Dealing With Stains - Being Proactive vs Reactive (3 Types of Stains and How to Avoid Them)

Reactive people are driven by feelings, by circumstances, by conditions, by their environment. Proactive people are driven by values—carefully thought about, selected and internalized values.

- Stephen R. Covey (The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People)

Proactive Behaviour Vs Reactive Behaviour - What’s the difference?

If you’re proactive, you strive to eliminate the chances of having a problem by intelligent planning and diligent action.

If you’re reactive, you’re usually passive - you wait for the problem to occur and then react to it.

Here are some examples of proactive and reactive behaviour.

PROACTIVE BEHAVIOUR

Imagine this - you're getting a new set of tyres for your car. It's already costing you a lot, but you still decide to spend a bit more to get a wheel alignment. Thus, you're increasing the life of your tyres and improving your vehicle safety.

You're preventing problems from occurring. This is proactive behaviour.  

REACTIVE BEHAVIOUR

You're getting a new set of tyres for your car, but you decide not to get a wheel alignment to save some money for the short-term.

The tyres end up wearing unevenly and you end up needing to replace them sooner, costing you more money and more time in at the service centre. All because you didn’t think ahead and take proactive action with the maintenance on your vehicle.

This is reactive behaviour.

Same principle applies to dealing with stains.

You can either avoid stains by proactive planning or stress yourself by adopting a reactive approach and potentially leave stains too long risking them to become set in and no longer easily removed.

3 TYPES OF STAINS (AND HOW TO AVOID THEM)

1.  DEODORANT STAINS

The best way to ruin expensive clothes - apply a cheap deodorant that will leave permanent stains on them.

It’s 8 o’clock in the morning. You know you have to make your way through heavy traffic and road-rage to reach your workplace at 9 o’clock or your employer might reconsider giving you that bonus.

So, you have a quick shower, apply lots of deodorant and instantly put your clothes on. The deodorant is still wet and is going to stick to the fabric- and eventually leave an ugly stain (especially on light coloured clothes - white, light blue, pink etc).

How to Avoid Them

• Don’t apply too much deodorant
• Let it dry completely before you put your clothes on
• Use no-stain deodorants (yes, they’re available)

2.  CAR STAINS

Fact: Having stains on your car seats can decrease its selling price by $500-$1000 at least. It doesn’t matter if the upholstery is made of fabric or leather, stains will find their way.

Although big dogs are well-behaved, maybe you have a new little puppy who is sitting on the backseat of your car and really needs to go toilet - when mother nature calls, she calls! Your pet probably doesn’t speak English (some pets do speak English, some don’t); so decides to use your car’s backseat as a restroom.

Well, not only will your car seats now have stains, but they will also have a god-awful smell. Luckily, getting rid of the smell is easy - learn how, in Rug Doctor’s 10 Odours and How to Get Rid of Them. 

But, it’s not just pets that cause a mess, sometimes us humans contribute to car stains by being reactive instead of proactive. Picture this... You’re running late for work and haven't had breakfast yet - you decide to have a 3 course meal on your way to work - in your car - while driving! 

Can this be avoided by a proactive approach? Yes.

How to Avoid Them

• Make sure your pet is toilet-trained before taking them on long drives.
• Avoid eating while driving - you might spill that extra mayonnaise!
• Use a straw to consume fluids if possible

3.  CARPET STAINS

What can potentially cause stains on your carpet?

Red wine, beer, food, grease, vegetable oil, ink, blood (don’t worry, we won’t call the cops), toothpaste, chocolate, gravy, butter/margarine, salad dressing, milk, tobacco, tomato sauce, dirt/mud/clay/grass, ice-cream, lipstick, shoe-polish, jelly/jam, urine and the list goes on!

Now, it’s highly likely that you are not going to have toothpaste stains on your carpet - assuming you don’t brush your teeth in your living room. But we have all spilled our coffee at least once! Come on, admit it. If you’re someone who regularly spills their coffee, you might want to read our How to Remove a Coffee Stain blog.

How to Avoid Them

• Try not to bring shoes inside your home
• Don’t procrastinate - take action as soon as you have spilled something
• Have lots of paper towels ready if you have a lot of guests 
• Have some good carpet stain removal products in your house

But if you still end up with carpet stains, don't worry... 

There are different cleaning methods and also stain removal products to clean different types of carpet stains.

We have listed the cleaning methods for all types of stains in our Ultimate Stain Removal Guide.

It’s highly recommended that you print it out and keep it handy- it’s loaded with all the knowledge you need on carpet-cleaning to be proactive and not reactive!