'You need different things for different stains' – Zooey Deschanel's proactive approach to laundry targets stains before they exist (for under $5)

The New Girl actress reveals the three anti-stain products she swears by to protect her clothes – and most of them are on sale for Memorial Day

Zooey Deschanel
(Image credit: Sami Drasin via Getty Images)

There is nothing worse than wearing a new shirt out to lunch and coming home to find it splattered with sauce that will never wash out. Luckily, famous girl-on-the-go Zooey Deschanel wants to make sure it never happens to you again.

The actress shared the stain removal products she takes everywhere with The Strategist, and we're taking notes.

Zooey explains: 'You need different things for different stains. You have to have Shout wipes [available at Walmart] in your purse because they are abrasive and take out stains really fast, and they’re a great product. Tide Pens (at Amazon), also great.'

The actress keeps even more stain removal essentials in her laundry room. Zooey states: 'Sometimes you have to saturate a stain, but there’s not enough product in there. If you have a huge stain, that’s where you need Puracy. I always have these with me in my suitcase. I have Shout wipes and the Tide Pen in my purse. I also have a Magic Eraser [also available at Amazon].'

Shop Zooey's Essentials

Why does Zooey take her tools everywhere? According to the actress, immediacy is one of the golden rules of stain removal.

She recommends: 'Nothing sucks more than when you have a nice thing that gets ruined because you spilled tomato sauce on it, and if you don’t treat that stain right away, you just ruined something awesome. And then the kids just destroy nice stuff all the time, so I try to be really on top of that.'

This proactive approach is even more necessary when travelling with children.

'Especially for the holidays when they’re traveling with their nice clothes,' says Zooey. 'Sometimes, they insist on wearing their fancy clothes on the plane or something insane, so you have to be ready with your stain remover, and usually you can get stuff out.'

Editor's Laundry Picks

Whether or not you have a stain stick on you at all times, setting up an at home stain station is the ideal way to keep your clothes in tip top condition. Here are some of our editor's top picks for preserving your wardrobe.


Constantly on the go with some of the world's most beautiful clothes, there's no better stain removal advice than that from a Hollywood actress. When the options are so affordable, it's all the better.


Sophie Edwards
News Editor

Sophie is a writer and News Editor on the Celebrity Style team at Homes & Gardens. She is fascinated by the intersection of design and popular culture and is particularly passionate about researching trends and interior history. She is an avid pop culture fan and has interviewed Martha Stewart and Hillary Duff.

In her free time, Sophie freelances on design news for Westport Magazine and Livingetc. She also has a newsletter, My Friend's Art, in which she covers music, culture, and fine art through a personal lens. Her fiction has appeared in Love & Squalor and The Isis Magazine.

Before joining Future, Sophie worked in editorial at Fig Linens and Home, a boutique luxury linens brand. She has an MSc from Oxford University and a BA in Creative Writing and Sociology from Sarah Lawrence College.

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