Not many of us clean our sofas as often as we should.
We all know how important it is to keep areas of our homes clean. Washing the dishes, doing the laundry, vacuuming the floors and dusting down cabinets are all things which are regularly on our to-do lists, but there are some things we don’t clean often or thoroughly enough.
Take your sofa, for example. When was the last time you properly cleaned it? You might lift the seats and vacuum underneath them, and if you’ve got a leather one you might give it the odd wipe-down, but the fabric itself doesn’t get washed that often.
Soft furnishings gather odours over time, so cleaning them is important – but how do you banish the odours? The same goes for carpets, as vacuuming isn’t always enough to get rid of nasty smells, especially if you’ve recently spilt something like coffee or milk.
Thankfully, one cleaning fan has just the trick to make sure your furnishings never smell foul again. All you need is one product you probably already have in your kitchen cupboard.
Kaye Marie shared a video on TikTok in which she said one of the “most cost-effective” ways she keeps her house clean is by using one simple product – baking soda. And it’s that trusty kitchen cupboard item which could help you spruce up your furniture.
She said: “Bicarb is great for lifting odours. Kids dropped milk [on the carpet]? Throw some on, leave it to sit for as long as you can, Hoover away and the next day the odours are gone. This applies to any soft furnishings. Sofas, mattresses, rugs. This is amazing if you have pets, as it’s going to keep away all those bad smells.”
Kaye filmed herself sprinkling some baking soda on her living room rug as well as on the sofa, where she left it to sit for a while before she got out her vacuum to clean up the excess powder.
And baking soda doesn’t just get rid of the odours in your sofa, as Kaye said it can also help lift “pesky water marks” and other dirt from your furnishings. She explained she mixes hot water, washing up liquid, and baking soda in a bowl and then stirs it “until the bicarb disappears”.
Then, simply soak a cloth in the mixture and wring it out so it’s not dripping wet. You can then use the cloth on “any soft furnishings” like sofas and carpets, in a technique Kaye likes to call “damp dusting”.
The woman didn’t stop there either, as she said you can also use bicarb with washing up liquid to clean your air fryer, while sticking some of the powder in your washing machine can help brighten your whites and remove bad smells from gym clothes.
Commenters on the video were blown away by Kaye’s tips, with many saying they would be rushing out to buy some bicarbonate of soda as soon as possible. You can pick up small tubs at supermarkets for around 65p, while a 500g box will set you back around £2.
One person said: “Bicarb is the holy grail.”
And another added: “Thank you so much! I like to wipe down my fabric couch weekly to clean it and get cooking smells out but the smell comes back straight away, definitely giving this a try!”
