Oftentimes, you may spill a drink on your upholstery fabric, kids play, or your pets keep jumping on to it.
While nothing can clean your upholstery or even your carpets as good as a professional upholstery cleaner, you may want to give your upholstery a little bit of a clean, or get rid of a stain that’s appearing.
With some simple ingredients you have around the home, you can quickly stop your couch from smelling and give it a new lease of life before you do need professional help and full deep cleaning.
Here, you can learn more about how cleaning upholstery fabric is straightforward when you make your own cleaning solution, and spend a small amount of time.
Can You Use Baking Soda to Clean Upholstery?
Here are the easy steps you can follow in cleaning any upholstered furnishings using just baking soda.
Prepare your couch by brushing it with either a clean white lint-free hand towel or a stiff synthetic brush. You will loosen any dried-on dirt and grime by doing this.
Sprinkle every surface of your couch with your baking soda. Let it sit for at least 20 minutes or up to an hour.
After that period, connect the brush attachment to your vacuum and vacuum all over to remove all the baking soda.
The reason baking soda works is because it is one of the best things for neutralizing odors. It absorbs them when compared to commercial air fresheners that only mask the smells.
Baking soda also feels like fine grit, so it offers a mild exfoliating quality to stains and dirt by loosening them ready for your vacuum. While this copes with smells and light dirt, you need to see how to clean couch upholstery that has dirt set in a bit more.
How Do You Clean a Couch with Vinegar and Baking Soda?
You can mix white vinegar and baking soda to make a great stain remover. You can also use this mixture for removing sticker residue from plastic, although there are many more methods more suited for this.
Once you mix your baking soda and vinegar, it will bubble a lot. All you do then is dab a clean lint-free cloth and rub it gently into the stain.
What is the Best Homemade Upholstery Cleaner?
While white vinegar and baking soda make a decent cleaner, upholstery can get some bad stains on them. This mixture doesn’t offer the best solution for heavy, oily stains.
For these, you may need a fabric sofa cleaner, which is heavy-duty. To make this water-based cleaner, you need the following:
- 1 x spray bottle
- 1 x cup of warm water
- 1 x teaspoon of liquid dishwashing detergent
- 1 x teaspoon of baking soda
- 1 x tablespoon of white vinegar
Method for mixing:
- Add the warm water to the spray bottle
- Add the baking soda followed by the liquid dish soap
- Add the vinegar and quickly screw the top onto the spray bottle (baking soda and vinegar fizzes and makes a lot of bubbles)
What is the Best Way to Clean a Fabric Sofa?
- With the above cleaner in your bottle, (you can use a bowl if you don’t have a spray), take a clean white cloth and soak it with the solution.
- Apply directly onto the smudges or stains on your couch you wish to clean.
- Let the solution soak in and dry for around 10 minutes
- Once dry, wipe the surface of your upholstery with a clean, dry lint-free fabric cloth, and the stains and residue should lift away.
You can find this solution works wonders in other places such as cleaning a couch cushion, remove sticky residue from wood and cleaning of upholstery in general.
Top Tips for Safe Upholstery Cleaning
Do a spot test: The cleaners here are natural, yet fabrics can differ a lot. Test a small area out of sight to make sure there are no reactions before cleaning couch upholstery.
- Vacuum first and vacuum last: There is little use in applying any cleaner to a surface with dirt on it. Please make sure you vacuum before applying your cleaner, and also once, you have finished, and it is dry.
- Use small amounts of cleaner: Just use enough cleaner to do the job. Over-wetting doesn’t help, and it is easier to add more rather than try to take it away.
- Remove fabrics if possible. Some seat cushions can be removed. Do so, and you can clean it more manageable and it avoids wetting the inside of your furniture.
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