The old-fashioned way to clean a sofa using baking soda and vinegar

If there are no suitable chemicals in the house, you can clean the sofa with soda, vinegar or a mixture of these substances. Bicarbonate perfectly absorbs odor, and acetic acid will remove even the most persistent and old stains.

General cleaning recommendations

Various materials are used for upholstery of upholstered furniture, each of which has its own properties and requires certain rules of care. Products suitable for cleaning coarse cotton, matting or jacquard are not suitable for silk, flock or leatherette.

Before starting work, you need to test the selected cleaning composition on a small area of the material in an inconspicuous place.

Baking soda is considered a gentle cleaning agent, but when combined with vinegar, it can permanently ruin the appearance of your sofa. The fabric will change color and texture, and whitish spots will appear. Particular care should be taken when processing coatings made of silk, velor, and leather.

Here are the main rules for cleaning at home:

Carefully remove dust from the surface of the material using a vacuum cleaner. Leather and wooden inserts are wiped with a damp cloth. Dried dirt is cleaned with a clothes brush.
Wet cleaning of upholstered furniture is carried out with care, trying not to wet the sofa filling. To do this, soak a sponge in a soapy solution, wring it out, and only then touch the upholstery.
If the filling is still very wet, to avoid the formation of fungus, you should remove the sofa cushion and dry it. To do this, you can blot the surface with a dry towel or paper napkins, use a fan or hair dryer. The main thing is that the fabric does not deteriorate, do not dry the furniture under a stream of hot air and do not expose it to the sun.
After treating the sofa, the soda powder must be removed completely, without any residue. The fabric can be vacuumed or brushed. The remaining soda particles quickly absorb moisture from the air, the matter in this place sticks and quickly becomes dirty.

Fleecy materials such as velor, flock, velvet require careful handling. Clean them with a soft sponge or brush, and vacuum them with a nozzle without bristles.

How to clean a sofa with baking soda?

Regular baking soda will return bright colors to the upholstery of a sofa or chair, help remove stains from tea, coffee, juice and ink, and remove grease stains.

Dry cleaning.

Sprinkle the area of material that requires cleaning, or the entire surface of the sofa, with baking soda. After an hour, the powder particles are shaken off with a dry brush or vacuumed.

Soda slurry.

To prepare the cleaning product, add 50 ml of water to 50 g of bicarbonate and mix the ingredients until a paste is obtained. The mixture is evenly distributed over the surface of the sofa, rubbing into the structure of the material with a soft brush, and left for one hour to dry. Then the remaining soda powder is removed using a vacuum cleaner.

Solution.

This method is only suitable for water-repellent fabrics. To prepare the solution, dissolve 2 tbsp in 1 liter of water. l. bicarbonate. Using a spray bottle, the mixture is sprayed over the upholstery. After the surface of the sofa is completely dry, it must be vacuumed.

If the first time it was not possible to obtain the desired result and stains and dirt are still noticeable on the sofa, the procedure should be repeated.

Cleaning with vinegar

Vinegar is an inexpensive and effective cleaning agent that can be found in every housewife’s kitchen. By itself, without soda, it has a delicate effect on the material and is usually used for everyday preventive cleaning of furniture. Using vinegar, you can easily remove worn-out and greasy stains and restore the brightness of the colors of textile upholstery.

To prepare a cleaning solution, pour 1 teaspoon of 70% vinegar (essence) into a liter container of water. Now you can soak a sponge or piece of cotton cloth in the resulting solution and wipe the contaminated surface.

Combined baking soda and vinegar

A combination of baking soda and vinegar will remove old blood and grease stains and help rid upholstered furniture of the smell of cat urine.

Prepare a cleaning solution from the following ingredients:

vinegar 9% - 150 ml;
soda - 1 tbsp. l.;
warm water - 1/2 l;
Fairy detergent - 1 tsp.

The substances listed above are combined in one container, and soda is added last, since the mixture will foam strongly from it, and stirred. Apply the solution to the sofa upholstery using a sprayer or sponge. The most contaminated areas are cleaned with a brush. At the end of the work, carefully remove the dirty foam with a sponge and wipe the surface with a clean damp cloth.

Refreshing Cleansing

If the furniture has become dusty during renovation or simply looks stale because it has been sitting in a barn for a long time, a refreshing treatment with soda and vinegar will help. It will restore the bright color of the upholstery material, eliminate foreign odors, and soften the pile.

The work is carried out as follows:

Treat the sofa surface with a soda solution (1 tablespoon of powder per 1 liter of water) using a sprayer.
After the upholstery is dry, the furniture is vacuumed.
Now apply the vinegar solution in the same way (1 tbsp. 9% vinegar per 1 liter of water).
After a few minutes, clean the surface of the sofa with a medium-hard brush.

To remove the smell of vinegar from the room, you need to clean it with the vents or windows open.

How to remove unpleasant odor from upholstery?

Pet owners know how difficult it is to get rid of the marks and smell of urine accidentally left by their pets on an armchair or sofa. Fragrances and ordinary detergents will not help in this situation, because they do not eliminate the source of the odor, but only mask the “odor.” Vinegar will help cope with the problem:

dissolve 2 tbsp in a glass of water. l. 9% acetic acid;
add 1 tsp. lemon juice;
soak the sheet with this composition;
apply it to the upholstery in the area of contamination;
so that the substance penetrates deeper into the structure of the material, the sheet in the smelly place is pressed harder with your hand against the upholstery;
After 5-10 minutes, the sheet is removed and the contaminated area is wiped with a dry cloth.

To achieve a 100% result, it is better to repeat this procedure several times.

With such simple household products as baking soda and vinegar, you can refresh your sofa upholstery and rid your upholstered furniture of various stains and unpleasant odors. The main thing is not to overdo it with these cleaning products, because both soda and vinegar themselves can change the color of the upholstery and destroy the structure of the material. When wet cleaning, do not wet the sofa too much - protect the filling from getting wet.