College life is messy. And things get especially messy around Halloween. Fake blood and brains, sticky candy and trick-or-treat pranks can leave your place looking scary come November 1. As usual, Street’s got you covered. We’ll help you get jungle juice out of your carpet, red wine out of your favorite shirt and, god forbid, vomit out of your bedspread.
To remove heavy makeup: -Use cold cream, baby oil or baby wipes to get rid of face paint. -Mineral oil and Vaseline remove heavy eye makeup easily.
To get stains out of clothes: -Late night studying can get pretty sloppy, too. If you drop your pen or highlighter on yourself while drifting off, rubbing hairspray on the mark does the trick. -Don’t let grease stains get you down. Use salt and seltzer to get those oily disasters out of your life as quickly as possible. -Now here’s one for those with a lot of will power. For sweat stains, treat with laundry detergent, rub gently to set, wash ASAP with lemon juice, vinegar or Borax and then dry in the sun. -Deodorant makes you smell clean, but the white residue doesn’t always make you look it. A handy tip for gals is to rub deodorant stains with tights. If you don’t own a pair, simply rubbing the fabric against itself sometimes does the trick. -Who hasn't spilled on themselves at a rowdy BYO? For red wine stains, pretreat the stain with a cup of hydrogen peroxide with a teaspoon of laundry detergent. Wash in cold water and air-dry.
To clean up your house: -If you haven’t gotten around to buying toilet cleaner (after all, we’ve only been at school for two months), pour Coke in the bowl and let it sit for an hour or more. Scrub the bowl and it will be all clean. (It also might be an incentive for you to give up that nasty soda habit.) -We hope this doesn't happen to you, but if you get vomit on your bedspread, don't put off cleaning it! Do it ASAP to avoid lingering smells and stains. Mop up with paper towels first, careful not to rub it into the fabric. Wash in hot water and dry on the highest setting possible with scented dryer sheets.
Brand name vs. generic on-the-go cleaning aids
We at Street want to make sure you get bang for your buck. To this end, we have conducted a very scientific experiment comparing a Tide to Go pen ($3.49 at CVS) with a CVS Instant Stain Remover ($1.99 at CVS). We stained one sock with Aztec hot chocolate from Naked Chocolate and the other with a combination of blush wine, fruit punch-flavored Powerade, Lipton raspberry iced tea and Diet Coke. The results were astounding: The stain-removal properties of both sticks were adequate (the Powerade was not fully removed by either), but we did notice that the CVS stick caused the sock to pill.
