If your car seats, floor mats and furniture are made of upholstery, they will eventually get dirty. Fortunately, cleaning them isn’t too hard if you use the right tools and technique. I recently cleaned an old car seat and floor mats. The process was simpler than I thought. Here’s a before and after pic.
And here’s how to do it.
Equipment
- Portable Carpet Cleaner
- Bissel SpotClean Pro™ Portable Carpet Cleaner
- Karcher Carpet Cleaner and Detailer Rental
- Wet Shop Vac with Extractor Nozzle
- Drill
- Drill Brush
- Cleaning Solution for Upholstery
I have the Bissel SpotClean Pro.
I also rented the Karcher Carpet Cleaner and Detailer from Home Depot to compare it to the Bissel.
Both of these tools have 2 functions;
- Squirter: to squirt water or cleaning solution
- Extractor: to suck water from upholstery
You could also just use a spray bottle to squirt the cleaning solution.
You can also use a wet shop vac, but it’s helpful to have a hose head that is transparent so you can see if any water is left in the upholstery. Here’s a transparent extractor nozzle designed to fit all shop vacs.
The Bissel nozzle includes a brush, but it’s better to use a drill brush. For the drill brush, I went with this one on Amazon. Make sure to choose brushes designed for upholstery.
This one includes 4 items:
- 2″ brush
- 3.5″ brush
- 4″ brush
- Drill extension
Instructions
- Add the cleaning solution to the carpet cleaner tool.
- Spray the cleaning solution onto the item to be cleaned.
- Use a drill brush to agitate the soiled upholstery. I find that using the 3.5″ brush sideways does a better job at agitating upholstery.
- Suck any moisture using the carpet cleaner tool.
When cleaning upholstery in this way, not a lot of water is needed. After sucking the water, very little is left, so it doesn’t take long for the material to dry.
