We have posted a lot of articles about how to clean different types of upholstery and how to keep your sofa and armchairs clean. In general, vacuuming your furniture regularly and deep-cleaning them once every 6 months should be enough to keep them as new for years. However, soft furnishings are often involved in small domestic accidents – food and beverage spills, stains from cosmetic products, pet urine – you name it.

With winter approaching, we know that you will be spending more time, curled up on your sofa. We asked our cleaning experts to share a few tricks that will help you deal with stubborn stains on the upholstery with common household ingredients.

Chocolate

Scrape of as much of the chocolate as you can using dull knife. Prepare a solution from 1 cup lukewarm water and a few drops of dishwashing liquid. Dip a clean cloth into the solution and start tapping gently onto the stain. Do not rub, as you can push the chocolate deeper into the upholstery. After a few minutes of dabbing the stain should be gone. Rinse the area by blotting it with a clean cloth, dipped in cold water. Let you upholstery air-dry before sitting on the sofa.

Check also: A great method to remove stains from your upholstery with iron.

Coffee

Get a dry cloth and blot out as much of the liquid as possible. After that, apply mild liquid detergent directly onto the spot and gently scrub with clean damp cloth. Do not press too hard, cause you don’t want the detergent to go too deep into the sofa stuffing. After a while the stain should be gone. Rinse the sofa, by dabbing it with clean damp cloth and let the sofa air-dry.

Grease

Lay a paper towel onto the stain to absorb any excessive grease from the sofa. Spray the spot slightly with clean cold water and sprinkle generous amount of salt onto the stain. This will lift up the oil from the upholstery. Vacuum the salt and treat the stain with spot-cleaning product according to the instructions on the label. Let the sofa dry completely before sitting on it.

Read also: How to clean your sofa after a (Halloween) party.

Tomato Sauce & Ketchup

After removing any excessive ketchup with a dull knife, blot the spot with a clean damp cloth. Prepare a solution with 1 cups of cold water with ½ cup of dishwashing liquid. Dip the towel into the solution and blot until the stain disappears. Rinse the upholstery by blotting with clean cloth and water. If there still is some coloration, prepare a mixture of 1 teaspoon ammonia and ½ cup cold water. Blot with the ammonia solution and rinse with clean water. Allow the sofa to dry completely before sitting on it. You can use the same method to remove mustard, the only difference is that you will have to use warm, instead of cold water.

Ink Stains

There are many suggestions on the web on how to clean an ink stain from your upholstery. However, we think that the best thing to use is rubbing alcohol. Treat the stain as soon as possible – if the ink is still wet, the chance it will disappear without a trace is higher. Take a clean cloth, dip it with rubbing alcohol and blot the stained area on your sofa. Change the cloth when needed. Try to work from outside to the center of the stain – this will prevent smudging it. Repeat these steps until the stain is gone. There is no need to rinse the sofa, since the remaining alcohol will evaporate soon after you finish dabbing.

If you don’t have the time to deal with stubborn stains on your upholstery – don’t hesitate to call our excellent sofa cleaning team! Our professional cleaners use environmentally-friendly solutions and powerful equipment and can deal even with old stains on rugs, carpets and couches.