Do you wash your sofa?

[Followtheyellowbrickroads]

Fairly boring post alert 🙈

I find I have to fairly regularly take all the covers off my sofa and put them in the wash…is this a thing? I can’t remember my mum doing it when growing up 🤷🏻‍♀️
Sofa is sort of cream and I have a 4 year old and a dog. It’s just a pain in the arse, am I missing some trick here?
Also clean my curtains a lot and can’t remember my mum doing that either (curtains are also cream)
Perhaps we’re just a very messy family 😬

I hoover mine and use a hand steamer

Colour and fabric choice were not the best

I’ve never cleaned either but my sofas are leather or dark coloured so a quick wipe or hoover will do, and the curtains/blinds are dark or patterned enough not to show up dirt.

@Ireallydohope Yes, we used to have dark chocolate leather one but wanted to lighten everything up..never had to do anything with the other sofa

@heidbuttsupper Does a hand steamer get it all clean?

4 year old child / dog / cream furnishing fabrics = bad combination .

No. I have leather sofas now, but when I had fabric ones I didn't. But then tbh nothing would ever have possessed me to have a cream sofa (even if I didn't have kids, a dog and a cat, which I do)!

I vacuum it and spray it with an antibacterial aerosol spray thing occasionally. But we’re childfree and petfree so it doesn’t really get much heavy use or contact with sticky hands or dirty paws.

I don’t think I’ve ever washed the curtains. Isn’t that a lot of faff?

Yes absolutely. I purchased sofas with removable covers on purpose as I love being able to wash them every six months or sooner if need be. I also wash my curtains but they are cheapie IKEA ones with no lining so washing is super easy. I just rehang them straight out of the washing machine and they dry in situ.

@Babymamamama Same with my curtains, sofa has removable covers too, but I need to wash more than just every six months, is just a faff.
I was being foolish going with the colours I did! We did it the wrong way round, had the dark leather sofa pre kids and dog 🙄

My sofa doesn't get overly dirty and is quite a light colour and works fine for me. Its a velvet material

No but we don’t have a dog and kids don’t eat on the sofa. We used to let them and we’d often wash the covers but it made them start falling apart as often they aren’t designed for this and the arms of the sofa began to look a different cover to the cushions. I don’t think I’ve washed curtains either but all ours were new 3 years ago so wondering if I’m missing something

Never, they aren't removable, have used the fabric attachment for my carpet steamer on occasions for accidents and buy sensible coloured furniture. Think this one technically is removable as ikea but dp bought it before I moved in, I'm not planning on starting now

We put throws over ours for every day use. Easier to wash.

Yes a 4yo and a 1yo and a cream sofa with washable covers. As soon as I get round to washing it someone else sits on it with dirty shoes / chocolate on their hands / a felt tip. We have an open plan space so not too easy to set "no eating here" rules.

Yes! This is why I bought an Ikea sofa as ours seems to get really dirty with 4 kids and 3 cats. my sofa is boring grey, so it doesn't show the dirt that much, but it still needs washing from time to time.

This sofa is fairly new but the last one I used a hand steamer, one of those ones that you can also use for the floor

I bought a chocolate leather sofa after my DS vomited disgusting orange stinking vomit all over my fabric sofa age 8 months or so

However I also wanted to lighten my home so put in cream coloured carpets as found the wooden floors to hard and cold and rugs weren't cutting it

They got stained etc so pulled them up after 12 ish years so have lovely varnished wooden floors again

Never washed my sofa and have a small messy child and a cat. It has a wipe clean fabric protector though so any dirt/ spills wipe off

2 teens 2 dogs and we get the carpet cleaner man to clean the sofa.(

Yup. We're potty training and have had a couple of sofa related accidents, as well as vomit. If you have preschoolers I don't know how the sofa doesn't end up a complete state! My plan is to wait until the younger one is potty trained and then burn it!

Ask if the place where you got your sofas does replacement covers. They often do for removable covers and they are usually pretty cheap compared to the whole sofa cost. If they do, then get a darker set. We have a navy sofa for tv watching (and the ancient not so clean terrier has sofa privileges) and the “guest” chairs have cream covers.

I have a VAX carpet cleaner with an upholstery attachment.