We are in the catering business, and oil and food stains are a problem with our table mantles. Is there a solution and method for removing such stains? What kind of fabrics resist such stains? Your suggestions will be a big help in our cost-cutting measures.
KHAY
Where can I find laundry bags; do they come in different sizes? And how do you remove oil stains?
VAL
When you’re in the catering business, one of your headaches must be people who eat like children, spilling food all over your tablecloth. Until recently, I was one of those people. I have a friend who, when we ate together, expected me to either knock down a glass of water on the table or drip soy sauce all over my shirt. When that would happen, he would just look at me, sigh and hand me a napkin; when that didn’t happen, it was almost as if something was missing from our meal. So you can imagine the amount of aggravation I caused our laundry woman when I was in high school with my white uniform.
Tide.com is a great resource for stain problems. Click on the "stain detective" portion and it will guide you step by step on how to remove different kinds of stains on different fabrics. For cooking oil, Tide recommends one set of solution for all kinds of fabrics – cotton, acrylic, polyester, ramie, Lycra spandex and nylon – so I’m assuming they have more or less the same level of resistance when it comes to oil stains.
The website’s official solution is this: Pre-treat the soiled area with Tide Liquid and let sit for five minutes. Wash with one use of Tide according to the garment’s care label. Before placing item in the dryer, check to see if the stain has been removed. If not, place the garment with stain facedown on paper towels. Apply a specialty grease remover, such as Carbona, to the backside of the stain. Replace paper towels frequently. Let the garment air dry and repeat the first two steps.
For homespun solutions, try these two ideas on the website: A reader helped a colleague in school remove salad-oil stain by grinding white chalk and applying it to the jacket to absorb the stain and in 20 minutes she brushed off the chalk and the stain was gone. Another reader swears by liquid detergent to remove oil and grease stains from clothing.
When I visited my sister abroad recently, she gave me a booklet called Remove Tough Stains. Apparently, she’s been reading Home 911 on philstar.com and forces her officemates to do the same. So I must either be loved or hated by a bunch of people who couldn’t care less about the gossip I dish out about my husband in this column.
Anyway, the booklet recommends a similar solution for grease stains. If the source is something like adobo or chicken legs, first scrape off the food bits and as much oil as you can. Then rub the stained area with cornmeal, wipe it off, and follow it by rubbing grease-cutting dishwashing liquid on it. Let it sit for a minute, then use a pre-wash stain remover, and finally wash it at the hottest temperature allowed.
I wonder what other food stains you’re grappling with, so I’m going to recommend solutions for a very common stain in a catered event: tomato-based food. The booklet recommends blotting the stain with club soda to counteract the acids, then use a pre-wash stain remover before washing the garment at the hottest temperature allowed. For stubborn stains, treat the tablecloth with glycerin. On Tide.com, a reader recommends dabbing the stained area with a cotton ball slightly saturated with milk and says this works on days-old stains and on bloodstains, too.
Try to get out the stains before tossing the tablecloth into the dryer. As for Val’s other question, laundry bags are available at True Value.
I bought a TV/entertainment rack from a garage sale for a very cheap price. The piece is made from the same material as the assembled ones like book cabinets, side tables and other racks. Is it possible to change its color and how? Most of my furniture pieces are varnished a dark shade and I want this piece to go with them.
CURIOUS HOUSEWIFE
I know what you mean when you say you want your furniture pieces to blend together by color. Designers say that when your pieces are not of the same style, one way to create a look is by keeping them in the same shade.
For your wood problem, we turned to our resident consultant, furniture designer and chef Claude Tayag. I’ve always been curious about Claude’s expertise in both areas – they seem so unrelated and he does them both so well. It reminds me of Jerry Seinfeld’s take on the Winter Olympics biathlon, which joins the two sports of cross-country skiing and rifle shooting, two events that have nothing to do with each other. "How many alpine snipers are into this? To me it’s like combining swimming and strangling a guy."
Did Claude one day just decide, "Hmmm, I’m tired of cooking, I think I’ll build a cabinet"? You should see his pieces at ABT in Greenbelt 3. A few years ago, I saw an apothecary cabinet that he built to house CDs, it was gorgeous! And, of course, he has these sinuous pieces like a bench and a mail holder. Oh, and he paints, too! But he’s a Kapampangan and I suppose cooking came to him as naturally as breathing.
Anyway, here’s Claude’s e-mail to our SOS:
Oil-based wood stains come in different colors to simulate the natural look of wood like mahogany, oak, maple, etc. The shade or tone can be adjusted accordingly by applying a thin or thick application. In redoing an existing furniture piece, one must first remove any previous varnish or finishing. Just follow the instructions in the product’s manual. It is available in any hardware store, also at Ace, True Value and Handyman in malls.
Staining over veneer-topped pieces can only be done if the veneer is of natural wood (like narra plywood for local, or oak plywood for imported) but one has to be very careful in sanding the surface as the veneer is only paper-thin. Use #400 grit sandpaper to remove the dirt and old varnish. But if it is a synthetic "wood" finish you’re trying to save (like formica), throw it away and buy another. Just kidding. Oil stains won’t do the trick as synthetic surfaces are resistant to it. The last resort is to spray-paint it or install another layer of formica. Good luck!