Stain first-aid: what to do in the first five minutes.

Coffee, wine, grease — the exact blotting order our cleaners use before a garment ever hits water.

Speed beats strength. Blot — never rub — from the outside edge toward the centre with a clean white cloth. Rubbing spreads the stain and grinds it deeper into the weave.

Then rinse cold from the back of the fabric so the stain pushes out, not through. Coffee and wine get cold water first; grease gets a drop of dish soap worked gently in before any heat.

“Cold water first, heat last. The dryer is the point of no return.”

What not to do: hot water on protein stains like blood or egg, bleach on silk or wool, or the dryer before the stain is fully gone. Heat sets what hurry could have saved.