How to Clean Upholstered Furniture

Upholstery, we love it but it can get so dirty with every day living.  Never mind finding an amazing piece at an estate sale or on the side of the road that hasn’t seen a soap in 50 years.  How can you clean it without hiring someone, paying big bucks on rental equipment and lingering chemical smells?!  I’m bringing you along to share how I clean upholstery, what I use and a recent trick for stubborn grease stains!

I recently ran across this incredible sofa at the thrift store.  It was so grossly dirty and stained I didn’t even want to sit on it.  But I also couldn’t stop staring at the lines, shape and color.  At $25 I decided it was worth the risk and brought it home to try and save it.

(peep some old pink chairs I thrifted and cleaned here)

Here’s how it looked set up ready to attack.  I mean absolutely disgusting.

The back arms looked like they had been dragged across a freshly concrete road.

There are a bunch of spots that are like grease stains all over the seat.  I could even see dirty footprints, it was just SO bad.  Definitely the most visibly dirty piece I’ve tackled so far.

I bought a Bissell Little Green Machine a few years ago and let me tell you.  It is worth its weight in gold, this little thing cleans upholstery and rugs like a champ.

(Yes its dirty, I use it all the time so it should be 😆)

What do I use for soap?  There are a few options; you can purchase an upholstery specific soap to use with it, you can use a tablespoon or 2 of laundry detergent, or you can you dish soap (like Dawn but can be any brand).  I have used all three and had success with all 3.  I’ve been recommended Folex, which I’ll be trying on my next piece so stay tuned for my thoughts on that.  Don’t forget to add a couple of splashes of white vinegar which helps with any odors and additional cleaning power.

For this sofa I used dish soap/vinegar.

The machine’s handle has a trigger that sprays the soap/cleaning liquid onto the piece.

Then scrub using the orange bristles, hold the top portion flat and drag along the fabric to pull up the liquid along with any dirt grime.

It’s really simple and you can’t mess up.

I went over the whole piece once and clearly it needed more help.  I tried Shout (laundry stain remover) on the stain areas/spots and let it sit for 20 minutes.  I followed that with another soap/scrub/remove process. I was left with this. It didn’t do much unfortunately.

We made a baking soda vinegar paste and applied the paste to stain spots, let it dry and then tried going over it with the green machine.  That didn’t work either.

Finally we tried good ole Hydrogen Peroxide.

Working in large sections I poured some on the seat and scrubbed with a brush.

After thoroughly scrubbing I went over it again with the soap solution and removed the liquid.  I ended up doing several passes in total all over the sofa but man it was worth it.  This is what came out of the upholstery.

Ewwww!!!!

I left it to dry overnight and here is what I was left with.  It worked!  The peroxide got out all of the nasty grease and grime stains on the seat and arms.  It looks fresh as a daisy now.

And I discovered the upholstery has the most pretty sheen to it that couldn’t be seen before.

I’m so glad I decided to take this on despite almost 4 hours of work and scrubbing, it was so worth it!

The seat is pretty solid and absolutely usable as is but could probably use some tightening up underneath.  We’ll get to that later, for now I’m loving this beauty.

Often just cleaning a piece can bring it back to life!

Have you cleaned upholstery before?  What products did you use and like?  I always love to hear from you so hit me up in the comments.

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