Here at The Linen Boutique, we know a lot about laundry stains (probably more than we'd like). We've spent alot of time learning how to combat these stains, using various products and techniques. We're kind of like linen super heroes, and one of our jobs is to save inventory by fighting stains. :) And who is our biggest foe? When we first started out, we thought it would be chocolate fountains, red wine, ink, etc. And while they are all worthy adversaries, our biggest stain villain has got to be...dramatic pause...candle wax. It's the worst!! When we get linens back covered with wax, we know we're in for a lot of work (and generally a lot of disappointment). The majority of the wax itself can be peeled off but the residue it leaves behind is very damaging. So, here are the steps we take to remove it. Sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn't.
1. Pop that bad boy in the freezer. Freezing the linen makes it much easier to scrape the wax off. The more you can get off in this step, the less you have to deal with later. Use a butter knife (or any dull scraping tool) to remove as much wax as possible.
2. Place a brown paper bag over the stain and iron it. Cut a piece off a brown paper bag and place it over the wax stain. Set your iron to the highest/hottest fabric-safe setting and iron over the paper bag. The wax residue will transfer to the paper bag as you are ironing. Continue to do this with new clean pieces of the brown paper bag until no more residue transfers to the paper. (we've also tried this method using wax paper, but we've found the paper bag to be more effective)
3. Steam it! If you own a high efficiency washer, set it to the steam cycle and wash that linen! WARNING: Make sure this setting is safe for your fabric. We only use the steam cycle on our polyester linens - this would be harmful to a delicate fabric.
For tough wax stains, we have to repeat this last step SEVERAL times, and sometimes the stain is permanent, hence the reason that candle wax creates our biggest stain problem.
Tip: Candles on our tablecloths should be contained, and that candles should be snuffed out and not blown out, to prevent wax from being blown on to the table.
We charging fees if the linen is damaged with candle stains. We understand that things get spilled on tables and we do expect a certain amount of damage, but candle wax stains generally mean that the linens are permanently damaged and we will never be able to rent them again.
SO, to prevent us from having to charge this fee, we ask that our clients do all they can to prevent wax from being spilled on to the tablecloths. It ends up saving us time and saving our customers money!
The Linen Boutique : tel contact: 493-4882 email: allaboutfuntt@gmail.com
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