7 Useful Tips for Upholstery Cleaning

Our couch and sofas are usually considered as the highlights of our living room. In fact, these pieces of furniture will dictate the overall ambiance and appeal of your area. These are also perhaps one of our most used furniture at home. We use it for entertaining guests, lounging during the day, and they’re our designated spots for exciting movie marathons at home. That being said, the utmost care and proper maintenance must be given to this furniture. Making sure that we have proper upholstery cleaning will prevent you and your family from suffering from potential health problems that may be brought about by harmful contaminants that are stuck in our couches. Also knowing the proper way to clean your upholstery will also avoid you from doing major mistakes that may damage your beautiful furniture. To help you, here are some useful tips for upholstery cleaning that you can follow.

1. Check for hidden objects and vacuum it first
   The best way to start cleaning your upholstered furniture is to check it first for any objects that may have been stuck in it. This could be your long lost favorite pen, a piece of candy, or dozens of coins. Make sure to remove any of these objects as these can damage your couch. After this, you can then use your vacuum to remove all the dirt, dust, and crumbs that are piling up on your sofa. Cleaning your upholstery without removing all the dirt away beforehand will only result in you further pressing the dirt onto your furniture, making it more difficult to remove and may even cause a stain especially for light-colored couches. While you’re at it, you can also take this time to do another cleaning chore that most of us overlook – vacuuming the area under your couch.
2. Check the label
   To make sure that you don’t commit any serious mistakes in upholstery cleaning, you should check the label or the tag that is attached to your furniture. There are many ways to clean your upholstery but not all of them will work on your couch. In fact, some of them may even damage your furniture. This is why tags in couches bear codes that will help you distinguish which upholstery cleaning procedure to follow and which cleaning materials are solutions are safe to use when cleaning your couch. Some of the codes you would usually see are “W” for water-based detergents only, “S” for solvents only, “WS” if water or solvents are both okay to use, “X” for vacuums only, and “O” which means that the material of your couch is organic and only cold water should be used when cleaning.
3. Start cleaning the less noticeable areas
   This tip is best applied to couches that require solvents for upholstery cleaning. To make sure that the solvent you have is safe to use and does not damage the material of your sofa, test it first on an unnoticeable spot. If the solution did not cause any discoloration or color stains, you can then proceed to clean your entire furniture. This step can also be applied if for some reason your couch does not have a label with cleaning instructions.
4. Don’t Scrub
   We usually feel like scrubbing your solution on to couch stains is the best way to remove them. However, this can actually result to further damage such as scratching your upholstered furniture or smearing the stain and only making it worse. The best and safest way to go about it is to blot the solution on to the spot with the stain. When using a brush, pick the ones that save soft bristles to avoid permanent scratch marks that can result from too much scrubbing or brushing. For leather or vinyl materials, cornstarch can also be very helpful in removing grease stains. Simply sprinkle it on to the spot where the grease stain is, let it sit, then wipe it away after four hours.
5. The dryer the better
   Avoid using too much water or detergent in upholstery cleaning as this will take too much time to dry and can cause damage to your furniture. Cleaning solutions and detergents also have an optimal usage amount, and exceeding such limit may cause discoloration or color bleeding already. Excessive water or cleaner may also seep into the cushions of your couch and cause the metal of your furniture to rust. Aside from being cautious on the amount of liquid that you use when cleaning your couch, you can also slide a plastic cover between the fabric of your couch and its cushions before you start cleaning.
6. Give it time to dry
   While the idea of a clean and fragrant couch is exciting, you have to step back first and give the furniture some time to dry before sitting on them again. Let it absorb the water or detergent that you used during upholstery cleaning. You can also use towels or fans to help with absorption and drying.
7. Let the experts do it
   If you value your upholstered furniture too much and would want to avoid damaging it when cleaning, you also have the option to hire cleaning experts to do it for you. This way, you won’t have to go through all that trouble and you are assured that your furniture is thoroughly cleaned without any damage. There are many trusted cleaning companies in Singapore that offer such services. They have the right tools and detergents for upholstery cleaning, and their experienced cleaning specialists would know the best way to tackle any stain that needs to be removed. The best part, these cleaning companies usually have a flexible schedule, meaning you can arrange it in a way where you are at home while their specialists come over. This way, you can observe how they do it and apply the same steps the next time you have to clean your furniture.