Clean Your Couch Cushions

Warning: This post contains embarrassing and disgusting pictures. It also contains a great cleaning tip that I found here, and I can't believe I waited so long to try it.

Basically you fill a spray bottle with rubbing alcohol and spray it onto your couch cushions and then scrub, and scrub, and scrub. (Definitely check the original website above for detailed instructions.)

Exhibit A:
Unfortunately this is what my couch cushions looked like before, which is why they were covered with slipcovers.

Exhibit B:
This is my brand new looking cushion after a good scrubbing.

Here are a few of my own tips:

~If you have kids, or ever plan to have kids, DON'T buy light colored furniture. I don't know what we were thinking. (Oh, wait...I love the light color, it will go with everything. My kids won't eat/drink/etc on the furniture, HA!)

~When you are looking at microfiber covered furniture the sales people will sell you on it because it is so easy to clean. They are right, it is easy to clean, but they don't tell you that water will leave marks on it. (That is the majority of what the dirty looking stains on the cushions were from.)

~Be sure to turn on a fan or open a window, they smell of the alcohol is a bit strong.

~Work on one small area at a time. You will scrub until you can't see anymore marks and then as the alcohol dries you will begin to see more stains coming to the surface. Spray and scrub again until you don't see anymore marks coming to the surface.

I feel like I have new furniture again, hopefully we will be able to keep it looking shiny and new.