Why is this picture so terrible? Because the house is apparently haunted. When I went to take this shot the door I was standing next to flung itself open. Seriously went from shut to almost smacking me. It’s a glass door so I could clearly see no one was there so it was either the wind or our resident ghost. Regardless I think I was 5 minutes down the road 4 minutes later.

So even though you can’t see the new couch except in its blurry and not put together state, I’ll tell you about the steps I took to get it. I found it on craigslist, listed twice (once for $300, once for $325) and texted the guy for a couple days before there was a time for me to go look at it. Once we haggled a bit I got it home in my Dad’s truck and some guys from Chris’s work helped him get it into the house. Then I was faced with an upholstered couch (including pull out bed) that had seen who-knows-what and had who-knows-what living in it.

My first step was to tackle the pull out bed. I extended it and dumped a whole box of baking soda all over the mattress. I spread it around a bit and then let it sit for an hour before I vacuumed it up. The baking soda was just to remove the smell. Nice clean sheets will have to help as well. It was a pleasant surprise to not see any stains on the mattress though.

Next I took 1/4 cup mild organic (Whole Food’s is dangerous, Chris has instituted a life-time ban) detergent and 3/4 cups water and sponged it all over the upholstered area. I scrubbed hard on discolored areas and fairly lightly everywhere else. For the most part I don’t think I took off any deap seated stains, but I did remove some strawberry jelly from between two cushions. The little stains that there were are almost exclusively on the arm rests so I will probably keep some throws draped over them. Bonus: then I have blankets if/when I get cold!

Finally I just chased everything with the vacuum. Under the mattress was especially crumby.

Overall I’m pleased with it. I’m much more confident in how clean it is and it has a nice neutral smell thanks to the baking soda. I got it for a good price for the size and condition, and I think it will work nicely with the room. Also, Chris doesn’t want to have any furniture that people are afraid to mess up, so having a few (small) stains is good for us!