After a hectic 2023, my best friend, husband, and I spent New Year’s Eve watching movies and drinking our favorite Noble Vines Cabernet Sauvignon. Although it was a low-key, cozy evening, I was inevitably clumsy and spilled wine on my favorite tea towel as I was pouring our second glasses. As an avid follower (and enthusiast) of #CleanTok, I remembered a video from TikTok’s beloved Grandma Babs as I got over my initial shock of possibly ruining my festive holiday tea towel. However, the process shocked me even more, as this was the first time a viral trick didn’t go as planned.
Grandma Babs’ red wine stain removal trick simply required one surprising ingredient: more wine! White wine, in fact. In Babs’ video, the white wine seemingly erased the dark red stain like magic after she absorbed the excess with paper towels. Thankfully, I had a roll and a bottle of sauvignon blanc that I normally use for cooking, but figured it could get the job done. (Although her tip was intended for carpets, I thought I’d try it on my tea towel — maybe that was my first mistake.)
I poured the same amount of white wine as I spilled (a little less than 1/4 cup) and let it sit for about a minute. I started dabbing with the paper towels, even placing one in between the towel to absorb as much red wine as possible. I had some hope at first when I noticed some red color on the paper towels, but after a few more dabs my hope diminished, as the stain looked essentially the same as when I first spilled the wine.
My best friend, who loves a good cleaning hack as much as I do, suggested some baking soda. I sprinkled enough to cover the stain and rubbed it in lightly, leaving it for five minutes to do the work. After wiping off the baking soda, the three of us were horrified at the black spot now staining my poor tea towel.
Because home remedies didn’t seem to be working, I decided to put some OxiClean Stain Remover on the stain, let it sit for 15 minutes, and throw my tea towel in the wash as my last resort. I was relieved to find out it worked — for the most part, at least.
There was a very faint stain, but overall my tea towel was restored back to its cute glory. Even though Grandma Babs’ wine stain removal trick didn’t work for me, I’ll definitely continue to follow her sage advice, hacks, and tips and keep up with the trials and errors of home cleaning. Moral of the story? Not all tips and tricks work for every surface or material (and pay lots of attention to viral hacks — I tried this on a tea towel, which is likely why it didn’t work). When all else fails, stick to tried-and-true cleaning methods (like these red wine stain removal tricks).