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Homemade Upholstery Cleaner Using Simple Ingredients

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Buy Organic Upholstery Cleaner Here.
Is your couch or car upholstery in need of a little TLC? This homemade upholstery cleaner will remove stains and help sterilize the area too!Over the past few years, I've worked very hard to switch to all natural cleaners, most of them homemade. Until recently, I had not tried to create a homemade upholstery cleaner.

I finally decided to give it a try and came up with something that works great on most upholstery!

Whether your couch needs a freshening or your car upholstery has seen better days, this easy homemade upholstery cleaner with only 3 ingredients can take it from blah to brand new.

I originally started using this on a microfiber couch and I was so impressed with how well it removed stains that I gave it a try in the car and found it to be just as effective there!

You will want to use this mixture in an open space. If you're using it indoors, open up those windows! When wet, the smell is overpowering, but it dries with no odor other than the essential oil scents you choose.

Also, it is always a good idea to try this in an inconspicuous place to test your fabric for discoloration before using on a larger area.

If you give it a try, will you let me know how it worked for you?

Homemade Upholstery Cleaner Recipe

Is your couch or car upholstery in need of a little TLC? This homemade upholstery cleaner will remove stains and help sterilize the area too!
Buy Organic Upholstery Cleaner Here.

Ingredients & Supplies

Directions

  1. Combine all ingredients in a spray bottle with a fine mist option. You'll want to use equal parts rubbing alcohol and white vinegar.
    homemade-upholstery-cleaner-liquids
  2. Add 4-8 drops of any essential oil you like. If using citrus oils, you will want to store your cleaner in a glass spray bottle so they do not eat away at the plastic.
    homemade-upholstery-cleaner-oils
  3. My favorite combo for a fresh clean scent is lavender and rosemary essential oils.

To Use

  1. Before you follow the usage instructions, be sure to test in an inconspicuous place.
  2. Spray fabric surface generously with your homemade upholstery cleaner mixture, and allow to sit for 1-2 minutes (do not let it dry).
    homemade-upholstery-cleaner-spray
  3. Scrub vigorously with a sponge or clean towel, then allow to dry (the alcohol helps this dry rather quickly) repeat if needed to remove stubborn stains.
  4. Once dry, this homemade upholstery cleaner is odorless except for the essential oil scents you add. I have had very good luck removing all sorts of stains from my car upholstery and couches as well.
  5. Being a mom who knows what often ends up on them, I love knowing that the essential oils, alcohol and vinegar all kill germs as well as remove stains!

Buy Organic Upholstery Cleaner Here.
Is your couch or car upholstery in need of a little TLC? This homemade upholstery cleaner will remove stains and help sterilize the area too!

How would you use this homemade upholstery cleaner?

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Comments

  1. Thanks for this! My van’s seats have seen better days. Light gray doesn’t stay “light” very long. (visiting from Inspire Me Monday)

  2. Ohh I love this!! I have been working on switching our cleaning supplies over to natural cleaners as well. I have not found anything for cleaning upholstery that actually works so I’m happy to have found this our furniture and cars could surely use a good cleaning with 6 kids they sure get trashed lol. Thanks for linking up with Inspire Me Monday. Have a wonderful week!!

  4. Great sharing… Really, am getting frustrated after travelling with my children. they are very mischievous and they want big space in the car and they create mess everywhere in the car.

    Thanks for this post..Its really seems to be helpful for me..

  5. I haven’t seen anything homemade that works well at cleaning upholstery. This is something I should try, but thanks for the warning about the strong smell because it would have probably bothered my cats quite a bit. Does it have the overpowering smell while your making it too, and if so, should I do that outside as well?

  6. Wow! The before and after pictures of your car’s upholstery shows that your cleaner is the real deal! I didn’t know that rubbing alcohol and vinegar made such a good cleaning combination. Adding essential oils is a great idea, too. I’ll definitely be using this recipe next time my kids spill something in the car. Thanks!

  7. I’m so happy I ditched toxic cleaners a while ago. I mostly use soapnuts, vinegar and baking soda for cleaning. Great roundup of DIY cleaners! I love making my own cleaners and other household products using basic ingredients I can find in my pantry and some of my favorite essential oils. Thanks so much for including my bathroom ideas…pinning all the others too!

  8. Essential oils are a great addons to home made cleaners. And oils like eucalyptus can enhance the cleaning power of the solution. It can remove greasy stains from a variety of surfaces.

  11. Great advice! It’s important to use the alcohol to kill all the germs when you clean. Thanks for sharing this!

  12. Wow, great cleaner. I tried it and got much better results. Use should try it once.Thanks for sharing!

  14. OMG this is a LIFE and MONEY saver!! Between a baby and two dogs my furniture qas looking like a biohazard station! I really thiught I was going to have to spend thousands on leather – SO grateful incame upon this recipe and actually tried it!! Thank you for this!!

    My before/after wont post but it is DRAMATIC!

  16. Well I ran out of upholstery cleaner for my vehicle, and did an online search – this came right up. Well I had the ingredients on hand, including peppermint oil. The alcohol, vinegar and oil make an amazing clean smell. I have dark seats so I can’t really see stains, but I can tell you they looked darker and even, so I’m sure some stains came out.

    Thanks

  18. Thank you for sharing this homemade cleaner! The before and after pictures were pretty impressive, and it’s cool that it works on more than one surface!

  21. Thank you so much for sharing the recipe. I searched high and low at all the stores for an upholstery spray cleaner and couldn’t find one. And had I been able to find one, I’m sure it would have been very expensive. I have a few other homemade cleaning recipes and it suddenly occurred to me that I could probably find a homemade recipe for an upholstery cleaner as well, so I googled it and quickly found your blog. I tried this homemade cleaner to get out some spots on my sofa and it did a fabulous job.

  23. Hi Chrystal,
    Thank you so much for this wonderful tip!
    I am very thankful to you, my mom needs one for cleaning! I have bookmarked this post so that my mom can later learn it from it.
    I really appreciate your effort
    Keep doing good work.

  30. I always recommend spot testing first because every material is a bit different.

  31. I must admit I came to the “green-life” trend a bit too late, but I am a full-fledged convert now! I am also trying to avoid any chemical-based detergents because my niece has allergy problems. A quick question – I believe the white vinegar is the main cleaning component in the mixture. Do you add the oil for aroma only? Or does it help the mixture go deeper in the fabrics?

  32. It’s never too late Carole! The oils are definitely optional, but certain oils like Lemon oil and Melaleuca oil do have great cleansing properties. They aren’t critical to the mixture, but they do add to the cleaning power.

  33. Our sunroof has leaked in our van! I sure hope this works. I am posting the link on my Facebook blog page! Thanks for sharing the recipe.

  35. THANKS so much for sharing! The back seat in my car was ridiculous! Too embarrassing to post pictures. My husband took the backseat out to replace a part and refused to put it back until it was clean! I skipped the essential oil because I only had lavender on hand (I’m trying to reserve that scent to associate with bedtime for my daughters.) I made a spray bottle full, but the mixture worked so well that I really only needed about 8 oz of it. Works great! Smells clean!

  37. Hi! I happened on your DIY cleaner after realizing I didn’t have any in the house when I needed it. I would very much like to try it; I only have one question: is there a specific proportion to this recipe? The ingredients are all listed but without any specified amount. (I’m a little obsessive with ratios haha)

  39. Can the vinegar be white cleaning vinegar from Bunnings or just plain white vinegar from supermarket?
    What about a large amount of spilt milk and its smell?
    Is it safe using essential OIL on fabric – won’t stain? Just checking as I know you invented it and have tried it and it works for you?

  44. I always suggest spot testing in an area that isn’t highly visible first. I haven’t tested it on all upholstery fabrics.

  45. Wow, bought a jalopy from neighbour who smoked! One treatment removed all traces of tar stain from headliner, seats and large oil stain in boot!
    Cheers for this recipie, will do spot checks first and try stains on stair carpet, sofa, and Timberland boots!
    Blessings from Lorraine Northampton England

  46. Is this recipe primarily for overcoming stains or is it recommended for general upholstery cleaning, also? Thank you

  47. I have only used it for stains. If you try it for larger areas, let us know how it worked out for you! Always remember to spot test 🙂

  48. This mixture worked great on fabric upholstered sofa that smelled like cigarette smoke. Also, I use 100% alcohol on my entry halls shiny tile. Great. No water smears.

  51. It depends on the humidity in the area and how heavily you saturate the upholstery, but it’s pretty quick compared to other methods since rubbing alcohol evaporates quickly.

  52. Thank you for this post! I’ve read dozens of posts for carpet/upholstery cleaner and they all use Dawn dish soap—-which is a great spot cleaner, but car upholstery can’t be rinsed easily! I know from experience that the soapy residue will attract dirt. Your combination sounds perfect, and I can’t wait to try it. The essential oil addition is genius. I have to admit, I’m not so much into “green” as I am “effective”. In my experience they have been mutually exclusive, except for peroxide…..I’m excited to try this!

  55. Thanks so much for sharing on craft schooling Sunday and great to “meet” you!

  56. I have
    A dog that has gotten a lot of blood pressure
    On microfiber couch can I use peroxide firs to get blood out

  63. Wow!! This worked amazing thank you!! I used it on my microfiber recliner. I thnk I used too much of the vinegar and alcohol maybe though because it smells a little like vinegar still. Maybe I just need to add more EO. Either way, I’m amazed how well it works!! Thanks for sharing!

  65. The picture was taken at a different angle. The sun had changed positions by the time it dried.

  66. HI I wanted to say thank you for this recipe. Yesterday I used this solution on two counter stools
    that have white cloth sets. Over the years the seats had gotten really dirty. I used the solution
    and then set them out in the sun to dry. They are so clean now I can use them again without recovering.
    Thank you for this post.

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