It's hard to ignore the fact that Valentine's Day is right around the corner. The grocery store displays many flowers, heart-shaped candies and other festive decor for loved ones. It seems appropriate to address one of the toughest stains of this season: chocolate.

Chocolate is one of my favorites and I sample it often. Besides, it tastes great anytime-not just for Valentine's Day. This means sometimes you are probably going to get it on your shirt or table linens. With so many different chocolate versions, it's difficult to decide how to proceed. Regular chocolate is usually a mixture of emulsifiers and the cocoa powder particles. Add milk chocolate and now we have milk proteins to worry about. This means, they're both complex stains, but should be treated differently. For the regular chocolate, you want to attack the greasy portion first, but with the milk chocolate, the protein portion should be attacked first. After these have been attacked, we hit it with the bleach to help get the color out. While a difficult stain to remove-the task is not impossible.

Regular Chocolate:

First, pretreat with a good liquid detergent to help solubilize/dissolve those emulsifiers. Rub into the stain and wait 10-15 minutes.

• White Item: Now, rub it gently with Clorox® Bleach Pen™ Gel immediately before laundering. Then wash immediately in hot water with detergent and 3/4 cup Clorox® Regular-Bleach.


• Colored Item: Now, rub it gently with Clorox2® Bleach for Colors immediately before laundering. Then wash immediately in warm water with detergent and 3/4 cup Clorox2® Bleach for Colors.

Milk Chocolate:

Here you want to presoak the fabric in cold water and liquid detergent for about 30 minutes to help loosen the protein part of the stain.

• White Item: Now, rub it gently with Clorox® Bleach Pen™ Gel immediately before laundering. Then wash immediately in hot water with detergent and 3/4 cup Clorox® Regular-Bleach.


• Colored Item: Now, rub it gently with Clorox2® Bleach for Colors immediately before laundering. Then wash immediately in warm water with detergent and 3/4 cup Clorox2® Bleach for Colors.

Don't forget, like any other stain, be sure to inspect the item before you put it in the dryer. If the chocolate stain remains after your initial washing, repeat the steps above prior to drying item.

Here's hoping yours is a happy Valentine's Day!

OK, we're having our annual Super Bowl party on Sunday. The menu is planned, the RSVPs are in and most of the items are bought and ready to go.

What a day! I always look forward to seeing old friends, eating, drinking and yelling our way through 4 quarters of hopefully good pigskin. If not, there is always the other crowd favorite activity of reacting and rating each Super Bowl commercial.

With that many people there is sure to be an opportunity to provide some stain removal advice. While I may not be able to remove it all at the party, these tips will help you tackle the problem when you get home or after the guests leave.

General Stain Treatment Rules

1. Remove as much as possible as quickly as possible. Quickly blot or wipe away the excess.


2. If the stain has a greasy/oily component, always treat that first and don't run water over the stain. Try rubbing some liquid dishwashing or laundry detergent into the stain from the back if possible. Wait 1-3 minutes then rinse away with warm water.


3. Consider washing items when you get home or if they are dry clean only try to get them to the cleaners within 48 hours.

So here are some remedies for a few of the expected party favorites.

Beverages

• Adult beverages come in a variety of potential colors. We need to remove it.




• A cool water rinse from the back will help make the stain easier to pretreat.


• If white or bleachable, try pretreating with Clorox® Bleach Pen gel™ before washing


• If colored, try pretreating with Liquid Clorox2® Bleach for Colors before washing


• Wash in warmest water recommended on fabric care label using detergent and




• Clorox® Regular-Bleach, if white or bleachable item or


• Clorox2® Bleach for Colors if colored item.




• Check before drying. Retreat item if needed.

Appetizers

• BBQ sauces, soy sauces, baked beans, salsa.




• A cool water rinse from the back will help make the stain easier to pretreat.


• If white or bleachable, try pretreating with Clorox® Bleach Pen gel™ before washing.


• If colored, try pretreating with Liquid Clorox2® Bleach for Colors before washing.


• Wash in warmest water recommended on fabric care label using detergent and




• Clorox® Regular-Bleach, if white or bleachable item or


• Clorox2® Bleach for Colors if colored item.




• Check before drying. Retreat item if needed.






• Buffalo wings, meatballs, Bagel Bits. Beware of greasy spots.




• Pretreat with liquid detergent and wait 3-5 minutes.


• Wash in hottest water recommended on fabric care label using detergent and




• Clorox® Regular-Bleach, if white or bleachable item or


• Clorox2® Bleach for Colors if colored item.




• Check before drying. Retreat item if needed.

Main Course

• Chili, hamburgers, steaks. Again, beware of greasy spots.




• Pretreat with liquid detergent and wait 3-5 minutes.


• Wash in hottest water recommended on fabric care label using detergent and




• Clorox® Regular-Bleach, if white or bleachable item or


• Clorox2® Bleach for Colors if colored item.




• Check before drying. Retreat item if needed.

Good luck and have a great time on Sunday!!

Another reader question - this one about lip gloss left in a pocket during the wash.

"I washed a load of jeans with some cargo pants at the laundromat. Everything was fine with the pants after I looked at them when they finished washing, so I put them into the dryer. When my clothes were finished drying I took them out and noticed that grease stains were on every pair of pants that were in there. Then I noticed that I left lip gloss in one of the pants, and they all were ruined."

I have some good news and some bad news.

The good news: you did this at a laundromat, so the grease is not inside your dryer to transfer to later loads.

The bad news: after drying the "grease spots" are probably set and are going to be super difficult to remove, if at all. You might try using a good solvent (like Goo Gone) on the grease spots and then re-washing in the hottest water possible. Other than that, a small amount may be removed in the next wash, so consider air drying for the next 3-4 washes and see if you notice a difference. Otherwise, these pants will probably be relegated to home weekend wearing.

Sorry I couldn't be more optimistic.

Give these suggestions a try and let me know if they work.

Good luck!

I received the following question from Dianne, a reader. Check out my response for handling your own stains:

"We've got a new puppy in the house and last week she jumped on me as I was sitting down with coffee. Of course the coffee went everywhere, but mostly on my white 45% Modal shirt. The shirt was promptly stuffed into the laundry bin and forgotten about so it sat for about a week before it was washed. To make matters worse, I forgot to check to see if the stain came out before I dried it! Now I've got a stain (very faint) on this white shirt, do you have any tips or pointers about how to get it out? This is also my first time dealing with this fabric, so I'm not sure what it can and can't handle. Please help!"

Don't you just love puppies! They bring so much happiness, yet, when you least expect it, there's a mess to clean up.

I had to do a little research on the Modal fabric as I was not familiar with it. It's made from beech tree bark and is supposed to make the item lighter and softer on your skin.

To address your problem, you should try something a little stronger to get the faint spot out. My recommendation would be either the Clorox Bleach Pen or our new Clorox UltimateCare Premium bleach. They have lower bleach levels than Clorox Regular-Bleach and they are thicker, easier to control for spot pre-treating. Simply apply a small amount, wait 1-2 minutes and then wash in the warmest water recommended for the item.

It was also nice to notice that you recognized a couple of things you had done incorrectly. Rather than immediately dealing with the problem, placing it in the hamper and allowing the coffee stain to dry out probably made it much more difficult to remove. Also not checking at the end of the wash cycle for complete removal, and then drying may have set the stain.

Anyway, give the stain another try with the Bleach Pen or UltimateCare and let me know if they work.

Good luck and thanks for posting your problem.

Ok, I’m baaack in the office and ready to roll for 2007! Since a lot of my colleagues are still away this week, it is relatively quiet at work, making this a great time to reflect on the past year and gaze into the future.

Here are some random thoughts on both:

• 
  I am really proud of my blog and what we have accomplished since it launched in May. Thanks for all your well-wishes and questions along the way! My goal was to provide a resource for people to get laundry-related information and have a forum to answer questions. I think I have done that in an entertaining way and plan to continue this approach this new year.

• The blog has also allowed me to share both professional and personal moments.


• My Holiday Stain Hotline provides information on removal of the Top 10 holiday stains. It was so successful that we have done it for two years in a row.


• The Clorox® UltimateCare™ Premium Bleach introduction was challenging and exciting as I co-hosted several introductory events with Robert Verdi and met a large number of editors from around the country.


• This led to interviews with newspapers, magazines and Web sites, all of which I enjoyed. There is a certain thrill to see yourself quoted in various newspapers and magazines!


• It was exciting to throw out the first pitch at the Sacramento Rivercats (Minor League Baseball team) game and attended the Busch race at Fontana.


• When my brother-in-law passed away in July, I eulogized him here. It definitely helped my grieving process. Over the holidays, my family gathered on the big island of Hawaii to honor Marshall’s last request that his ashes be spread over the waters of the island he loved to visit. The family also followed a Hawaiian tradition by creating a large memorial to Marshall. If you drive north on Highway 11 toward the Kohala Coast and just pass the Waikoloa turn off, you will find this fitting tribute to a truly unique individual on the side of the road.

So here’s my toast to the great start in 2006 and that 2007 will not only continue the tradition but take us to new heights!

Also, I know a lot of you have written in with questions for me over the holidays, and I plan to take the beginning of this year to get back to each of you. Sorry for the delay!