ZoeMcC's Profile

One of the best finds of my life was a gray leather sofa in PRISTINE condition at our local Salvation Army for $75. It's the type of design where every piece unzips off the main body (even the back cushions and arm cushions) and the individual leather covers can be removed. Leather isn't my favorite upholstery choice, but with four dogs and foster puppies, it's the only reasonable choice for us right now.

WELL, a couple of months ago our largest dog ate some bad squirrel (I'm guessing) and while sitting on our leather couch, threw up all over himself, our Smooth Fox Terrier mix, and the couch. The smell!! I bathed both dogs twice. I surface cleaned that sofa with increasingly more serious products trying to exorcise the acidic vomit/dog smell. To no avail.

Finally, I unzipped all of the leather covers and threw them in the washing machine. I figured that if the couch was ruined, it was ruined. We couldn't live with it smelling like it did. I put the covers in the dryer with no heat to wring out some of the remaining moisture and then proped them up over the backs of our kitchen chairs to try out the rest of the way for a day or two. IT WORKED!!!

On another note. One time I washed some hemp chair covers using Oxy Clean. I love Oxy Clean for all sorts of enzymatic stains (pet urine, blood, feces...it happens). I had washed these hemp chair covers many times with standard detergent. This time, with the Oxy Clean, they came out damaged -- chemical type moth holes.