How to Keep Your White Couch Clean – and the best stain remover ever!
April 6, 2020Do you want to buy a white or light coloured couch or sectional but are nervous about cleaning it? In this post I will share how we clean our white sectional.
This post really is great for cleaning any type of upholstery fabric. I have used this method to clean all our furniture not just our white sectional.
We have had it for almost 2 years now and these are all my tips and tricks for keeping it looking almost like new!
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Would we buy a white couch again?
We love our white sectional. It’s over two years old now and still looking great!
I have repeatedly used (over the last 8 years) white, or linen coloured sofas and sectionals in our homes but this was the first one that did not have a removable cover that I could wash.
My most frequent comment on instagram for a season was ” Wow I love your white sectional but I have kids and pets. That would never work for me.”
We actually have 2 daughters and 2 dogs, and I still do not regret buying a white couch.
I love how bright and airy it feels in our home. My main reason for buying one is because it fits my design style and the aesthetic I was going for in this room.
We actually purchased this exact sectional in grey and decided to get another in white. We loved it so much, but I was craving that bright white in our space. It really truly depends on your personal style and aesthetic!
This sectional is only available in Canada from the Brick, however you can check out this post, for my favourite list of similar sectionals that are all available online.
The cushion covers for this sectional are removable. I wash those in the washing machine whenever necessary. I use oxi-clean powder detergent and it works great for the removable covers.
But the seat cushions are not removable so I have another method for cleaning those.
I was a little nervous about how we would keep it clean, but I can honestly say 2 years later, although it’s worn (as any sofa would be), it has maintained its color and is actually very easy to clean when using the right tools and the best cleaner ever.
Products for cleaning your couch
- Instant spot stain remover. I swear by Folex. This stuff gets out EVERYTHING! Great for rugs and carpets as well. Especially necessary if you have pets!
- Eucalan no rinse delicate wash
- Steam cleaner
Steps for cleaning your couch
Spot clean stains with flex
We have had stains of all kinds on this white sectional. Everything from chocolate to dirt and an unfortunate incident where my youngest daughter had a nose bleed and it splattered everywhere on this sofa. Thankfully because of my favourite stain remover, it all came out.
Always spot clean immediately for best results.
Every stain that I have noticed immediately after it happened and cleaned right away, has come out. The side effect is not more stains but it does leave a water stain on the couch.
How to keep your white couch clean
If you are looking for a picture perfect sofa that always looks immaculate then you will be steam cleaning your white sofa or sectional probably every week, but if you are like me and you aren’t aiming for perfection, you will live with a couple water stains here or there from spot cleaning and steam clean your sofa every 2-3 months.
To steam clean our sectional I use a steam cleaner. You can find the one we use here, and here. I love it for how compact it is, and it has done the trick for us for years, even when my daughters painted on the carpet in our old house, I used this steam cleaner and it got it all out.
It took a couple days of going back and forth over the stains but it looked brand new afterwards and I am talking probably a 6 ft x 6 ft area that was saturated in black and orange paint. Anyways …. life is messy, so you need a good steam cleaner! The steps for steam cleaning your sofa are simple.
How to use your steam cleaner
Step1:
Fill the water tank with 2 tsp of Eucalan (or any Stain remover of your choice) and fill with hot water. Plug your steam cleaner in and spray your sofa with the water mixture.
Make sure every area of your sofa has been sprayed, this will keep you from just acquiring larger water stains all over. I also spray the front edge of mine so there are no water stains, even though it hardly gets dirty at all.
a note on Eucalan Cleaner – When it comes to removing stains from our white sofa I always use Eucalan no rinse, delicate wash (nothing in this post has been sponsored).
You are correct if you are thinking that it is for washing delicates haha but I have found it is the BEST at getting out stains, and because its no rinse, you don’t have to worry about a crunchy residue being left behind after you spot clean using it.
Step 2:
Once I have covered the sofa, because it’s so large I just go back to where I started and press down with the wand and start sucking all the water back up.
This steam cleaners suction is very powerful and even sucks up hairs and crumbs that are on the couch. Love that!
Alternatively if you have a small love seat or sofa let it sit for 5 min. before sucking up the water.
I make sure to go in nice straight lines when sucking all the water back up. If I get to an area where there is visibly some markings I will spray more water on that area and give it a good scrub with the wand.
Step 3:
The underneath of this particular steam cleaner wand has a little brush thats perfect for scrubbing out resistant markings.
Then once I have the markings cleaned out I go back over in nice straight lines from the top of the seat cushion to the bottom and like I said the edge of the sofa.
Because we have a large sectional this entire process takes me about 1/2 an hour at the most. It is a good workout with all the scrubbing to ensure everything is squeaky clean. And thats it.
Step 4:
Now let it dry.
Ours usually takes 24 hrs, so I suggest doing this in the evening. That way by morning its now only slightly damp and you could sit on it … we usually lay a blanket on so we don’t get everything wet.
We have two kids and two dogs and we haven’t found this to be a problem with our lighter furniture. It really depends on your lifestyle and how you feel about your furniture looking a little less than perfect in between cleaning it.
I hope this post encourages anyone wanting to try a light sofa but nervous about taking the plunge. It really isn’t that scary. It just requires a little more love and attention then say a navy blue sofa, but lets be real, that sofa is dirty too haha you just can’t see it!
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Now let me know, would you ever try a white sectional or sofa in your home?
Check out this post with stoppable links for white sectionals available online.
