Upholstered furniture is an excellent addition to your home decor. But it requires regular cleaning to maintain its looks. While upholstery cleaning is easy, you need to be careful to avoid any long-term damage.
To help you with this, our experts have discussed the things you should do and avoid while cleaning your upholstery. These dos and don’ts of upholstery cleaning will improve the look of your furniture fabrics and prevent unnecessary damage.
Dos Of Upholstery Cleaning
⇒ Understand Your Couch Fabric
Before cleaning your upholstery, you must know its fabric type. For that, have a look at the care label of the upholstery. It will let you know when to use specific water and dry-based-solvent cleaners and when not to. Some of the common codes are listed below.
- W- Cleaned by water-based cleaners.
- W/S- Cleaned by both water and dry-solvent-based cleaners.
- X- Must not use any water as well as dry-solvent-based cleaners.
- S- Dry-solvent-based cleaners are allowed to use, but not water ones.
⇒ Always Start By Vacuuming
When dealing with stains, always vacuum the upholstery first. A vacuum has a robust suction that traps loose dirt, dust, and other contaminants from your couch. Otherwise, these contaminants may get pushed deeper into the upholstery fibers.
⇒ Act-On Spills As Quickly As You Can
It’s common to drop food or drink spills on the upholstery accidentally. Though dealing with stains like coffee, tea, cold drinks, and other usual ones is not a rigid task for you, at the same time, don’t make the mistake of leaving a stain untreated for a long time.
Spills or stains, if they remain uncleaned for long hours, can get embedded deep within the fabric, making the stain-removal process much more difficult for you. So make sure you clean them up quickly.
⇒ Test The Cleaning Solution Before Applying
There are different types of fabrics. Not all of them have the strength to bear the brunt of various cleaning solutions. Using the wrong solution can inflict damage instead of cleaning.
Henceforth, before using a solution, be it DIY or store-bought, it is essential to take a small test of its credibility. Test the solution in a small part of the fabric and wait for its results. If it yields positive results, go ahead with it. If not, avoid it.
Don’ts Of Upholstery Cleaning
⇒ Never Clean A Stain From The Center
Most homeowners have a habit of cleaning the stains from the center. However, this is a wrong method and must be avoided. That’s because much of the stain is concentrated towards the center, so when you start from the center, it can spread even more. Instead of focusing on the center, try to clean the stain from its edges.
⇒ Refrain From Using Bleach
There are a number of harsh solutions that can damage your fabric, but the one you need to forget strictly is the bleach. Bleach is a strong cleaning agent that can stain or fade your couch beyond any hope of repair, it doesn’t matter whether you have dark or colored sofas.
⇒ Avoid Rubbing A Stain Vigorously
Rubbing the stains is the worst and one of the most common upholstery cleaning mistakes. Rubbing can actually allow the stain to spread and get embedded deep in the fabric. Hence, instead of rubbing, one should blot the stains. Blotting is the best way to soak and remove a stain without harming the fabric.
Upholstery cleaning is an important part of home maintenance, but it’s important to do it the right way. With the help of the Dos and Don’ts explained in this blog, you can clean your furniture the way it should be cleaned and avoid some of the most common mistakes.
