Ways to Remove Stains from Plastic

Many of us have plastic or Tupperware type dishes in which there are stains on them. Some of them have stains because we used a magic marker to put our family name on them before taking them to the church picnic. Others have stored food in their plastic dishes, and the food has stained them. Storing spaghetti or spaghetti sauce is really great for staining your plastic dishes.

I have some tips here that will help you to get rid of some of the stains on your plastic.

1. Food Stains
Getting food stains out of your plastic dishes can be a little bit of work, but it can be done. Run some hot soapy (dish detergent) water to a little past the level of the food stain and let it sit for awhile. Take a soft dish cloth, and wash the dish out. Sometimes you will find that the stain has disappeared. If necessary, repeat the process only this time use a soft produce brush along the stained area.

Make sure that the water you use isn't real hot because it could cause the container to loose some of its shape.

For the worse case food stain put warm water just a little past the food stain level, add a capful of bleach, agitate and let sit for a little while. After you have rinsed the container out, make sure that you wash and rinse the container well just to make sure the is no bleach residue left on the bowl.

2. Magic Marker stains
Have you ever used a magic marker to put your family name on a container before going to a picnic so that you wouldn't loose your container? Well, I have. After a while "Downs" was on half of my containers and lids. At first it was okay because the name was nice a crisp, but after a time the letters started fading a little, and then the container looked awful.

I was over at a friend's house one evening, and was helping her to put her dishes away when I noticed that she didn't have a name on any of her plastic dishes and containers. She and her family had been to as many church picnics as my family and I had been, and I knew she always had her name put on the dishes with magic marker, so I asked her about it. "Oh, that's easy," she said. "A little alcohol on a cotton ball wipes away all sins from the magic marker."

I couldn't wait to get home and try it, and sure enough it works. In just a matter of minutes all of my plastic dishes and containers looked like new again.

The good thing about this technique is, it takes magic marker off of almost anything that is non-porous.