If you have furniture in your home with textile upholstery, that is, a sofa, armchair or any other accessory, then they are at risk, since you can easily spill coffee or tea on your new sofa. The danger is especially heightened on holidays, when friends, relatives, and acquaintances come to visit, and not everyone takes care of cleanliness and order, and no one tries to do everything neatly.
Usually, after such holidays, our sofa stinks, the house starts to smell unpleasant, so stains and other imperfections need to be removed from the furniture. How to get rid of the smell if the sofa stinks of dampness, it has the smell of old age and other nuances we will consider below.
The question arises, how to remove an unpleasant odor from a sofa or other furniture? It happens that the bottom line after a holiday party is the problem of unpleasant odors that have permeated the upholstered furniture. The most persistent of them are the smells of beer, tobacco, vomit, as well as fish and dog smells. Each of them can be neutralized with the help of professional dry cleaning of upholstered furniture, but such a service is not cheap, and before using it, you can try to overcome the “rainbow of aromas” on your own.
If odors appear on textile upholstery and you can’t get rid of them with improvised means, and you don’t want to spend money on expensive dry cleaning, then you should use special products designed for such cleaning.
Specialized stores and household chemical departments offer a variety of chemicals. Well-known world brands promise to remove odors and stains from any material using sprays, liquids, foams and other means. Therefore, in order to find an effective option, you will have to fray the nerves of the sellers, and then yourself, and spend a lot of money.
The problem with most of these products is that they only mask the smell for a while, but then it appears again and you need to repeat the wash. It should be understood that the smell should not be masked, but completely removed.
Here biological agents come to the rescue, the principle of which is that the molecules of contaminants are separated from the fibers of the fabric, and the bacteria completely destroy any odor. They have become a fairly effective means and, practically, the only option to remove old or strongly ingrained aromas.
Pets can also be a source of unpleasant odors, then you need to use slightly different means to combat them.
Why does the smell appear?
Before you begin to deal with odors emanating from the sofa, you need to know what caused them. Most often this smell is caused by the following factors:
- smell from animals living in the house;
- traces of child urine, vomit;
- spilled strong-smelling drinks (beer, wine, etc.);
- tobacco smoke, which permeates everything in the apartment;
- mold due to increased humidity in the room and, as a result, the formation of fungus on the furniture.
Sometimes a sofa, like other furniture, absorbs a not very pleasant smell in the apartment. In such a case, in order to get him off the sofa, you must first ventilate the room, wash the blanket (cape) from the upholstered furniture, and do a general cleaning. If these steps do not help, use special cleaning products.
Ozonizer
An ozonizer joins the fight for cleanliness and freshness of air in a room with new furniture. This device passes air through itself, removing harmful particles. With its help, you can not only eliminate unpleasant odors from furniture, but also destroy pathogens contained in dust.
If this device is available, you cannot do without it when installing new furniture. If not, then you should not buy specifically for these purposes. An ozonizer is quite expensive, and with frequent use it quickly breaks down and in most cases cannot be repaired.
Extraction means
When the disgusting aroma emanating from the sofa is irritating, such a problem can be solved with the help of professional products. They should be designed to neutralize, not mask, odors. However, there are many effective folk remedies for this. When cleaning your sofa yourself, you should remember that before eliminating the smell, you must first remove the stains, if any, otherwise ingredients such as lemon and vinegar can set the stain and it will not be possible to remove it.
To cope with the problem of eliminating odor, use the following available means:
- table vinegar, acetic acid;
- lemon juice, hydrogen peroxide, potassium permanganate;
- table or aromatic salt;
- black or green tea, freshly ground coffee;
- ammonia, soap solution.
Before using each product, it is recommended to test it on an inconspicuous area of the sofa, so as not to spoil the upholstery fabric.
Use of acetic acid and vinegar
If the sofa retains the smell of fish, tobacco, beer, vomit, dog, then it is eliminated using acetic acid. The step-by-step process will look like this:
- Take 1 liter of water and dilute 30-40 g (2 tbsp) of acetic acid in it.
- Moisten a microfiber cloth with the resulting solution.
- Treat the entire surface or its individual sections from contamination.
- Leave until the furniture is completely dry.
Instead of acetic acid, it is possible to get rid of the unpleasant odor from the sofa using substances such as hydrogen peroxide and lemon juice. When the sofa has dark upholstery, you can also use a weak solution of potassium permanganate. If there is no acetic acid, it is replaced with table vinegar. In this case, the algorithm of actions will be as follows:
- Vinegar is diluted with water at the rate of: 5 ml of vinegar per 1 liter of water and add 10 g of salt. The components are mixed in a large container (bucket, basin) to obtain a weak solution.
- Soak an old cotton sheet completely in the solution.
- Wring out the sheet well, place it on the sofa, press it firmly to the sofa, you can use a dust beater. Leave for 20 minutes so that the vinegar solution can penetrate the upper layers of the upholstery fabric.
- The operation is repeated at least 5 times.
This method is successfully used both to remove stains and persistent odors from upholstered furniture, and to clean the upholstery of regular and corner sofas from minor dirt. Vinegar can also remove a slight odor from a new sofa.
Using salt
The unpleasant smell of dog, beer, vomit, ingrained into the sofa, can be removed with table or flavored salt. The procedure for eliminating odors is as follows:
- pour salt in an even layer on the sofa upholstery;
- leave the salt for 8-10 hours, then remove it with a vacuum cleaner (regular or car), you can use a brush with medium hardness.
Instead of salt, use a mixture consisting of baking soda and potato starch in equal parts. Due to their porous consistency, both of these components are excellent adsorbents of unpleasant odors.
Tea and coffee against odors
Black and green tea, freshly ground coffee are also effective means of eliminating the smell of fish, beer, tobacco and dog. In order to clean the sofa from the smell, you need to:
- Distribute tea bags over the surface of the sofa. leave them for a few days, then remove them;
- pour coffee (freshly ground) on the sofa.
After 5-6 hours, carefully remove the coffee using a vacuum cleaner.
Ammonia and soap
When the sofa upholstery is made of leather or leatherette, there will be no difficult problems with eliminating unpleasant odors. Leather upholstery does not absorb odors as actively as textiles. To prevent even the slightest odor from spoiling your rest on the sofa, you will need ammonia and liquid soap to eliminate it. The procedure will be as follows:
- in one liter of lukewarm water dissolve 25 ml of liquid soap and 3 tsp of ammonia. or 15 ml;
- moisten a soft cloth or foam sponge in this solution and wipe the sofa upholstery with it;
- the remaining soap solution is washed off with a damp microfiber cloth;
- Wipe the sofa with a cotton towel and then leave it to dry on its own.
Stains and odors from sofa upholstery made of velor, jacquard, and flock can also be cleaned with a soap solution without the use of chemicals. Treat the contaminated area with a cloth and soapy water.
Absorbents
There are many proven methods for removing irritating fumes from a new purchase. Use substances that can absorb moisture and aromas - absorbents (absorbers). Activated carbon, baby powder or coffee are all odor neutralizers.
It is enough to place them in fabric bags or bowls around the entire perimeter, as well as in drawers, shelves and other accessible places. Moreover, if these are wardrobes and shelves, do not forget to leave all the doors open, the sofas should be wide open. In just a few days, any of these tools will remove the stench.
After all procedures, you should thoroughly ventilate the room and additionally treat items with a weak solution of lemon juice or another odor destroyer.
Dampening the sofa
It happens that upholstered furniture simply becomes damp without signs of fungal infection.
In this case, this piece of furniture needs to be dried thoroughly. After completing the procedure, the smell will quickly disappear. When fungus appears in the house, it is useless to clean upholstered furniture before it is removed. After eliminating the fungus, they begin to eliminate all its consequences. Dry the sofa completely from dampness inside and out using special means. Since the fungus is a living organism, it is removed using disinfectants that destroy fungal spores and prevent their reproduction. For this purpose, it is easier to purchase ready-made preparations or call specialists from a cleaning company to clean furniture.
If you have to clean the sofa yourself, then first vacuum it and wipe it with a cloth moistened with a solution of alcohol and water in equal proportions. Then the furniture is dried for several hours in order to completely remove traces of dampness and mold that have become ingrained in the sofa upholstery. Another method involves spraying products containing fungicides over the furniture surface and then drying the upholstered furniture.
When there has been no cleaning for a long time
When upholstered furniture is old and has not been cleaned for a long time, you can get rid of the unpleasant odors emanating from it using folk remedies or special preparations sold in stores. They start by freeing the sofa from dust. To prevent it from rising and settling on other things in the apartment, the procedure is performed using a kind of filter - an old sheet.
This item is soaked in water and wrung out well so that the dust collected by the too-wet sheet does not leave dirty streaks on the upholstery. Cover the sofa surface with a damp sheet and go over it with a beater, after which it is cleaned with a vacuum cleaner.
If the surface of the furniture has not been cleaned for a long time, you can use a detergent composition to eliminate odors accumulated in it. To make such a product, make a soap solution, add citric acid and vinegar to it, 1 tbsp each. spoon of each component. Beat the mixture until fluffy foam appears. Using a sponge, apply the liquid to the sofa surface and leave the furniture in this form for several hours. The remaining foam is removed with a stiff brush.
What to do first
It is best to assemble furniture with the windows open.
When a piece of furniture has arrived in a living space, experts recommend assembling it with the window open. This will help to quickly remove the initial smell that the furniture absorbed during the manufacturing process and storage in the warehouse.
After assembly, be sure to go over with a damp cloth to remove dust and debris. It’s good to add a little sea salt, which not only has a disinfecting effect, but also absorbs odors.
It is not recommended to use furniture intended for a living area immediately after its installation. You need to give it a few days to air out well, after which you can start using it.
If we are talking about soft sofas, armchairs, and beds that have rag upholstery, it would be good to go over it with a vacuum cleaner. Mini vacuum cleaners designed for cleaning car interiors are ideal for these purposes.
How to eliminate urine odor
It is best to remove the unpleasant smell of urine from the sofa along with the existing stain using ammonia.
Rub it on the stained area and leave for 30 minutes. Next, treat the stain with laundry soap. In 20 minutes. it is washed with a solution consisting of 1 liter of water and 1 tablespoon of vinegar and dried. To remove the urine of older people from the sofa surface, the stains are first filled with vodka, ammonia or medical alcohol, then left for 30 minutes.
Elimination of children's urine
This urine (urine) has a lower concentration and less pungent odor than the urine of adults and animals. It's easier to eliminate it. The stains are treated with a bar of laundry soap, left for 20-30 minutes, then washed off with a solution of 5 parts water and 1 part vinegar. Instead of vinegar, use vodka. You can remove baby urine using a product such as iodine. To do this, 15 drops of this substance are dissolved in a liter of water (warm). The surface is treated with the resulting solution. Use this method for dark fabrics. For light upholstery, instead of iodine, you can take lemon juice and dilute it in the same ratio.
Old stains are removed using laundry soap. They are moistened, rubbed with a bar of soap, and left for 20 minutes. Next, the soap is washed off with a solution containing a liter of water and 1 tbsp. l. vinegar essence. Then the furniture is wiped with a dry cloth and dried with a hairdryer.
Removing cat excrement
To effectively clean a sofa from the urine odors of four-legged pets, an integrated approach is required. The following components will be required:
- dishwashing detergent, 2 tsp;
- hydrogen peroxide, 150 ml;
- vinegar, 150 ml;
- water, 600 ml;
- baking soda.
The required amount of vinegar is mixed with water in a volume of 450 ml. Pour the stains with this solution and remove excess moisture with a cloth. The remaining water (150 ml) is combined with the same amount of peroxide, and dishwashing detergent is added. The contaminated area is first covered with soda, then filled with peroxide solution and left for two hours. After this, wipe the surface with a soft cloth and dry with paper towels. To prevent the cat from going to the sofa, orange peels placed in the sofa linen drawer will help scare the animal away.
Tips for caring for your sofa
This piece of furniture requires systematic careful care. Every month you should knock out the dust that has settled on it from the sofa, wipe it with water and soap or shampoo intended for cleaning upholstered furniture. It must be remembered that fresh stains from spilled liquids are much easier and faster to remove than stubborn ones. To make it easier to get rid of the smell from the sofa, you should not let pets in there with their habits of leaving specific traces of their presence on the sofa.
Prevention of the problem
In order not to look for suitable means to get rid of unpleasant, persistent odors, it is better to prevent their occurrence. To do this, you should follow simple preventive measures. Regular cleaning of the sofa is enough. This will avoid a musty, damp aroma. Also, if the upholstery gets wet, it must be dried immediately.
Upholstered furniture, which is in every apartment, must be cleaned regularly.
Furniture should not be allowed to be constantly damp or damp. You should not eat or drink on the sofa so that liquid or food does not accidentally fall on the cover. The solution to the problem may be the use of special covers. They will protect not only from odor, but also from stains. Even if liquid comes through the cover, it will be small and will be easier to remove.
