Cleaning leather upholstery

[Homer55]

Im getting a white leather sofa from a friend and he has a dog. The sofa is in good condition but needs cleaning, what is the best thing to use?

[VillageVicar]

I use saddle soap on a dark oxblood coloured sofa I have in the study. I've only cleaned it once and it scrubbed up beautifully. It's old and comfy and just needed a bit of pastoral care :-)

If the sofa is real leather, saddle soap would be a safe thing to use. If it's a synthetic leather, I know that the Betterware people make a product for white leather. I'm concerned to offer a suggestion because I'm not sure of the exact material. Nevertheless, with saddle soap, you really can't go wrong. It helps to revitalise the leather, preventing it from drying.

Best of luck

Fr Bill

[Parsley Dump]

Hi Homer

My sister has a dark blue leather suite and she reckons baby wipes are extremely good at cleaning them up.

Regards Parsley

[ojread2]

A friend of mine has a real leather cream sofa and also uses baby wipe :)

[JOJOLAMOORE]

We bought a new leather suite recently and were told not to use baby wipes as they dry out the leather,only to use a damp cloth and buff with a dry cloth.If there is any ingrained dirt I would use a specialist cleaner maybe from a furniture shop.

[sofamakers]

Few tips for keeping a white couch clean

1. Get a washable slipcover.

Obviously, this isn’t always possible, but I’m a huge advocate for washable slip-covered furniture… because it’s just so easy to clean. I actually haven’t had to wash our entire slip-cover yet, but I have washed the ottoman cover and it came out bright white again.

2. Have the fabric treated with stain guard.

When we had our carpet cleaned, we also got our couch slipcover professionally treated with stain guard {which is WAY more “protective” than any stain guard you can buy from the store or do yourself}. I was honestly a bit skeptical if it would actually work, but I have to say I’m pretty impressed.
We’ve had a few small spills that never really turned into spots or stains because we were able to quickly wipe them up thanks to the stain guard.

3. Keep fabric cleaners handy for small spots.

If you have white furniture, there’s a pretty good chance that you’ll see a few spots here and there. We’ve already spilled a little pop, juice, and even pizza sauce on our couch; but since we had it protected with stain guard, we could quickly wipe most of it up before it stained. However, if there is a little of the stain left behind, I’ve just used carpet or fabric cleaner to get it out.

4. Use a lint roller regularly.

This might sound crazy, but I use a lint roller on our couch every couple of weeks — which removes all the blanket fuzzies, hair, clothes lint, etc. and helps it instantly look more white!

5. Rotate the cushions.

Dave and I tend to sit in the same spots on our couch, so those cushions get more wear and tear. To compensate for this, I shift all the seat and back cushions to the left every couple of weeks {usually when I use the lint roller}.
Yes, this might sounds somewhat anal, but it really has made a difference in how our couch looks and feels! I also think it will help our couch last a lot longer since we aren’t always sitting on the same cushions all the time.
As you may have guessed, we definitely do NOT have a formal house and our living room is used all the time. So, even though I fully expect to buy another $99 white slipcover at some point, I am really happy with how clean it still looks after several months of use.

[bobbinwales]

Am impressed sofamaker at how you manage'd to post 7 long replies in the space of a few minutes! These are very old posts tho from many years ago so those who asked may of forgot they asked and not be around to see them, but still its good to see someone so helpful.