Fab Real Estate Blog

Don - Leather CPR is fantastic.  You can get a huge container for about $7 and it conditions, cleans, removes stains, restores dingy areas, etc.  My wife heard about it on Oprah and when she out it was approved by the Queen of Clean, she had to have it.  Linens-N-Things had it in our area.  It's much better than other cleaners/conditioners because it doesn't leave a greasy film - it dries instantly.  Rubbing alcohol will take away any conditioning done to the leather.  Works on clothing too, so it may have helped with your suede issues !!

Hi Kevin - the sticker on the suede jacket worked itself out after a few days and a little bit of rubbing.

The rubbing alcohol took all of the ink off of the leather ottoman.  We were shocked - we really thought it was ruined!

We'll have to keep leather CPR in mind for the future.  I'm sure the kids aren't yet done trying to destroy things...

Here is another trick.  If you ever get permanent or sharpie ink on something (clothes don't work well, but furniture or the like) go over it with dry erase marker.  It will erase the ink.  My son was using a sharpie while working at his brand new desk in his room.  He by mistake got sharpie all over the desk. I went over it with a dry erase marker and it came right out.  It is a great piece of information.  Don't think it will work on leather.  I have 3 children too, so it is always good to know these little tidbits because sometimes it is just a matter of when it will happen to you!

Awesome I will use this on my audi. Thanks for sharing...

Maria - Did you know that Sharpie marks come off of granite counters with Windex?  Yes, I discovered that one day...about a week after moving into my new house.

Nathan - My ottoman cost me a few hundred dollars - which is probably just a little bit less than your Audi.  So, please test the alcohol in a hidden area of your car to make sure it won't discolor your leather.  (I can just see the blog post:  Idiot Realtor made me ruin my Audi seats...)

:)

 

glad the alcolhol worked you do have trouble with animal hides....  

cheap, cheap hair spray works to get ball point ink off most clothing 

Hi Maureen - do you know why hairspray works to remove ink?  Because it contains alcohol.  Yes, I learned that while searching for how to remove the ink from the leather.  It was an exciting day.

 

Yes I knew that from a textile science class long ago.  You can smell the alcohol in old fashioned cheap, cheap hair spray.  You can use alcohol to get ink off clothes too of course but hair spray works better.  Of course you have to wash the fabric to get the sticky lacquer gunk designed to keep your beehive hairdo from blowing in the wind out of it.   Alcohol works better on colorfast upholstery / dry clean only fabric  because of the sticky residue.

Maureen - I haven't used hair spray since the beautiful fashions of the 80's passed us by...so I don't remember what it even smells like!