If you are serious when it comes to a spotless home, a good portable carpet & upholstery cleaner would probably become one of your best friends around the house. We have talked a lot about the importance of deep cleaning your carpets, but guess what? Maintaining your upholstery clean is just as important.
While you most probably do not walk on your couch, sofa, or bed with shoes you wear outside, this type of furniture can also house a lot of dust, allergens, and other harmful bacteria. For this reason, it is very important to turn your attention to your couch and similar furniture as well.
But what happens if you do not have an upholstery cleaner, but only a carpet cleaner at home? You can, of course, get such a tool. However, if you are on a tight budget or low on space to store so much cleaning equipment, you might not be willing to make such an investment.
Does a Carpet Cleaner Work on Couches?
We have good news in this sense! If you have a carpet cleaner at home, you can also use it to clean this type of furniture. Many of these cleaners are also equipped with an upholstery attachment which makes your job a lot easier. For best results, you should use it with a cleaning formula that is made specifically for upholstery.
Cleaning Your Couch Using a Carpet Cleaner
Deep cleaning your furniture and upholstery is paramount in order to remove unpleasant, odors, difficult stains, as well as heavy soils. However, more importantly, you will be able to eliminate what you cannot see with the naked eye, but could have damaging effects on your health.
There are a few steps you should follow in order to efficiently complete a deep cleaning session.
1. What You Need
Before we start describing the procedure, we will go through the things you should prepare. Actually, there are only four accessories you will need: a vacuum, upholstery detergent or shampoo, the carpet cleaner, and the upholstery attachment. That is it! Once you have these, you can start cleaning.
2. Vacuum the Couch
It is extremely important to start the cleaning procedure with this step. The vacuum helps to remove food crumbs, dust, dirt, and even pet hair, if that should be your case. Make sure you go through the entire surface of the upholstery, including corners and crevices. Remember, never skip this step!
3. Check the Fabric Tags
Before you go in with the carpet cleaner, make sure you check the manufacturer’s label. You should see a “W” or a “W/S” on the couch’s tag or label. If you can see any of the two, it means that it is completely safe to shampoo the sofa.
In case you do not see any of these labels, or cannot find the tag at all, it is best to contact the manufacturer regarding the cleaning methods you can use for your couch.
4. Go In with the Carpet Cleaner
Before you start using the carpet cleaner, make sure it is filled with hot water and three ounces of upholstery shampoo or detergent. You can turn on the machine and press the dedicated attachment against the couch’s fabric.
Pull the trigger and start making passes with the nozzle over the surface in your direction, moving very slowly. Make sure you overlap every pass in order to prevent the fabric from streaking. Do not forget about the creases and corners!
In order to clean heavily soiled areas, crisscross the passes on the fabric in a basket weaving pattern. You should not do this more than two times as you risk damaging the couch’s fabric.
5. Let it Dry!
Just like with carpets, your couch needs time to dry. Try to create airflow by opening the windows and interior doors, and make sure it is completely dry before you sit on it.
If you do not allow the upholstery to dry, mold can accumulate inside the fibers that can become impossible to eliminate. In such an unfortunate case, your only option would be to replace the couch with a new one. Therefore, it is best to be patient, and wait for it to be ready to use.
6. Keep in Mind
As you can see, the procedure itself is not complicated at all. You just need to be careful and cover the entire surface of the couch without missing any spots. Also, slow movement is the key! If you make passes too quickly, you do not allow enough time for the cleaner to remove the dirt, and this would make the entire operation pointless.
What Can You Clean with a Carpet Cleaner?
Since it is called a carpet cleaner, you would expect to be able to clean carpets with it. However, as we’ve just found out, a good home carpet cleaner can be used on your couch. Lets us see what else you could clean with this versatile tool.
Well, if you can clean the couch with this tool, you can also clean your car seats. For this, you will need a portable device or one that has a long enough cord to reach your car.
Mattresses are hard to clean especially due to sweat and even urine stains. We are talking here about small children that sometimes wet the bed. Again, using the upholstery attachment, you can successfully clean this sleeping accessory.
With a portable carpet cleaner, you can also work on your curtains. However, the machine needs to have a hand tool that can reach high points.
Some carpet cleaners are designed to clean multiple types of surfaces. These include hard floors as well. You can simply select this setting and start making your floors look impeccable.
Wrap Up
It seems that a carpet cleaner can be used to clean the entire house! This means that you only need to use one tool for several cleaning procedures, saving you time, money, and space.
