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Recipe 46 of 100 · The Country Cleans Mix Book

How to Clean Greasy Couch Arms and Headrests Before Company

Witch Hazel Wipe

The dark shiny patches on couch arms and headrests are body oil that hardened into a varnish, so powder does nothing. Check the tag first: S, SW, W or WS only, X means vacuum only. Mix 1/2 cup plain witch hazel with 1/2 cup 91% rubbing alcohol. Window open with a fan blowing out. Dampen a folded white cotton cloth, wipe in long one-way passes, feather past the edge, refold often and do the whole panel. Nothing lit nearby.

Head Grease and Arm Oil Remover recipe card: 1/2 cup plain witch hazel, 1/2 cup 91% rubbing alcohol, 3 thin white cloths
What it fixesThe dark shiny patches on headrests, arm caps, and the tops of the cushion backs.

You need

Mix it

  1. Check the tag. This wipe is for S, SW, W and WS. On an X code couch, stop and vacuum only.
  2. Pour equal parts witch hazel and alcohol into the jar and swirl. The witch hazel slows evaporation so the alcohol has time to soften the oil instead of flashing off.
  3. Keep it capped. Left open it goes weak in a day.

Use it

  1. Open a window and put the fan in it blowing out.
  2. Vacuum the panel, then test the mix on the back of the couch skirt and check for color after ten minutes.
  3. Fold a cloth into a flat pad and dampen one face. Damp, never dripping. Never spray the couch.
  4. Wipe in long passes going one direction, each one overlapping the last by a third.
  5. Feather each pass out past the grease into clean fabric and let the pressure die off. A hard stop at the edge leaves an outline.
  6. Refold to a fresh face every two or three passes. A loaded cloth just moves oil.
  7. Do the whole panel edge to edge. Clean half a headrest and you have made a line down the middle.
  8. Let it flash off, ten minutes, then check in daylight. Second pass if it is still shiny.
  9. If a dull film is left on a W or WS couch, finish that panel with the couch foam.
Dale's noteHead grease is not fresh oil, it is polymerized. Months of body oil sitting in air hardens into a varnish layer on top of the fiber, which is why absorbent powder does nothing here. Powder pulls liquid oil out of a fresh spill, and a headrest stopped being liquid long ago. Solvent softens that layer, a folded cloth carries it off.
Don'tDo not do this near a lit candle, a gas water heater pilot, a space heater or a cigarette, and never in a closed room. Alcohol vapor is flammable and it sinks, which puts it at floor level right around the couch. Do not wipe in circles either, since circles cut a hard edged clean spot into an oily panel.
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