Your fabric sofa is such a comfortable place to hang out and a beautiful piece of furniture that you want to take care of as best as you can. So many people feel intimidated by cleaning their fabric sofa that they never try it on their own. With our four simple steps you will be able to clean your fabric sofa and help it stay comfy, cozy and clean.
Upholstery cleaning can be a tricky endeavor that you may be better off leaving to the professionals though, so you should proceed with caution. The problem is that most upholstery has to stay on top of a cushion, which will trap a lot of water in it that could be difficult to remove.
Furniture cleaning can help to make your treasured sofa last longer and look better the whole time that you own it. You should definitely have a good cleaning routine for all of your upholstery. Upholstery cleaning services are the best way to maintain your furniture so that it will last as long as possible.
If you want to attempt furniture cleaning on your own, we have put together four simple steps to clean a fabric sofa.
- Read Instructions
This step seems so obvious and easy, but so many people just want to clean their sofa the way they imagine they should, but the manufacturer will give you instructions to clean your sofa because they want to make sure that you clean it the right way so that it will last longer. Cleaning a sofa the wrong way could damage it or even ruin it so that you will need to throw it away.
If you are unable to locate your sofa’s cleaning instructions, you can look for the tags that are located on the cushions or possibly on some hidden location like under the sofa. The tag will have the necessary recommendations for how to clean the sofa fabric.
Sometimes upholstery cleaning instructions will come in the form of a special code, which you can read like this :
- W = can be cleaned using water
- S = Do not use water, you should use a specialized upholstery cleaning solvent
- WS = use water or solvent
- X = Not moisture tolerant, vacuum clean only and call upholstery cleaning services
This code will be extremely helpful when you are cleaning your cloth sofa. Always follow them to make sure that your cleaning job does not ruin your furniture cleaning experience.
- Vacuum
You should almost always start cleaning upholstery by vacuuming. This will eliminate any loose dirt particles so that you will not end up actually rubbing them into the sofa when you are doing the rest of the cleaning.
To help your vacuum pick up even more dirt, you can first brush the upholstery with a natural bristle cleaning brush. This will loosen up some of the dried on particles and they may be able to come up simply by vacuuming. If you ever call a professional couch cleaning service you will notice the care that they take in brushing and vacuuming the couch first, as this is an important part of the cleaning process.
Vacuuming should also be part of your regular upholstery cleaning routine. Every week or so you need to be getting all loose dirt up so that your sofa will keep looking good and the dirt won’t make its way deep into the cushions, where they could become impossible to remove, even with professional furniture cleaning services.
You also need to make sure that your vacuum is a powerful one and that you are using the couch cleaning attachment head. This will ensure that your sofa is getting the cleaning it needs.
- Wet or Dry Cleaning
Now that the upholstery surface is free of loose dirt, you can follow the instruction for the correct way to clean your sofa.
Wet cleaning is a method where you can use a water based cleaner on a sofa. Be careful not to get the cushions too wet though, try to only make the cushion covers wet. If water gets too far into a cushion, it can take a long time to dry and could even grow mold. Then you would be faced with needing a professional cleaner or replacement.
One of the best cleaning methods for a cloth sofa is a steam cleaner. You can rent or buy a steam cleaner to use yourself, but these at home machines are sometimes not powerful enough and they take some experience to become proficient. It can often save you time and effort to just hire a couch cleaning service to do a steam cleaning for you.
The steam cleaner really gets deep into the sofa, without getting it too wet. The steam kills any bacteria that may have made a home and it will loosen stuck on dirt and grime. Then the machine will suck all that loosened material up, leaving your sofa extra clean.
If you have a couch that requires solvent cleaning, you will have to buy a special solvent upholstery cleaner or at home dry cleaning solution. Read the instructions on the product you choose and use it on your sofa.
Do be careful with solvent cleaners, they can be harmful to your skin or can irritate your respiratory system. For solvent clean only couches, it may be best to leave it to the pros, as they have all the right safety equipment to handle the chemicals and use them the right way.
- Dry
Even if you do not use water to clean your fabric sofa, it will need to sit for a while after you clean it. Leave the cushions set on one edge, so that the seat section will be exposed to the air, and rotate the edges every couple hours until they are completely dried.
Do not sit on your sofa for at least the rest of the day and overnight. It is important that it is allowed to dry completely. If you have cleaned with a solvent-based cleaner, you may notice some odors from the upholstery, but they should dissipate after some hours. If odors persist too long, you may have used too much cleaner and you should call a professional.
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