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How To Clean A Couch At Home With A Carpet & Upholstery Cleaner

How to Clean A Couch At Home with carpet & upholstery cleaners. Plus, how to know if your couch can be wet cleaned. Easy & works on stains!

How to Clean A Couch At Home

Hi guys! I’ve got a NEW and EASY cleaning tutorial for you today. I just gave my eight year old couch a much needed deep clean. And it is looking amazing. Practically new, in fact!

I have the easy to follow steps below for how to clean a couch at home in less than an hour. And, be sure to watch the video below to see a quick walkthrough of each step.

The video also includes a look at how quick and easy it is to set up the Bissell Spot Clean Pro before cleaning. And, how easy it is to empty out the dirty water tank and clean the machine.

Image of how to use an upholstery cleaner on couches. With tips to know if your couch can be wet cleaned. How to Clean A Couch At Home with carpet & upholstery cleaners. Plus, how to know if your couch can be wet cleaned. Easy & works on stains!
Don’t forget to save this guide to deep clean a couch at home.

That little Bissell is my new favorite cleaning tool! It’s easy to use, easy to set up, easy to carry around, and easy to clean. And, the price is great for a deep cleaner. I highly recommend it!

But, you can follow these steps with MOST carpet and upholstery cleaners.

If you want to learn more about this Bissell, check out this post on Which Cleaners You Can Use in a Bissell Spot Cleaner, including alternative options.

Now, let’s get started!

Table of contents

Is it Safe to Wet Clean Your Couch

Before you deep clean your couch, check the label for it’s Cleanability Code. If the Cleanability Code on your couches label is W or WS then it is safe to use a wet deep cleaner on it.

Sometimes the label on your couch won’t have the words “Cleanability Code”. It might just say “CC”. My new couch just has “CC- W” in an unmarked spot on the label. That is it’s cleanability code.

Cleanability Code on a Couch label.
Here’s a look at the label on one of my couches. If the CC = “W” OR “WS” it’s safe to clean with the Bissell Spot Clean Pro.

What To Use to Clean a Couch At Home

There are lots of products that can Clean a Couch At Home. But I didn’t think scrubbing old chocolate milk stains would be easy…or fun. So, I went with the easiest option I could find.

Carpet & Upholstery Cleaners can be used to clean couches at home. I bought mine. But, you can often rent one by the hour or day. Check out what’s available in your area.

Here’s what I used.

Watch this Step by Step Video

Is This The Best Way to Clean a Couch at Home? I Think So! (Using a Bissell SpotClean Pro)

How to Deep Clean a Couch

Here’s a quick look at the easy steps for how to clean a couch at home, followed by the detailed steps.

  1. Vacuum your couch.
  2. Pretreat any tough spills or pet stains.
  3. Use the deep cleaner on all cushions and the couch frame.
  4. Let it dry for 4 to 6 hours before using.
A few of the worst stains on my couch cushions.

Step One

Start by giving your couch a good vacuum. The Bissell cleaner is designed to suck up fluids. So, vacuum up all of that loose dirt off your couch first.

Be sure to vacuum the whole couch and the cushions, even if they don’t look dirty. You don’t want to accidentally let that loose dirt turn into mud when that deep cleaning starts.

Here's How to Clean A Couch At Home, the Easy Way with my new favorite cleaner. This step by step guide works on spills and pet stains.
Start by giving your couch a good vacuum.

Step Two

Now that your couch has been vacuumed, you can use a Pre-Treat Spot Cleaner on any tough stains that you think might need it.

If you watch my video above, you’ll see that I didn’t use one this time because I didn’t really have any bad stains. Probably because that Microfiber fabric is great at resisting stains and so easy to clean. 🙂

Bissell makes a great pretreat that they recommend for stains, including stubborn pet stains. Let that pretreat work for 3 minutes before moving to step three.

Adding hot tap water to the concentrated cleaning liquid in the Bissell tank.

Step Three

Now, it’s time to deep clean your couch. Set up your cleaner with the recommended cleaning solution and water. You can see how I mixed my cleaning solution with hot water in the video.

Just be sure to follow the recommendations for how much cleaning product to use and which products to use with your cleaner to get the best results.

ALSO, make sure that your couch is safe to clean with a wet cleaner. If you missed this section above, make sure the tag on your couch has a cleanability code of WS or W. That means it is safe to deep clean.

Then spray the cleaning solution evenly across the section you’ll be cleaning. Then use the cleaning wand to suck all of that cleaning solution out of that area.

The top of each wand is clear so that you can see if you’ve finished suctioning all of the liquid out of the couch.

The end of the cleaning wand on my Bissell is clear. That makes it easy to see when you have removed all of the liquid.

That’s pretty much it. Clean every cushion and the couch frame by spraying on the cleaner and completely sucking up all of the liquid as you go.

If a section still looks dirty after the first pass with the deep cleaner, just spray on more cleaner. You can let it sit for a couple of minutes to let the cleaner work on the stain. Then suction up all of the water with the wand.

Here's How to Clean A Couch At Home, the Easy Way with my new favorite cleaner. This step by step guide works on spills and pet stains.
Cleaning a cushion with the Bissell Spot Clean Pro.

Step Four

Once you have completely cleaned your couch, prop the cushions up around the room to give them space to air dry. It will take 4 to 6 hours for your couch to completely dry.

I waited until the next morning, just to be sure the couch was dry. Once the couch and cushions have dried, you can put your couch back together and start using it again.

How Long Does It Take A Couch To Dry?

After deep cleaning a couch, you should let it air dry for 4 to 6 hours before putting it back together or using it again. Lean the cushions up around the room so that they aren’t touching each other while they dry.

Don’t put cushions or the frame out in the sun to dry. Direct sunlight can bleach some fabrics or cause them to shrink. It’s best to let them dry indoors.

Here's How to Clean A Couch At Home, the Easy Way with my new favorite cleaner. This step by step guide works on spills and pet stains. Step by step guide to deep clean your couch.
Don’t forget to save how to clean a couch with an upholstery cleaner.

Why I love Microfiber Couches

Microfiber is a synthetic fiber, generally polyester. It’s designed to feel super soft and to be stain resistant. Microfiber feels like velvet. Which makes it incredibly soft and comfortable to sit on. Microfiber is very easy to clean.

I mentioned this above, but this couch is 8 years old. And, this is the first time that I have deep cleaned it. In the past I was always using a little cleaner on a rag to spot clean this couch.

Spot cleaning works surprisingly well with Microfiber because the fabric isn’t woven. So dirt doesn’t get trapped inside of woven fabric. The fiber on microfiber stands up, kind of like grass. Making it easy to clean and release dirt and grime.

This is true for velvet fabric too. Velvet has soft fibers that stand up and easily release dirt. That’s one of the reasons I used a beautiful blue velvet when I upholstered a wingchair.

Well, that’s it for How to Clean A Couch At Home. Good luck!

More DIY Projects For You

Deep cleaning this couch was one of the final steps in a 4 or 5 month long room family game room remodel. Check that out if you like before and after room remodels.

For my favorite tips for keeping your car seats clean longer, check out the Best Way to Deep Clean Car Seats!

See the amazing before and after on my How to Clean Car Seats At Home tutorial.

Written steps and a how to video showing how to Clean Car Seats at Home, the Easy Way with a portable Bissell SpotClean Pro. This even worked on my gross chocolate milk covered seats!

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That’s it for How to Clean A Couch At Home. Let me know if you have questions. Don’t forget to sign up for the Abbotts At Home email newsletter to get DIY, Remodeling, and Crafty ideas in your inbox.