Upholstery Cleaning Tips – 10 things you should consider
Upholstery cleaning tips can be found everywhere. Many domestic remedies are passed on to the next generation. Even Wikihow and other online forums chance their arms. The reality is that some of the advice is not applicable to your specific lounge. On our website we have tried to touch on upholstery cleaning more specific to a particular type of sofa.
Cotton Mock Suede Silk Nylon Polyester Wool Damask Denim Linen Down Filling
The range of lounges can be a bit daunting and we have decided to keep our 10 upholstery cleaning tips more general:
Limit your lounge being exposed to direct sunlight. It may sounds vague but some types of lounges can fade or partially fade, leaving you with quite a old looking lounge suite. When some parts of your upholstery fade and the rest looks new, it may appear dirty or patchy. You will not be able to reverse this process. Choose the position of your sofa with care and above all, respect the power of the sun.
Use a soft bristled brush on your upholstery to gently agitate and loosen impacted dust and dirt. You do not need to brush all areas every time but rather concentrate on the the arms and cushions of your sofa/armchair.
Avoid scrubbing the fabric. You may damage/weaken the fabric even if the stain removal was effective. This often leaves an unsightly mark and can lead to long term damage and fabric deterioration. Gentle agitation with a soft brush followed by blotting with a towel are much safer ways of spot removal.
Read your care label before doing any further cleaning. There are fabrics that you can only dry clean whilst other types of upholstery where steam cleaning is appropriate. If you cannot use water on your upholstery, invest in some vinegar. Our Chem-Dry stain remover works very well where water-based lounge cleaning is possible.
Vacuum your fabric upholstery once a week. Do it properly with the appropriate upholstery or stair carpet extension. The regular removal of dust will prevent compacted dirt becoming a problem over time. Be sure to do both sides of cushions and the internal part of the sofa/armchair base. Best results will be achieved if the vacuuming is preceded with brushing.
Do not allow stains to dry into the fabric. Start the stain removal process as soon as possible. You are much more likely to have success if you react quickly.
Wet the fabric evenly. So often we see a stain removal attempt with an even larger water stain around the original stain. It is always best to clean the whole cushion/arm and not indulge in spot cleaning.
Dry the fabric quickly after cleaning. With heavy duty cotton or linen, this is crucial to avoiding browning. We have in the past used the sun or even a hair dryer to great effect. Keep going with the process until the fabric is dry and you may have saved yourself a lot of grief.
With large stains, remove the excess first by working towards the center of the stain. It will prevent the stain from spreading further.
Invest in professional fabric stain resistant treatment. Protected fabric will clean much easier and ugly permanent stains are far less likely.