Woman's strategy to remove pesky red wine stains fights alcohol with more alcohol: 'It disappears almost immediately'

A TikTok user has shared an ingenious hack for cleaning up red wine stains — and it proves that sometimes the problems caused by alcohol can actually be solved with more alcohol.

The scoop

In a recent video, a TikTok user shared footage of a red wine spill on her white carpet. Luckily, she's developed a strategy for getting rid of the stains that works every time.

"I am a total klutz, and I love drinking red wine, so one of the best hacks I found to get spilled red wine out of white carpet or clothing is vodka," she explains.

She pours a glass full of vodka onto the red wine stain, then shows the carpet after the process has finished — and the carpet suddenly looks brand new. "Makes it look like it never happened," she says.

"It disappears almost immediately! I've used this on carpet and clothing and it works on old stains too)!" she wrote in the video's caption.

@kirstenortez

The best way to clean spilled red wine is probably already in your home 🍷

♬ She Share Story (for Vlog) - 山口夕依

How it's helping

The user's unusual solution to an ordinary problem proves that you don't need to purchase dedicated cleaning supplies to fix every mess you make — which is good for your wallet and the planet.

Many cleaning products contain chemicals that make surfaces extra shiny and clean, but they also cause pollution that's harmful to both human health and the environment. They can cause irritation to eyes and skin of the people applying them and can also adversely affect water, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. Cleaning supplies can also lead to air pollution.

Additionally, many cleaning supplies come in aerosol cans, which are difficult to recycle, and have been proven to contain a gas that does damage to the planet's ozone layer. Plus, there's the usual pollution caused by wasteful nonrecyclable packaging that litters the Earth in landfills and leads to the dangerous overheating of our planet.

With all this in mind, it's clearly advantageous to limit our use of chemical cleaners when cleaning up our messes, which makes the TikTok user's vodka hack all the more appealing.

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