About

This blog is all about me trying out things and hopefully getting you to try out some things too! There will be a lot of DIY, websites to try, recipes, and more! If you would like me to try out anything please let me know!

Friday, July 25, 2014

How I Cleaned My Type S Couch!

Hello friends! We have had a good first week with our new puppy. My 6 year old decided to name her Rosie. She is such a cute pup. I wanted to show you what she looked like at her first day home:


Isn't she cute? Okay, I just had to show her off for a second. Now on to what you would actually want to read about! My couch is called a type S couch for cleaning. That means it needs to be cleaned with a "water-free" solvent or it needs to be professionally dry cleaned. Any water on it will cause staining. Believe me, I learned that the hard way! There are four different codes when it comes to cleaning. You can find these on the pamphlet that comes with any new couch or you can look at the bottom of the couch and there is usually a tag or a sticker that tells you what cleaning type your couch is. A W type means that you can use water on the couch or use a detergent that is water based. An X type means you have to hire a professional to clean it and you can only do vacuuming on the surface. An O type means that it should be washed in cold water and last but not least is my couches type S that I already told you about. 

I had a difficult time trying to figure out what to clean my couch with. Before I realized what type of couch mine was I cleaned it with water. That was a huge mistake! It ended up leaving a lot of stains in my couch that I couldn't get out. I didn't want to hire a professional cleaner or use store bought solvents that I don't even know what half the ingredients in them are! I want something that will be safe for my kids to play on. This is what my couch looked like:



Yeah that is gross. With three kids and me not knowing what the heck to clean my couch with it got gross fast. So, I took to the internet to try to figure out what to clean my couch with. Some of the suggestions were weird. One person suggested lighter fluid? Uhm, no thank you! Most suggested dry cleaning solvent or hiring a professional. That would be nice if I had the money to do that and if they had natural type of cleaners available that would clean my couch. Finally I saw one person that said you could use rubbing alcohol and since I already do cleaning with that I figured I would give it a try! 


The first thing I did was find a spray bottle. I had an empty Lysol cleaner bottle so I cleaned that out real well and let it dry out well also. I had a bottle of 70% Isopropyl alcohol so I put that straight into the bottle. I sprayed that right onto the couch. I had nothing to lose but if you only have a little spot to treat then I suggest spraying it on a spot that is well hidden and rub it with the towel to see if it leaves a mark. Anyways, after I sprayed it right on my couch I used my white towel and started to clean. I rubbed it in circular motions and put a little work into it! 


I made sure to cover the whole cushion and really scrubbed the parts that had the stains. Here is what my towel looked like after:


That was only one spot on the towel. By the time I was done there were spots like that all over. My couch was dirty! After I scrubbed real well I let it air dry. Alcohol when is wet smells real strong for a bit until it dries. My 6 year old was not too impressed at the smell, but it didn't bother me much. Studying to be a Medical Assistant makes you immune to the smell of rubbing alcohol. When its dry you don't even smell it though. Alcohol can make the fabric a little crunchy. I had to vacuum my couch anyways so I used my upholstery attachment an went over the couch with it. I made sure to vacuum it real well. Now its time for the before and after! 


I would be lying if I said that my couch was perfect and there was no stains left. Where I tried to clean with water still has a stain and a couple more didn't come out. As you can see though, a lot of the stains and dirt did come out. I was pretty impressed. I had to put a blanket on my couch cushions to cover up the stains before and now I am comfortable not having the blanket on. Rubbing alcohol is fairly inexpensive and I know the ingredients that are in it. If you have a dirty couch that you don't know how to clean then try this out! Then, let me know how you like it! 











No comments:

Post a Comment