Complicated cleaning hacks can be fun projects, but I love a simple one even more – and this is it Really Easy: You can use the lid of a pot or pan to clean your carpets and fabrics. It works like a charm, which is why it was Everywhere in Tiktok in the last few years.
To refresh your upholstery or carpet you will need:
Depending on what you’re cleaning and how you like to do it, you may want to add a few drops of Vinegar or vodkabut otherwise, stick to the cleaning recipes you would normally use Whatever upholstery or carpet They are working on it.
Clean the upholstery
Fill a bowl with your cleaning solution, whether it’s a mixture of liquid dish detergent and baking soda, water and vinegar, or a store-bought upholstery cleaner. (I used what I had on hand, which was laundry detergent.) Drop your cloth into the bowl, saturate it with the mixture, squeeze out the excess, and lay the fabric flat.
Place your lid in the center of your damp cloth and pull the edges over and secure over the handle with a rubber band. If they don’t reach that far, simply secure them with your hand over the handle while you work.
Credit: Lindsey Ellefson
Now you have a fabric covered disc that you can slide around on your couches, chairs, rugs, rugs, or pillows. It will absorb lint and refresh fabrics without making anything too damp. I recommend pressing the soapy rag onto the upholstery until it’s decently damp and clean and then returning with a plain wet rag on the lid and then either drying the area with a hair dryer or a fan (or opening a (or a) Windows and let the outside air take care of it).
Why I like this cleaning method
The goal here is not to make your rugs and pillows wetbut to give them a moist refreshment – the lid provides stability and the solution works gently and evenly. It’s easy to slide the lid along the surface of a couch or chair cushion, and the weight of the lid gives you some extra power. If you only use a rag, it will be difficult to really get the area down since both the rag and the pads are so soft. Inevitably you’ll push down too much and get the point too wet, which is not good – if the pillow isn’t completely dried out it can lead to mold or bad smells.
I recently spilled coffee on my couch. Even though I dipped it that day, I was left with terrible stains. This couch is old and cost me a lot on Amazon years ago, so it’s not really worth pulling out a few stops or getting a professional machine. I decided to try the pan lid.
Credit: Lindsey Ellefson
To my dismay, only a round of pot lid scrubbing worked on a much of leftover coffee. To my delight, it required very little elbow grease on my part and didn’t soak my poor, cheap couch in too much cleaning solution. The entire couch looks much better and after just a little air drying was able to sit again in less than an hour. Not every Tiktok hack works, but this one sure does.
