You might remember the meaning of the character 染 with this easy mnemonic:
You are going to catch a cold if you keep catching rain droplets (氵) in your mouth, and keep letting your cat slash (丿) you with his claws. Don't let him scratch you a second (乙) time again, just leave him in that tree (木)!
Using mnemonics to remember the meaning of Chinese characters like has a huge impact on how long to learn Mandarin it takes.