Buying furniture secondhand is a great way to go easy on your wallet and the environment. If you're buying leather chairs, this new TikTok hack shows how to freshen up old faded leather, without shelling out on expensive cleaning products.
The scoop
TikToker Jana (@styling.summers) has shared how to keep your leather chairs looking fresh with a simple, homemade cleaning fluid.
@styling.summers This is how I keep my leather chairs clean and looking gorgeous! So easy and once they dry you can sit and enjoy them. Did I mention I got these two on fb marketplace for $100?!! 😍 hot tip: try someplace on the chair beforehand to make sure it works on your leather. #cleaning #cleanhack #momhack #leathercare #leathercleaner ♬ 2 Be Loved (Am I Ready) - Lizzo
In the video, she measures out two parts olive oil and one part white vinegar and pours both into a bowl and stirs to make a solution.
Next, she wipes her brown leather armchair down with a kitchen towel, which she has moistened with the solution. Jana says that you can use a spray bottle to apply the cleaning solution, or just a towel and a bowl.
At the end of the video, the results are plain to see. The TikToker's armchairs are restored to their original, waxy condition.
"Back to gorgeous!" she writes in the caption. "Did I mention I got these two on [Facebook Marketplace] for $100?!!"
You'd never know that these armchairs came secondhand by the time Jana is finished with them.
How it's helping
This TikToker's cleaning hack will help households to revive old leather furniture — which is good both for your wallet and the environment.
Rather than buy a leather armchair brand new, which could cost anywhere between $599 to $7,999, consumers can give pre-loved furniture a new lease on life.
Leather may not be the obvious furniture choice for eco-minded consumers. Not only is it made out of animal hide — making it unsuitable for vegans — but its production is a major contributor to deforestation and methane pollution, both of which are caused by farming livestock.
One leather alternative is vegan leather. Fashion brands are increasingly experimenting with making a leather-like material out of mushrooms, pineapples, and cork.
However, vegan leather is often made out of plastic (which can shed harmful microplastics into the environment) or other dirty energy sources. For example, the pineapple-based Piñatex contains petroleum-based resin.
There is an argument to be made that buying pre-loved leather reduces the need for new leather to be made, vegan or otherwise.
No more methane pollution is added to the atmosphere when you buy secondhand leather, and it won't shed any harmful plastic microfibers, either.
And with help from Jana's TikTok video, you can make your leather items look good as new while keeping them in use for much longer.
What everyone's saying
TikTokers are already loving this handy cleaning hack. "Amazing!" one user replies.
"Omg I have the same set so happy I saw this," another user adds.
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