Stain Removal Services – Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: I moved into a house with my girlfriend recently, and was convinced to replace the practical leather sofa with a white linen sectional out of a Better Homes and Garden magazine. Fast forward a couple months—and a couple white wine spills/muddy dog prints later—and the couch no longer has that Martha Stewart appearance anymore.
What now?
Is there any way to salvage the situation without resorting to covering the couch with quilts like it’s the backseat of the car in Pulp Fiction? The couch doesn’t have slip covers, so I can’t just wash it.
Oddly enough, I haven’t heard this one before. Well, I’ve heard variations on this one before, but nothing so grim as the combination of white linen plus no removable slip covers. I actually thought maybe such a thing was a unicorn, something so impractical that no one would make it, much less buy it. If you need me I’ll be sitting in the corner clutching my pearls and rocking back and forth. Man alive, a white linen couch without washable covers!
OK,OK…
In fairness, it does sound like a lovely-looking couch and I’m also being overly dramatic for effect. But my heart is in the right place, because I want to take the opportunity to mention that when you’re purchasing a couch, white linen or otherwise, it’s a very good idea to take the care and keeping of it into account. That’s not to say you shouldn’t go ahead and get that white linen couch, even if you do have a dog, but you may want to opt for one that has removable covers. Which brings us nicely into the first thing I want to tell you about couches: There’s a secret code among them. Except I know the secret and am going to tell you the secret today, so it’s really not much of a secret.
In a perfect world
In a perfect world, all couches would be created more or less equally when it comes to cleaning. Of course, this is not at all a perfect world, and couches like to be cleaned in different ways, which is why couch manufacturers created a cleaning code or legend. To find out what type of couch you have, check the care tag, which is usually sewn onto the underside of the seat. Once you locate the tag, here’s what you need to know to interpret what you find there.
- W = Wet/water cleaning only
- S = Dry solvent cleaning only
- SW = Dry solvent and/or wet cleaning
- X = Professional cleaning or vacuuming only
A few things to note before we get into specifics: In addition to checking the care tag for the cleaning code, you’ll also want to look at the fiber content; if the couch contains polyester or linen, like our Letter Writer’s, steer clear of any machines that operate using steam. The steam can cause those materials to pucker in a way that will be tricky to reverse. Generally speaking, no matter what kind of couch you have or what kind of cleaner you’re using, you should always do a test to be sure that it won’t damage the fabric.
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