Is The Windex Upholstery Cleaning Hack Too Good To Be True? Here's What Our Expert Said

If you like to browse the internet for cleaning tips, you may have come across a questionable Windex upholstery cleaning hack that left you curious about its effectiveness. Videos like the one posted by Instagram user @clintonaverytharp reveal the steps for this method. In the clip, @clintonaverytharp starts out by spraying a dirty chair with Windex. He then sucks the liquid out of the chair's fabric with a wet vacuum. The user claims that the alcohol and ammonia in the spray will help lift the staining from the upholstered chair, but is this hack too good to be true? Here's what our expert said. Alyssa Schor, who is the Consumer Account Supervisor for ZENO, the firm representing SC Johnson, advises against using this hack to clean upholstery.

"We do not recommend using Windex® products on upholstered furniture or fabrics," she confirmed while speaking exclusively to House Digest. "The Windex® formulas have been designed for hard surfaces and contain ingredients that can cause wear and tear on soft surfaces." Schor went on to explain that you should instead stick to the typical uses for Windex. "We recommend using Windex® products only in the ways as directed on the label, and there are plenty of uses — from cleaning windows, mirrors, framed photos, glass shower doors, glass top stoves, TVs and phones, to sprucing up outdoor glass furniture, car windows and more," she added. There are far safer ways to clean your upholstery. Let's explore a few of the methods worth trying out.

Although the standard Windex spray should not be used to remove stains from furniture, there is an alternative Windex product that can help you clean outdoor furniture without damaging the fabric, which is the Windex Outdoor Sprayer. Feel free to apply the spray to other plastic and vinyl surfaces as well. You will have to take a different approach to clean upholstered furniture inside of your home. Start out by figuring out what kind of fabric stains you're up against. This will help you determine the appropriate cleaning method.

Use warm water and dish soap to clean water-based stains. Tougher oil stains should be removed using dish soap and baking soda. It's important to apply the appropriate cleaning solution to a damp cloth and patch test a small section of the upholstery to ensure it doesn't cause any bleaching or fabric damage. Once you've confirmed the solution is safe to use on the furniture, go ahead and work away at the stain with a damp cloth dipped in your cleaning solution. For stains that just won't budge, consider using a machine like the Ailltopd Carpet & Upholstery Spot Cleaner as the next step. With this information in mind, you should be able to tackle those unsightly stains without the controversial Windex hack for upholstered furniture.