Blood is an integral part of our everyday lives — literally. It makes up about 7% of our total weight, and allows cells to adequately dispose of waste and refresh themselves throughout our body. Blood has an average lifecycle of about 120 days.
That is, unless it spills out of us. Everyone gets cuts and scrapes, and this is never more true than for someone who hits the ground and plays hard for a sports team. Similarly, individuals involved with the medical profession can’t always prevent blood from getting on otherwise clean labcoats. Although it can be a subject that makes some feel squeamish, understanding how to clean up blood can save many a sports activewear item or medical uniform that would otherwise end up discarded. Here are four tips for cleaning blood out of clothing.
1. Never Use Hot Water
This tip might be one of the obvious if you’ve already heard it, but it’s also one of the most important. When you use hot water, the heat causes the proteins in blood to set, essentially ensuring that the stain never comes out. Instead, begin your process by soaking the sports uniforms or medical uniforms in cold water mixed with either a small dose of ammonia or table salt.
2. Break Out the Meat Tenderizer
The point of meat tenderizer is to break down proteins, which can make it an effective agent in removing hard-to-scrub stains from clothing. Create a paste from meat tenderizer using cold water. Work it into your stain, and then leave it alone for about 15 minutes before washing it out.
3. Hydrogen Peroxide
Hydrogen peroxide is often a tried-and-true removal agent for blood. The only problem is that it has the potential to stain certain materials. For this reason, you should always spot test first with hydrogen peroxide on an area that will not easily be seen, such as an inner shirt hem.
4. Potential Odd Solutions
According to online experimenters, there are a few unusual solutions for cleaning up blood stains that often work. These include hairspray, coca-cola, and not surprisingly, oxi-clean.
Do you have any secrets for getting blood out of sports wear or labcoats? Let us know in the comments. Helpful sites: affordableuniformsonline.com