My 2 year old was ill the other day and puked on my sofa, I tried cleaning it straight away and soaking as much up and then using vanish upholstery cleaner, the puke is no longer there but it smells and I want to clean it before Xmas. What is the best way to clean the sofa? With an electrical upholstery cleaner or steamer? I'm going to buy one today. Many thanks
If you can get an upholstery cleaner, do use it. That should work. Make sure you spend extra time extracting the water. You don't want to leave this sofa wet. Extract as much moisture as possible. That is key. Make sure you pay extra attention to things like crevices. If the pillows lift off, remove them and clean under them, of course. If your sofa is slipcovered, wash the slipcover. If you have throw pillows, wash them in the washer, if possible. Once the sofa is dry and clean, then do this as an added measure - sprinkle the sofa with a good amount of baking soda. Let the baking soda sit there for an hour. Then vacuum well. Baking soda is great at absorbing and removing odors. But it will only work where it can get at, of course - so anything deeper in the sofa, you'll hopefully get via your upholstery cleaning machine. And a nice, microfiber/synthetic, washable slipcover may be something you want to consider for now, while your kids are young. The microfiber/synthetic material helps, because often, it's less quick to absorb liquids than cottons and etc. are, so you may be able to keep the stain from going as far into the couch itself as it did this time. And they will help protect your sofa from markers, paint, crayons, milk - the usual kid dirt.
