How To Get Holiday Stains Out Of The Couch

5 December 2017
 Categories: , Blog

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The holidays are coming, and with them comes a lot of messy -- but fun -- items to threaten your couch. Parties with wine, post cookie baking chocolatey hands and holiday crafts can all involve spills and stains on your couch. Read on for some tips on furniture cleaning so that you can give your couch a much-needed sprucing up after the holidays have passed. 

Paint

For holiday gifts, people love crafts made by the youngest members of the family. But crafts could mean paint and if you're not careful, paint could lead to stains on the couch. When engaging in arts and crafts with little ones, washable paints are best, but if they aren't available and a spill happens on the couch, start in on the furniture cleaning right away. If your kids are using water-based paint and a spill happens, scrape up the paint as quickly as you can. If you don't notice a spill until the paint is dry, use a stiff-bristled brush to knock off as much paint as possible. Dampen dry stains with soapy water and blot them with a towel. Use the same method for wet paint, taking care not to let the stain dry during the removal process. If the soapy water doesn't do the trick, spray the stain again with water and blot it with a towel soaked with rubbing alcohol. 

Chocolate

If your darling niece or nephew stopped with with holiday greetings and wiped their chocolatey hands on your white couch, fear not! There is a solution. If there's a lot of chocolate on your couch, use a knife to scrape it away. If it's liquid chocolate, use an ice cube to harden it before scraping away the excess with a knife. Once the excess chocolate is gone, you have a stain to deal with. Using a white towel so you don't have to worry about color transfer, mix water and a drop of dishwashing liquid on a corner of the towel. Then rub the detergent into the stain, going from the outer edge to the center to keep the stain from spreading. Let the detergent sit for a while and then blot out the detergent with a clean white towel soaked only in water. Be sure to get all of the soap out of your couch because soap residue can attract dirt.

Wine

There's nothing like a holiday party complete with that perfect bottle you've been saving for the holidays. But spills are almost inevitable. To get a red wine stain out of your couch, try following it with a splash of white wine. Be sure to blot the stain rather than rub it. If you don't want your spill-making guest to feel bad while you blot furiously at a stain, try pouring a bit of club soda on the stain and then sprinkling it liberally with salt. Then simply walk away and join your guests. The club soda and salt will work together to soak up the wine so you can deal with the stain in the morning with a mixture of hydrogen peroxide and dish soap.   

For more information, contact companies like Chem-Dry.