Method involves no chemical cleaners, one household appliance.

Soy sauce and chopsticks are both classic elements of the Japanese culinary world. Unfortunately, darkly colored liquids and eating utensils that require a measure of manual dexterity are a potentially disastrous combination.

Imagine, for example, that you’ve got a plate of sushi or sashimi in front of you. First you have to pick a morsel up with your chopsticks, transfer it to the plate of soy sauce for a dip, then bring it up to your mouth. Along the way, there are plenty of opportunities for a slip of the fingers to send soy sauce flying onto your clothing, the tablecloth, or carpet, leaving behind unsightly stains.

But Japanese Twitter account @SlitAnimation (which ordinarily focuses on awesome artistic creations) has an ingenious way to quickly clean up soy spills in just a few easy steps, demonstrated in the following video.

First, lay down a few tissues to soak up any soy that hasn’t seeped into the material yet. Next, pour water over the affected area, and cover it with a cloth towel. Finally, using a vacuum cleaner with a nozzle attachment, vacuum the portion of the towel that’s covering the soy spill.

After one iteration, most of the stain should be gone, and you can repeat the process if necessary. So if you’re a messy eater, don’t forget to keep not just napkins handy during meals, but your vacuum cleaner as well.

Source: Jin, Twitter/@SlitAnimation

Follow Casey on Twitter, where there’s a better-than-average chance he’s spilled food on himself in the last 12 hours.