Does your couch look like the top left picture? And you hate it? No matter how many times you say “no food” on the couch…somehow stains still manage to find their way to it. Let me tell you how I got to the bottom right picture.
Unless you live under a rock (no judgement if you do), you’ve probably seen some of the TikTok videos or reels that show you how to clean upholstery. I, too, have seen them. I’ve pinned them even. I still wasn’t convinced. I had to give it a try myself.
Materials you will need:
- Dirty couch
- Dawn Power wash
- Hot water
- Bowl
- Microfiber towel or rags
- Lid to a kitchen pot or pan
- A towel (optional)
Step 1: Make sure your lid will fit into your bowl. Spray a few sprays of Dawn Power wash in your bowl. How many sprays depends on the size of your bowl. Now, dilute with plenty of hot water.
Step 2: Wrap your lid in the microfiber towel/rag as shown. Use the handle on the lid to wrap the towel and get a good grip on everything.
Step 3: Dip your lid and rag into the hot, soapy water. You want it wet, but not dripping and soggy. We want to wash the surface fabric, and not soak the furniture parts inside the frame. Now just rub the lid back and forth and watch as the stains disappear. It’s magical. All of those cheesy finger prints and lord knows what else…gone. As soon as my kids saw me cleaning, they wanted in on the “fun” even.
Step 4: We wiped everything down so there wouldn’t be any soapy residue lingering and used a towel to pat any areas that took some extra efforts to get cleaned. With the kids help, there may have been a little bit more water used than by mom…but that’s okay! We had fun cleaning as a family. We left the fan on low overnight and by morning everything was dry enough to put back together.
Our couch smelled and looked great! I will absolutely be using this method more in the future than washing in my washing machine for two reasons. 1. It gets the frame and arm rests also clean and 2. The washing machine is really rough on the delicate nature of the seams so I’m prolonging the life of the fabric by using this method.
I also know that the videos I have seen show using either a dishwasher or a detergent tab instead. I wasn’t comfortable doing that for several reasons. I didn’t want my fabric damaged, just cleaned.
If you’re wanting a stronger scent I would recommend some spray as opposed to leaving detergent on the fabric. I chose the Dawn but you can obviously use other soap if you so choose. I would recommend trying in an inconspicuous corner to make sure no bleaching or color change happens before you do the entire couch.
And there you have it. An easy life hack to keep your couch clean. Since doing this project, I have had to touch up a few dirty hand spots and it still looks just as good. Let me know if you try this hack and how it works for you.