How to Get Rid of Chocolate Stains on Furniture and Clothing

In addition to the candy wrapper trail and empty boxes of chocolates, your in-house chocoholic has probably left their tracks on clothing and furniture. When you’ve got kids indulging in sweet treats without bounds, the chances of melted chocolate on the carpet runs high. While soda water and cleaning products can help, there are some simpler methods available for cleaning up the mess. Chocolate on clothing can be managed with a trip to the dry cleaners, but there are other options available.

If you want to get rid of chocolate stains on furniture, all you need is a household iron and some paper towels. Just allow the chocolate stain to dry; you can use a cold-setting on a hair dryer or a high-powered portable fan to speed things up. Next, scrape off the chocolate with a blunt knife and put some paper towels on the area. Place the hot iron on the paper towels (watch your heat setting here), and melt the remaining stain. You don’t want it to spread, so be sure to use medium heat whenever possible. Use a spot treatment or instant stain remover immediately to soak the stain away, and brush away with a hard brush if needed.

Chocolate stains on carpet are a little trickier; you’ll still need to get rid of any excess chocolate by scraping it when it’s dry. Next, mix up some dishwashing liquid with hot water and apply it to the stain. You don’t want to rub this, just let it set and blot it out with some paper towels. Repeat the cycle, and rinse with clean water after you’ve gotten rid of most of the color.

An easy way to get rid of chocolate stains on clothing is to use household dish detergent on the garments. You’ll want to make sure the chocolate hardens first, and you can simply put it in the fridge to speed things up. Once it’s hardened, scrape off the chocolate with a knife and then run hot water on the area to ‘melt off’ the remaining stain. After that, plop it into a bowl or bucket filled with dish detergent. Fifteen minutes is all it needs to soak up the suds, and then you can rinse and rub off the stain much more easily.

In the event you’re experiencing a chocolate stain emergency, milk in the washing machine works well too (not the chocolate variety). Just add it to the pre-wash cycle as a pre-treatment. After sending it through the standard rinse cycle, your clothes will be as good as new.

Chocolate stains don’t have to ruin your clothing and furniture, and you can get rid of them relatively easily using some standard household products!