How to clean sofa upholstery at home?

Cleaning stains and stains from a sofa at home is a labor-intensive task, but doable. Knowing safety precautions and safe cleaning products, you can keep your sofa in good condition for a long time, while saving on dry cleaning and the purchase of expensive stain removers.

Is it possible to clean a sofa yourself?

You can clean what was once new and neat, but is now sloppy with stains, upholstery at home. To do this, you can use a special stain remover for upholstered furniture. Many housewives do this: having planted a stain from tea or coffee, in a panic they rush to the nearest supermarket for an expensive and aggressive chemical. This is not at all necessary for a number of reasons.

First, if the stain is fresh, it won't be that difficult to remove. A handy tool such as ordinary baking soda will cope with the task. Secondly, chemical products can damage upholstered furniture. While dirty stains can be removed using gentle methods, upholstery damaged by chemicals cannot be restored to its original appearance. Thirdly, products with aggressive composition are unsafe for children and pets.

Prevention

Why do divorces occur? Moisture, even in small quantities, gets on the surface of the upholstery and dries, leaving invisible marks. If you do not remove dust from the sofa, the stains will become more and more visible, and the white sofa will take on a dirty shade.

To avoid difficulties with cleaning and avoid calling cleaning services, follow the preventive rules:

1. Remove dust periodically with a vacuum cleaner. Use the narrow nozzles to reach every speck of dust in the folds between the back and seat of the sofa. A dust-free sofa is easier to wash, fewer dirty stains will form during cleaning, and the furniture will look neat and clean.
2. You can knock dust out of the sofa in the following way: wet a sheet, cover the furniture with it and pat it down. Knocking out dust eliminates the appearance of dust mites in the furniture, which cause allergies.
3. Put special covers on the sofa. They are easy to remove and wash separately. Using different covers, you can update a piece of furniture or create the illusion of new furniture. Another benefit of the cover is that it prevents spilled liquid from being absorbed into the sofa upholstery, taking some of it onto itself.
4. Some housewives cover sofas with blankets or blankets for protective purposes.
5. Be careful in operation: do not place food and drinks on an open surface, use stands. You should be especially careful with highly colored products: vegetable and fruit juices, wine, etc.

When should you clean your sofa?

Stains can occur even if you use the furniture very carefully. Sooner or later, traces of sebum will be found on it. Dust from an open window and from the owners’ clothes constantly settles on the surface of the sofas. If furniture owners like to have a snack while sitting comfortably on the sofa, then stains from drinks and food are inevitable. And if there is a feast coming up, and guests are seated on the sofa due to a lack of chairs, then be sure to expect stains from salads, juices and desserts, because in the holiday bustle no one cares about the cleanliness of the sofa.If there is a child in the house with developed artistic abilities, then your furniture may suffer due to the young artist: traces of paint, markers, pens, and plasticine will have to be washed off often.

As soon as you notice a stain, you need to immediately begin removing it. The longer you wait, the more difficult it will be to remove the stain. Old stains rarely work, especially on something as inconvenient to clean as a sofa. It is recommended to vacuum or exhaust furniture at least once every six months, and preferably once a month or more often.

Cleaning Rules

Before you clean your sofa, study the properties of its upholstery. Textiles have their own characteristics, just like leather and suede. What you will use to remove stains from the sofa and remove stains depends on the type of material. And for each stain there is its own method, because some stains can be easily removed with a product that will aggravate the situation in another case.

1. Suede, plush, velvet are fabrics that can be dry cleaned.
2. Leather surfaces can be wiped with a damp cloth.
3. Before cleaning, test the product on an inconspicuous area of ​​the upholstery. If the fabric has not faded, then you can use the product.
4. When cleaning, the direction of movement should be from the edge of the stain to its center so that the dirt does not spread.
5. Cleaning is carried out in the direction of the fabric fibers.
6. Keep the cleaning product on the fabric for no more than half an hour.
7. Fleecy types of upholstery should be cleaned more thoroughly and frequently from dust, as it is more strongly attracted to such fabric due to static electricity.

Ways to get rid of food stains

Tea and coffee are the most popular stains. It is better to start removing them right away. Old coffee stains are almost impossible to remove.To wash the sofa, prepare a solution: 1 liter of water + 2 tbsp. vinegar + 2-3 drops of detergent. Soak a rag in the solution and wipe the stain, then remove any remaining liquid with a dry cloth.

How to clean grease stains? The cheapest way is salt. Just sprinkle it on the stain and leave it on. It will absorb the grease, and all that remains is to vacuum the surface of the furniture. To help the salt better absorb the greasy residue, you can lightly rub it in with gentle movements. If necessary, salt can be replaced with new one. If the method does not help, mix salt with soap shavings, add a little water and wipe the sofa with the mixture applied to the brush. Dishwashing detergent can also help - but remember that too much water will damage upholstered furniture.

Fruit and vegetable juice stains cling tightly to fabric. The drink contains organic dyes that are not so easy to remove. However, you can do without special stain removers if you “take the bull by the horns.” Immediately after the juice gets on the sofa, prepare a mixture of ammonia and vinegar (in equal proportions). Apply the product to the stain, wait until it disappears, then wipe with a cloth dampened in clean water. Dry the upholstery with a hairdryer. The method is suitable for removing stains from baby puree, ketchup, and berries.

Wine stains can also be removed at home yourself. Quickly blot the drink stain with a napkin to prevent it from spreading. Then sprinkle with salt to absorb excess moisture. After 10-15 minutes, wipe the stain with a cloth soaked in alcohol. To avoid streaks, after half an hour, wipe the stained area with soapy water.

How to remove stains from chocolate, condensed milk, jam? There is no need for haste here.First, wait for the sticky product to dry, then carefully peel the crust away from the fabric. Wipe the remaining stain with soapy water.

Chewing gum can be easily removed by placing a piece of ice wrapped in a bag in place of the contamination. Once the gum freezes, it can be easily removed without damaging the surface.

Paints, inks and other contaminants

If you were writing with a ballpoint pen and accidentally ran it across the sofa, don’t worry! First, try rubbing the stain with an eraser. If that doesn't work, try soaking a cotton pad in nail polish remover and gently wiping the pen mark. It is easy to remove ink from fabric upholstery, but problems will arise with a leather sofa. It is better to entrust the cleaning of such a product to a special service.

Paints are a joy for a young artist and a problem for his parents. It's not just about the cost, but also about the difficulty of removing stains from furniture. Acrylic paints are cleaned with a special solvent with a pungent odor. If the stain is small, try rubbing a little butter into it, then wipe thoroughly with soapy water.

Important
The magazine purity-en.htgetrid.com warns: you need to clean the sofa from watercolor paints right away! Don't wait for the stain to dry. Old watercolor stains are almost impossible to remove. Watercolor can be easily cleaned with laundry soap. Wipe the stain with a bar of soap, then with a damp cloth.

Gouache also washes off well with soap. However, it is easier to remove from synthetic fabric than from natural fabric. Wipe a fresh stain with soapy water, and first scrape off an old one.

Advice
DO NOT use hot water, it only hardens the gouache pigment.

Greasy stains that appear from old furniture can be easily removed from leather surfaces by simply running a soapy cloth over them. With fabric surfaces the situation is more complicated. Tapestry upholstery can be cleaned with soapy water. Apply it to the dirty area, leave for 15 minutes, then remove thoroughly with a clean, damp cloth. To clean fabrics with fluffy surfaces, use a dishwashing sponge.

Traces of cosmetics are removed with an alcohol solution: 2 tbsp for 0.5 cups of water. alcohol Do not wash blood stains with hot water. The affected surface can be rubbed with laundry soap or shampoo, and then carefully rinsed off with cold water. Traces of animal activity can be removed using products sold at pet stores. Such products will effectively remove stains and rid furniture of odors; among the available products, soda absorbs odors well, and washing powders based on it are a little worse.

Leather products deserve special attention. While stains on a dark surface are not so noticeable and are easy to remove, a white leather sofa requires special care. To maintain whiteness, periodically wipe the sofa with cow's milk. In cases where such upholstery is dirty, give preference to special stain removers or cleaning services.

Getting rid of the smell

A completely clean sofa can smell unpleasant. The easiest way to eliminate the smell is to ventilate the room where the furniture is located well. If the smell doesn't go away, try using cat litter. Just scatter the balls over the surface of the furniture. After half an hour, remove the filling and vacuum the sofa.If the smell is persistent, try cleaning the sofa with water and lemon juice or fabric softener. In extreme cases, dry cleaning will help you out.

Now you know how to clean a sofa from stains at home. If traditional methods do not work, do not despair. Hardware stores will always have a solution to your problem!