No matter how fun the sex was, cleaning up after having a romp in the sack can be a real drag. There is nothing more annoying than a giant stain in the center of your mattress, or period blood splattered over your sheets like a crime scene. What are you supposed to do about these stains? How do you wash them? What products do you use? And, crucially, is treating any stain different than a semen stain?
The first thing to know is that semen is a protein stain. There are other ingredients in there, but protein is the trickiest bit to clean. If semen has landed on something that can’t be easily thrown in the washing machine such as a couch cushion or a futon then you can treat it by hand. Protein stains are best treated with something that contains hydrogen peroxide, which is a great way to get rid of protein-based stains on many types of fabrics.
Believe it or not, you don’t want to use too much detergent. Check the ingredient list and make sure it has enzymes and an optical whitener in addition to the cleaning agents. Make sure you add the right amount. Using too much can cause over-sudsing, which cushions the load and reduces cleaning performance.
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Having sex without lube is like having a Moscow Mule without ginger beer—not as good and probably uncomfortable. When the lube spills, or it drips on the sheets from your hands or body, you’ll want to tailor the cleanup to the ingredients in the lube. Water-based and oil-based lubes are pretty straightforward. “For most oil- and water-based lubricant stains, you can go about your normal laundering process,
