DIY Upholstery Cleaning

Cleaning upholstery is part of regular housekeeping chores. Before the actual cleaning of your upholstered furniture, you have to prepare the area using these actual pre-cleaning actions to make the overall cleaning easier.

1. Remove the furniture away from the walls or the place where it normally stands. Vacuum thoroughly and dust-wipe the area. If it has been placed next to a wall, wipe the surface with a damp rag or a sponge. Next, examine the wall for any scratches. You might probably want to fill in using spackle and paste, and touch up the wall paint.

2. After that remove the cushions from the furniture, vacuum the surface, getting into the creases, folds and other hard to reach places as well as you can. Polish the wood parts or dust and wipe down the metal parts (legs,frameworks etc).

3. Check up to make sure all furniture parts are working properly - i.e. that the recliner still works and lever or hinge assembly is not too loose. Call a handy man to fix any broken or missing parts before you actually clean and refresh the upholstery yourself.

You will need to use some water to clean the furniture. But unfortunately there are some fabrics sensitive to moisture. Check the label of your sofa or armchair and make sure you know what type of fabric or fabric blend you are dealing with. Some manufacturers add cleaning guidelines on the label as well. Some of the most common water sensitive fabrics and blends of fabrics used as upholstery material are silk, wool, cotton and velvet. These fabrics shrink easily and can be discoloured by use of water. This is why the biggest mistake one can do cleaning their upholstery is to use too much water. To avoid any damages, fill a spray container which has a mist option about halfway with water. You should also avoid using rags and cloths saturated in water and a cleaning solution. Always test on a hidden area with just a couple of drops of cool water to check if the fabric is colour fast, and to see how long it will take to dry. Too much water used during cleaning can cause too long drying time. Upholstery left wet can give a musty odour and may turn into mold after a while complicating rather than solving the problem you are trying to get rid of.

After you have made a test to see if the upholstery reacts well to moisture, choose mild upholstery or fabric cleaner.

• Spray the most obvious spots with cool water .

• Apply a small amount of the cleaner directly on the stain (don't use more than necessary to cover the area).

• Gently blot the detergent into the spots. Do not rub – this can make the things worse and spread the stain, instead of cleaning it.

• Leave the cleaner for few minutes to do it's job.

• Use a damp clean rag to soak as much cleaner and dirt as possible.

• Repeat until there's no detergent and dirt left into the upholstery's fibres

• Take a clean towel to dry and extract as much of the moisture as possible.

It's good to try to dry your upholstery completely within 24 hours. The best you can do is to clean your furniture in warm day and leave it air dry with the windows wide open to let the air circulate freely. If this is impossible, following these steps to speed up the drying process:

1. Use a hair dryer to go over seamed or corded areas.

2. Increase the heating with two or three degrees than usual.

3. If it's too hot to turn on the heating and you have a ceiling fan, set the switch on the fan to turn counter clockwise, to push the warm air down to the floor and furniture level.

4. Don't use the furniture until it's completely dry. Otherwise moisture can be pushed in deeper, drying get more difficult and this can cause mould appearance and permanently damage the upholstery.

5. Open wide the curtains to let as much sun light and warmth as possible.