Sunlight is the best tomato stain remover

Tomato sauce stains on plastic come out best with sunlight—a few hours of direct sun will bleach out most of the red.

The pigment in tomato sauce is lycopene, and ultraviolet light breaks it down naturally. That’s why stained containers left on a sunny windowsill come out looking new with just a rinse afterward. No scrubbing, no harsh chemicals.

If you can’t wait for sun, rub a little vegetable oil into the stain and let it sit for 20 minutes. Lycopene is oil-soluble, so the oil pulls it out of the plastic’s pores. Then wash normally with dish soap. Avoid aggressive scrubbing along the way—scratches just give the next batch of sauce more places to hide.

This is one of the rare cases where the lazy fix is the right fix.