Having a nice juicy watermelon at some point during the summer is great. For many, eating watermelon is something that must be done during the summer as a tradition.
The problem with eating watermelon is that it can be a messy process. You hold a slice of watermelon and bite into it which creates quite a bit of juice.
Often, this watermelon juice will get all over the place, and you might even wind up getting some on your clothes. People have had watermelon juice drip onto their carpets as well when they’ve been a bit careless while eating.
Does watermelon stain when you make mistakes such as this? Do you need to worry about your clothes and your carpeting if you get watermelon juice on them?
Keep reading to learn a bit more about watermelon and whether it stains. You’ll also get great advice on how to clean things up so that you can enjoy watermelon during the summer without fear.
Watermelon Does Indeed Stain
Watermelon does indeed stain and you’re going to want to take action to try to get the stains out before it’s too late. If you allow the watermelon stain to linger, then it’s just going to be tougher to get the stain out at all.
It’s notable that watermelon has the potential to stain many different surfaces. If you’ve spilled watermelon on your clothes, then you’ll definitely want to get things cleaned up quickly.
Having watermelon stain your carpeting or some other type of upholstery will likely be even more frustrating. No one wants to have a large watermelon stain on the living room carpet, after all.
So now that you know that watermelon can stain, what are you going to be able to do about it? Is there a good method for removing watermelon stains that will help you out?
Below, you’ll find information about removing watermelon stains from clothing and carpeting. The information for removing watermelon stains from carpeting should also work to help with upholstery stains.
How to Get Watermelon Stains Out of Clothing
Getting rid of watermelon stains on your clothing items will be easier if you understand how to do things right. Firstly, it’s a good idea to try to clean things up fast when you know you’ve spilled watermelon on yourself.
If you don’t give the stain time to set in, then it’s probably going to be easier to remove it. To start, you should be sure to remove any solid watermelon chunks that might be on the clothing items.
For example, you might have bits of watermelon on the clothing item or you could have watermelon seeds stuck to your clothes. Try to lift the chunks of watermelon or watermelon seeds off of your clothes without rubbing the stain deeperinto the fabric.
One easy way to do this is to grab a butter knife and try to get underneath the food chunks. You should be able to easily lift the watermelon off of the clothing item without it being a hassle.
Next, you want to flush the stained part of the clothing item using cool water. There are a few approaches to this and either method will be fine.
You could simply blot the stained area with a wet paper towel or washing cloth. If you don’t want to do that, then you can run cool water over the stained area by placing the clothing item directly under a faucet.
This should help you to get the watermelon juice out of the clothing fibers. It’s probably easier to use the faucet, but you’ll get good results with blotting as well.
Now you must treat the stain using some type of liquid detergent. Laundry detergent does a great job of breaking the stain apart.
You want to keep the stain remover on the stain for at least ten minutes so that it can do what it needs to do. After you’ve done this, it’ll be time to wash the clothing item as normal.
Remember to follow the wash instructions for the clothing item in question. If your clothing item is capable of being washed in the washing machine, then you shouldn’t have any issues finishing this process up fast.
After taking the clothing item out of the washing machine, it’s important to check the stained area. Is the stain still there?
If the stain is still present, then you’ll need to mix a cleaning solution to try to remove the stain. Generally, cleaning solutions such as this contain bleach, and this means that you likely won’t want to try this on colored clothing items.
An example of this is the popular cleaning product OxiClean that is designed to remove stains from your laundry. You can try this out if you need further help, but otherwise, you can just dry your clothing item as normal.
Don’t Try to Clean Dry Clean Only Items
If any of your clothes have a tag that says “dry clean only,” then you’re not going to want to try to use the above methods. You’ll likely just make things worse and you’ll potentially ruin your clothing item.
It’s best to simply contact a dry cleaning service to try to get the clothing item laundered. They will have the proper equipment to remove stains and they’ll be able to take care of your clothing item without ruining it.
Removing Watermelon Stains From Carpeting
What if you’ve dropped some watermelon chunks on the carpeting or on your couch? Well, in this case, taking care of the problem starts the same way that removing stains from the clothing did.
You need to take the time to remove the chunks of watermelon and watermelon seeds from the carpet before doing anything else. As always, it’s best to try to do so without rubbing the watermelon into the carpeting further.
Once you’ve picked up the watermelon chunks and watermelon seeds, you’ll want to start blotting the stained spot. Try to get up as much of the watermelon juices as you can with the blotting method.
You must be gentle while trying to do this to avoid rubbing the stain into the carpeting. Use a simple cloth and try to gently blot the surface to get the juice up if you can.
Now it’s time to mix up a simple cleaning solution. Get a small bowl and combine two teaspoons of dish liquid with two cups of warm water.
Dip a cleaning cloth or a sponge into the cleaning solution that you made. Starting from the outside edge of the stain, you want to try to work the stain to prevent it from spreading further.
Blot the surface with a dry cleaning cloth to see how much of the stain you can remove. You might need to repeat this process a few times depending on how things go.
When it seems as though you’ve done a good job removing the watermelon stain, it’ll be time to rinse the area. Dip a washing cloth in clean water and then rinse the stained area with the cloth.
Start blotting the area where the stain was with a dry cloth now. Eventually, you should be able to get the spot to dry properly.
Wait some time for the stained area to completely air dry. After you’re sure that the spot is dry, you can use your vacuum cleaner on the area to try to perk the carpet fibers up and make things look normal.
Always Be Careful When Eating Watermelon
Whenever you’re planning to eat some watermelon slices during summer, it’s going to be wise to be careful. It might even be a good idea to wear a bib of some sort simply because watermelon has the potential to be so messy.
Simply biting into a watermelon slice can produce a significant amount of juice spray. If you plan ahead for this, then you should be able to avoid staining your clothes.
When you’re eating watermelon near a carpeted part of your home, it’ll be wise to always eat the watermelon over a plate. This should ensure that the watermelon chunks will stay on the plate and you will also be less likely to drip juice onto the floor.
You shouldn’t feel as if you need to avoid eating watermelon slices just because they have the potential to stain things. So long as you’re careful, you should be able to avoid situations like this most of the time.
Final Thoughts
Having to deal with watermelon stains can be annoying, but you know what to do now. Whether you’ve stained your clothes or you stained your carpeting, it’ll be simple enough to take care of the issue.
Yes, sometimes watermelon stains can be stubborn, but the information above has shown you exactly what you need to do to take care of things. So long as you follow the advice above, you’re not going to have to worry too much.
It should even be fairly simple to remove watermelon stains from couches or pillows. If you do have a hard time, then try not to fret and just keep at it while trying not to rub the stain in further.
Hopefully, you feel more confident about being able to handle watermelon stains now. This basic information for cleaning stains will help you to clean up many other types of stains, too.
I have a bachelor’s degree in Film/Video/Media Studies, as well as an associates degree in Communications. I began producing videos and musical recordings nearly 15 years ago. I am a guitarist and bassist in Southwest MI and have been in a few different bands since 2009, and in 2012 I began building custom guitars and basses in my home workshop as well. When I’m home, I love spending time with my three pets (a dog, cat, and snake) and gardening in my backyard.