WD40 stain removal ...

Have you ever got pine resin on your clothes? It's a really tough one to get out.

Where we live on the Costa Brava we have such amazing pine trees. They're so rugged and majestic all at the same time, and they produce the very best pine nuts. Emi and his little chums go crazy in the summertime to collect them, and carefully crack them out of their protective cases to eat.

The only issue that I have with these beauties concerns the sticky resin that they secrete. In our garden we have a particularly lovely old pine tree that throws its shadow over a couple of garden benches. In the summertime this makes for the perfect shady spot to sit and read, whilst you keep a parental eye on the action down at the pool.

Recently Mr B sat down to read on his favourite bench whilst Emi was playing with his remote control submarine. When he came back inside and turned around it looked as though someone had run a paint roller back and forth across his butt. Nobody'll notice, he said sheepishly, when I pointed out the problem. But, honestly, the only people who wouldn't have noticed would have been the folk with the white sticks who were out walking their guide dogs.

I tried to wash the offending marks out of the fabric, but every stain remover that I could find between London and the Iberian peninsula had no effect whatsoever. I thought dark, uncharitable thoughts about what a klutz Mr B was.

Then, a couple of weeks later, I went and sat on the self-same bench to watch Emi perform some new and polished aquatic manoeuvre in the pool. In fairness he was yelling in that excited way kids do when they need your total attention RIGHT NOW, so in my defence I'm going to say that I was distracted by the drama of the moment. When I got back to the house after the performance, however, Mr B feigned great concern that I might have accidentally sat on the barbecue grill or something.  Grrr... . And of course I had to admit to having sat on the self-same bench that he'd got an earful for sitting on earlier.

Once again I was stumped as to  how I could get the offending stains out of the clothes.

I mentioned all of this to my friend (the Whippet Mummy) at a party on Saturday night (I know we're a wild and crazy pair!). Now the Whippet Mummy is a bit of a whizz when it comes to sorting out problems like this. Straight out of the blocks, and without a moment's hesitation, she advised me to try some WD40 lubricating oil. So I zipped over to the hardware store first thing Monday morning and bought myself a bottle.

Want to see a before picture?

Not a pretty sight, and bear in mind that this is after it's been through various wash cycles with various stain removing potions.

Yesterday Maxi and I spent a short period of time in the sunshine oiling and scrubbing the offending marks with a nail brush on the picnic table outside. The really stubborn bits we rubbed with kitchen roll soaked in surgical spirit. And this is what we got for our labours:

Amazing or what? I was seriously impressed. Admittedly they do have a slightly petrochemical whiff about them, but another wash with strong detergent ought to sort that out. The back of the WD40 bottle boasts that it's also great stuff for getting rid of chewing gum if you ever happen to get that matted into your clothes.

So now I'm passing on my new stain-removing tip: when all else fails reach for the WD40!

All the best,

Bonny x
As shared on SYC