Removing pollutants from the upholstery is a challenging and time-consuming task. With most upholstered items not being wear & tear resistant, cleaning them can also ruin their look. If you’ve owned your sofas or lounge chairs for quite a while now, they may have lost their charm with time. Dirt, moisture, spores, hair, etc. get stuck inside the soft threads of your upholstery, eventually making it unhygienic; and when your furniture is unclean and smelly, the whole place feels dull. If you want to preserve the beauty of your upholstered furniture and retain its original form, pay attention to cleaning it regularly.
Clean upholstery makes your place look lively and speaks to your sense of style. If you ignore their upkeep, they can also be bad for your health. Pollutants can get stuck in soft fabric layers of your upholstery and keep affecting the breathable air. To make sure your indoor air quality is good, upholstery cleaning must be a priority. Here’s why you must clean your sofas and chairs from time to time:
- Remove stains
Food, water, oils, and other daily-use items can stain your sofa, eventually ruining its look; and if you have kids and pets at home, these stains are inevitable. If there has been a food or beverage spill on your sofa, you must clean it before it dries. If these stains are left for quite a while, you might have to remove the entire upholstery just to get that one stain off. However, if timely upholstery cleaning is done, you can preserve the sofa/chair’s look.
- Remove in-bound dirt
Even when there are no outer stains/spots, upholstered items still have in-bound dirt and pollutants in them. If you pat a sofa, you’ll notice there is dirt between the fine threads of the upholstery. The indoor air has microscopic dirt particles that are absorbed by soft surfaces in a room and don’t easily come out. Upholstered sofas attract dirt from the floor and air, which goes to their lower layers over time. This not only destroys the color of your expensive upholstery but can also stir up several breathing problems. If your or anyone else in the house is dust-allergic, make sure to keep furniture item thoroughly clean. Vacuuming is the best way to remove dirt and fibres from thick fabric layers.
- Retain the shine
Whether you have leather or fabric upholstery, maintaining its shine is tricky. Continuous usage and careless handling can ruin their look and make a beautiful sofa look old way before it should. That’s the reason regular upholstery cleaning is essential and must not be ignored. Similarly, if you own an antique furniture piece with sentimental value attached, frequent and detailed cleaning can keep it safe for years to come. If ignored, replacing the upholstery becomes unavoidable, which is costly.
- Remove odor
Sweat, moisture, cooking smoke, and dry pollutants make your upholstery extremely smelly with time. Moreover, if there is a pet in the house, it also contaminates the upholstery with continuous jumping on and off the couch. Smelly upholstery is the hardest to clean and must be dealt with in a timely manner, but if you frequently vacuum or wash the layered fabric, this smell can be quickly suppressed.
Methods of upholstery cleaning
Cleaning upholstery is not simple washing and drying; it is much more complicated and time-consuming. But when you opt for the best cleaning method, it can be done with the least amount energy and cost. Here are a few most common upholstery cleaning methods:
- Steam heat extraction
This is the most widely used sofa cleaning method due to its quick and lasting results. Hot water and steam are used to remove the thick layers of dirt and grime from the upholstery without disrupting the wooden sides. This steam deep cleans the upholstery and quickly dries so that you can set the sofa in its original place right after. Heavily soiled and stained upholstery is cleaned with steam heat extraction.
- Carbonation method
A carbonated cleaning solution along with a little amount of water is added to the surface of your upholstery and is left there for a while. The carbon in the solution turns to tiny bubbles that absorb the in-bound dirt particles and rise to the upholstery’s surface after 3-4 hours. Once the pollutants rise, you can wipe them off with a microfiber cleaning cloth and make your upholstery like new again. Carbonating is also an prefered cleaning method as it doesn’t cause any shrinkage and deterioration of the threads.
- Dry cleaning
When the exterior of your upholstery is clean, but dirt is trapped within the fabric, dry cleaning is the best solution. A cleaning powder is sprinkled on the surface of your sofas/chairs, which absorbs most pollutants from the deeper layers. A vacuum cleaner is then used to remove the dirt and the solution simultaneously. This method is best suited for lightly-affected upholstery and doesn’t work with stained and soiled sofas.
- Foam cleaning
When there are stains on upholstery, it is hard to remove it with carbonating or dry cleaning. That’s when a foam cleaning solution is applied to its surface by hand. This solution stays on the upholstery for a while, afterwhich the entire upholstery is vacuumed. This method removes trapped dirt and superficial stains simultaneously.
Summary
Clean and fresh upholstery makes your living room vibrant and helps you maintain good hygienic conditions throughout the house. If your sofas have stains, in-bound dirt, or mold inside them, it’s about time you take upholstery cleaning seriously. So, select a method depending upon your upholstery’s condition and make it look fresh again. No one should compromise on the health of their family.
