Enlist the help of a friend. When the papasan cushion is fully wet, it is incredibly heavy and really hard to manage. Having another person or a few other people there to help you will make the job much easier.
Clear away as much excess soil as possible. Wipe off any dirt or grime and generally do your best to clean the cushion as well as possible before getting it wet.
Put the cushion in your bathtub. Turn on the water to warm/very warm and let the tub fill about 1/3 or 1/2 of the way up, depending on how big/thick your cushion is.
Let the cushion soak. If your cushion is really dirty, you may begin to see the water in the tub turn brown or gray with grime and dirt from your cushion. This may be gross, but it means that the cleaning is working, so embrace it.
Wring and squish the cushion. Try stepping on it with your bare feet so water comes into the cushion and then gets forced out. Moving the water in and out of the cushion is what's going to get this sucker clean! Flip the cushion every minute or so so both sides have a chance to breathe.
After you've squished the cushion for about five minutes or so, drain the bathtub of the dirty water.
Take some gentle laundry detergent and put it on the cushion. If there's a spot that is particularly dirty, make sure to focus the detergent on that spot. Then rub the detergent into the cushion with your hands or a towel.
Fill the tub back up with warm water. Squish the cushion again so that the soapy water goes in and out of the cushion. Do this for another five minutes or so, flipping every so often to adequately clean the whole cushion.
If your cushion was really dirty, repeat the above step. Squish the cushion and push the water in and out for as long as you feel like it's making a difference. Drain the water and refill the tub with clean water periodically for even better effects. Keep working at it until you feel you can't get the cushion any cleaner.
Drain the bathtub of the soapy water. Step on the cushion and squish water out of it until you've drained away as much water as possible.
Fill the tub back up with warm water and squish the cushion with your feet again. Keep flipping the cushion every so often so as to clean both sides. Your goal here is to get all the soap out of the cushion, leaving it nice and clean.
Once you feel all the soap is gone, drain the tub. Again, step on the cushion to squish all the water. Then have a friend help you transfer the cushion to a suitable area for drying.
Set up box fans around the cushion to help dry it quickly. Make sure the fans face as much of the cushion's surface area as possible - set them up facing the open face rather than the sides of the cushion. The key here is to dry the cushion as fast as possible so no mold will grow inside it. If you are using two box fans then set one of the fans in front of the cushion and one in the back. If you are drying the cushion on a flat surface be sure to turn the cushion every few hours so both sides get drying time. Leave the fans set up and running until the cushion is dry. To test to see if the cushion still has moisture left in it, you can put a paper towel in the suspected area and then sit/step on it. If the paper towel gets wet then the cushion still needs to be dried more.
Deodorize the cushion. After the cushion is fully dried you can spray something on the cushion to further remove any unpleasant smells. Use your favorite air freshener and follow the directions on the label.
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