesky food stains from your microfiber couch. Best of all, this handy hack requires nothing other than the sanitizer, a cloth, and some elbow grease. 

Though there's not much research behind how this hack works, it's probably due to the high alcohol content of sanitizer. While it may not remove particularly stubborn or ingrained marks, anti-bacterial gel could at least take the edge off the mark. However, you shouldn't just start pouring sanitizer freely onto your furniture, as going in without a plan probably wouldn't end well. Here's how to use hand sanitizer to remove stains so your furniture returns to its original state.

To remove frustrating stains, simply take a small amount of hand sanitizer and use a clean cloth to work it into the offending mark. Note that this hack has only been proven to work on removing stains from microfiber furniture, so we don't recommend trying it on leather, wood, or other fabrics. Like always, before you go in on an obvious part of your furniture and risk making the stain worse, perform a small patch test on a less noticeable area. Leave the sanitizer for at least a few minutes so you can see how it dries and whether it leaves any residue behind. 

Alongside food stains, hand sanitizer should also work to get rid of ink stains, grease stains, and makeup marks. For all of these stains, sanitizer will be most effective the sooner you use it. Grab a clean cloth or use a toothbrush for more ingrained stains. However, be careful not to scrub overly hard so you don't damage the material beneath the mark. You may need to repeat the process a few times, though be cautious of using too much sanitizer on brightly-colored items as the high alcohol content could cause discoloration.