Wax spills and stains on the tablecloth: all the tips you need to clean up after these unfortunate accidents

It can happen to anyone: during a dinner (or some important occasion) where candles were used, wax gets spilled onto the tablecloth. So, now what? Act immediately or wait for the wax to cool? And can all the wax be removed? Let's find out:

Wax on the tablecloth: what should be done?

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Your first reaction the moment wax spills might be to immediately try to scoop it up or dab it up with paper towels.

However, this is the wrong approach: you need to wait. Trying to clean up liquid wax will just spread it out, making a bigger stain and will push it deeper into the fibers of the tablecloth.

If you let the wax solidify, you have a better chance of removing it completely. As wax is quite viscous, when left, it will not spread out further (unlike, for example, wine stains/spills).

How to remove wax from a tablecloth

Creativo

The key to wax removal is to wait. Once the wax has cooled and hardened, proceed as follows:

• Get some ice and place it on the wax. Dry ice or a bag of frozen food will also work;
• After a few minutes - in which the ice will have hardened the wax thoroughly - you can try to remove the wax with a knife or spoon, scraping it off as best as possible. If you can get the entire piece to lift, so much the better;
• Once this is done, take two clean, plain white sheets of absorbent paper and place one under the tablecloth and one on top, in line with the wax stain;
• Use an iron - on low heat and no steam - and iron the top sheet of absorbent paper, being careful not to linger too long in any one spot.

Doing this, the residual wax stuck in the fibers of the tablecloth will melt and be "sucked up" by the absorbent paper.

Finish the process by putting the tablecloth on a regular machine wash (with pre-wash) - see below for details.

Washing

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Before putting the tablecloth in the washing machine, pre-treat the stained area using a stain remover that has degreasing power. Apply this directly to the stain, and wait for about 5 minutes.

Once done, wash the tablecloth in the washing machine on the highest temperature possible (check the washing instructions label on the tablecloth to determine this). Once washed, the tablecloth should no longer bear any trace of wax or wax staining!

An alternative tip

To speed up this overall cleaning process, once the molten wax has solidified sufficiently, you can put the tablecloth into the freezer. Leave to freeze for a few hours, and then try to remove the frozen wax stain hand. If you can't remove everything, you can always proceed as indicated above!

Now you know how to deal with unfortunate wax spills!