I often get asked why on earth I would purchase a large ALL WHITE couch for our family room.

The simple answer. I like it.

I always dreamed of having a big, comfy, “pottery barn-esque” couch to lounge on. One that was crisp and neutral. So when we moved to St. Louis, I decided to find one that I loved without the Pottery Barn price tag.

I ended up going with this couch from Jcpenney in the color natural (I think the price has gone up a bit since we purchased ours).

It’s definitely a BIG piece of furniture, but luckily we have the space in our loft.

My fave part is the chaise lounge seat. It might just be the best seat in the house.

Now we don’t have kids. Or animals. But, we sure as heck are not the cleanest people in the world.

We eat on the couch. We drink on the couch. We drool nap on the couch.  And it still looks just as good as the day we bought it.

So how the heck do you keep a couch like this clean?

Well, first of all the cotton fabric is incredibly durable. We’ve spilled things on it and marked it up, and mostly everything can be wiped away with a wet towel.

Also, the entire couch is slip covered. So, I can easily remove cushions and wash them in our washing machine! Yep, how many people can actually wash their entire couch?

Now the first time I did it, I was so incredibly nervous. I eyeballed the washing machine the entire time thinking I had ruined our couch. But, I had nothing to worry about. It turned out fine.

Here are my steps for washing…
-Take off all the slipcovers you want to wash (I’d say 3 loads to do the entire couch)
-Spray any stains or dirty parts with a stain remover (We use Resolve, and I liberally apply it all over)
-Wash with detergent, bleach, and on HOT HOT HOT!
-When it’s done in the washing machine, look over all of the cushions to make sure they’re to your liking. If not, spray and wash again.
-Put them into the dryer on the highest setting to get them dry.
-Squeeze them back onto your cushions. They’ll be nice and tight and it will be a workout getting them on.

I’ll maybe wash the couch once or twice a year. There’s just no need to do it more often than that.

But one time we did have an incident…

A certain someone (cough cough, Finn) fell asleep on the couch holding an entire glass full of Diet Coke. We had a huuuuuuuge brown stain all over.  Let’s just say I was not too pleased. I mean who falls asleep holding a glass anyways?! Yeesh.

For this mess, I needed professionals.

So I stripped the slipcovers and took 6 of them to the cleaners. A few days (and about $30 later) it was good as new! Crisis averted.