Homemade Upholstery Cleaner

How do you clean your upholstered sofa? Commercial stain removers and upholstery cleaners can be a bit expensive so why not mix your own homemade upholstery cleaner? That’s a great idea, isn’t it?

But wait. Before you start with your mad scientist experiment, let me caution you. Don’t ruin your expensive leather upholstered sofa or spread the stain on the fabric sofa with your homemade solution.

Tips on Making Homemade Upholstery Cleaner

Make sure that you’re mixing the right ingredients that will be compatible with the upholstered materials. There are different solutions in homemade upholstery cleaner for fabric, leather or synthetic sofa materials.

One important reminder: don’t get too excited after making your homemade upholstery cleaner. First test the solution on a small area of your sofa preferably somewhere not obvious. For example, try it first at the lower back side of the sofa. In case the fabric or leather will have a chemical reaction to the solution, it will not be obvious.

DO NOT use cold water. Use warm water as an ingredient (as indicated in the recipe) so that the other components will be completely dissolved.

For Fabric Upholstered Sofa

Fabric sofas are commonly picked for the living room because they come in different styles, colors and texture. If  you have frequent visitors or you have little kids at home, it won’t be a surprise that your trendy fabric sofa can be soiled in many ways.

Here’s simple homemade upholstery cleaner that will help you maintain this lovely piece of furniture.

Ingredients:
¼ c white vinegar
¾ c warm water
½ tbsp natural liquid soap (Castille soap)

• Mix all ingredients in a spray bottle.
• Vigorously shake the spray bottle to mix all ingredients.
• With the spray bottle, lightly mist the soiled area.
• In a circular motion, scrub the area using a soft cloth.
• Repeat when necessary until the soiled area is clean. Do not spray too much solution because it will make your upholstery soggy.
• Wet the cloth with clean, warm water and scrub the fabric until excess soap is removed.
• Pat the damp area with dry cloth to dry it completely.

Leather Upholstery

Leather sofas are expensive so you don’t want to let the dust and dirt ruin its elegance. Try this homemade upholstery cleaner and bring back the luster of your leather sofa.

Ingredients:
½ c olive oil
¼ c white vinegar

1. Mix the two ingredients in a spray bottle.
2. Vigorously shake the spray bottle to mix all ingredients.
3. Spray lightly the leather surface.
4. Rub the area with a clean. Soft cloth.
5. Repeat when necessary to remove soil, oil and fingerprints on your leather sofa.
6. Polish the leather using the dry part of your cloth.

These 2 ingredients are good cleaning agents. The vinegar can remove any dirt or oil in a leather surface but you need not worry about any upsetting smell because vinegar easily evaporated.

The olive oil will be absorbed by the leather and will condition and soften it.

Synthetic Upholstery

If you’ve got synthetic upholstered sofas at home such as faux leather, this recipe is just perfect. It can be used on nylon, plastic and synthetic leather upholstery.

Ingredients:

½ c white vinegar
1 c warm water
* If the sofa is soiled heavily, add ½ tbsp of natural liquid soap (Castille soap).

1. Mix the 2 ingredients in a spray bottle.
2. Vigorously shake the spray bottle to mix all ingredients.
3. Lightly wet the soiled area but thoroughly.
4. In a circular motion, scrub the soiled area using a clean, soft and lint-free cloth.
5. Repeat when necessary until soil is removed. Do not spray too much solution because it will make your upholstery soggy.

Now it’s not so costly for you to maintain your living room furniture. Most importantly, you can relax and not worry about cleaning up with your DIY prowess.