stains

Have you considered telling us what kind of stain you are trying to remove from what? Red wine from a parquet floor; blood from a blanket; the options are endless.
And 'stain removal' on Wiki might help, too.

Answer here:
http://bit.ly/1b7H2iY

Spray generously with Vanish and then soak in water with a lot of Ariel for whites (the green one, I prefer the liquid) even overnight if necessary.
It works every time for me on anything you can imagine: sauces, carrot, orange, cherry, tomato juice, wine, oils etc.

Use dish detergent and vinegar.
It's a two-step process.
Soak garment, just like you would soak a dirty dish, in warm water with dish detergent. Not only does this help loosen the sauce from the fabric, but it helps clean the stain.
After that, pour some vinegar on the stain and scrub it with a kitchen sponge. The vinegar helps repel the oily residue.

This is a great way to treat a stubborn stain. After you treat it, run the garment through the washing machine like normal. It'll leave your clothing BBQ free!

Use dish detergent and vinegar.
It's a two-step process.
Soak garment, just like you would soak a dirty dish, in warm water with dish detergent. Not only does this help loosen the sauce from the fabric, but it helps clean the stain.
After that, pour some vinegar on the stain and scrub it with a kitchen sponge. The vinegar helps repel the oily residue.

This is a great way to treat a stubborn stain. After you treat it, run the garment through the washing machine like normal. It'll leave your clothing BBQ free!

Any tomato based stain, or red fruit stain (that inlcudes wine) should be washed out immediately. It usually disappears without a problem with just a plain bar of soap and some rubbing. If not, get ox gall soap. Keep washing and rubbing till all or most is gone. Then stain removal like vanish and in the washing machine. If you wait a day, success rate goes down quite a bit...