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What Makes a Smartbase Bed Frame So Smart?
Years ago, Zinus pioneered the SmartBase® to replace your cumbersome box spring and frame with one slim and streamlined foundation.
The Best Tips To Keep Your Upholstered Furniture Clean
It’s fair to say that certain pieces of furniture get used more than others, and this is easily seen over time. While you need to clean all of your furniture from time to time, you should also know how to clean your upholstered furniture, too. Don’t let the fabric put you off!
Can you remember when you last cleaned your sofa? If the answer is somewhere between “I can’t remember” and never, don’t worry. Furniture cleaning isn’t at the top of anyone’s list when it comes to enjoyable chores, but it’s not as daunting as you might think - and the right furniture care helps everything last longer, which is always a good thing.
Upholstered furniture is easy to clean when you break the process down into steps, and while some pieces will need a slightly different approach, the following instructions are a good starting point for any piece you have.
Why Do You Need To Clean Your Upholstered Furniture?
There’s few better feelings than lounge on the sofa each day. Whether it’s snuggling up for a movie, bingeing the latest shows, napping or relaxing with a good book, the sofa is the place to be. Since it sees so much use, it’s more important than ever to keep it in good condition.
Crumbs, pet hair, dirt, oil, spillages, and a range of other stains can build up over time. Not only does this make the sofa less appealing to sit in, but it can wear the upholstery, leaving less comfortable spots and holes. That’s a slippery slope. Cleaning your furniture can help prevent this.
Also think about what kind of impression a dirty sofa gives to guests who visit your home. It shows you don’t care much for your belongings, or give much attention to keeping your home clean.
It doesn’t have to take long to get your upholstered furniture back up to scratch, either. Just follow these steps.
1. Start By Hoovering Your Upholstered Furniture
Start by removing debris, crumbs and dirt from the fabric of your upholstered furniture. This is best done with the brush attachment on your hoover, or with a handheld version, and applying even force across the surface of the upholstery. Do this regularly to stop stains from being squashed in and sticking.
A once or twice a week hoover will immediately make a huge difference to the look and feel of your sofa and upholstered furniture. Furniture care doesn’t have to take hours, either. With regularly cleaning, you’ll find each step in this process takes a lot less time than you think. If you have kids or pets, you might want to consider using the hoover even twice a week just to keep on top of things.
2. Clean Wood Or Metal Areas As Part Of Your Furniture Care
Once you’re done with the hoover, turn your attention to the wood or metal areas. This is usually the legs or exposed frame of the furniture. All you need is a damp cloth, having been dunked in warm, soap water, to clean these exposed edges. Avoid using hard chemicals when you can to make sure you don’t damage the material. You might not notice it at first, but over time there will be changes.
Tough stains will need a little scrubbing, but with some elbow grease, you can get these parts looking like new. As with step one, you can make this easier by keeping on top of the cleaning once or twice a week.
3. Remove Stains On The Fabric
The upholstered furniture we have at Zinus is durable and visually appealing, with both sofas and upholstered beds getting a lot of use in your home.
If you have stains that the vacuum won’t remove, you might need to take a cloth and some soft cleaning solution to the fabric itself. With a lot of different fabrics and materials, you should take care to choose the right products to avoid damaging the upholstery or altering its colour.
In some cases, you can make cleaning solutions from the ingredients in your kitchen!
Fabric Upholstery
Mix 1/4 cup vinegar, 3/4 warm water and 1 tablespoon of dish soap or Castile soap in a spray bottle. Spray the stained area and scrub with a soft cloth until the stain lifts, then use a second cloth dampened with clean water to remove the soap.
Leather Upholstery
Mix 1/2 cup olive oil with 1/4 cup vinegar and put into a spray bottle. Spray the cleaner on the surface of the couch and buff with a soft cloth until the stain has been removed.
Synthetic Upholstery
Mix 1/2 cup of vinegar, 1 cup of warm water and 1/2 tablespoon of liquid dish soap or Castile soap in a spray bottle. Spray the area with the stain and scrub with a soft cloth until the stain is gone.
4. Make Sure To Give The Furniture Time To Dry
Depending on the material of your upholstered furniture, you can let them dry naturally in most cases, however this can take a while. If the room is cold, there’s not enough natural light entering the room, or the airflow is poor, it can take longer for the fabric to dry. If it takes too long, mildew might form and you might notice a musty smell, which is harder to resolve.
There are ways you can help speed this up, though. You can take a soft towel to any materials you’ve cleaned and dry up excess moisture when you’re done. A fan can also help improve airflow and direct a stream of air at the furniture to help with drying. Make sure the room is warm enough, too, and if there are spots where light streams in, try moving the furniture into the light.
5. Clean Beneath The Furniture
While you can clean the furniture regularly, don’t forget to move it when you can to clean underneath, behind and around it. Use this time to clean the floors, skirting boards and walls. Dirt, hair, and debris can build up here, too, and removing this regularly can make it a simple job.
If the furniture is on the heavier side, make sure to get help when moving it to avoid accidents and injury while cleaning.
Set Aside Time For Regular Furniture Cleaning Each Week
We touched on this briefly before, but cleaning your furniture - and around it - regularly can make it a much shorter chore. The longer you let stains and dirt build up, the more time it takes to clean. You might not have to complete each step all the time, too, but if you notice stains on the upholstery, a little time here and there can make it much easier to clean.
This small bit of time each week can help your furniture, and home, feel fresh, clean and inviting all the time. Whether you have guests visiting or not, you’ll feel more at home when things are clean.
