Contents:
- Can I clean the sofa myself
- Prevention
- When you need to clean the sofa
- Cleaning rules
- Methods for getting rid of food stains
- Paints, ink and other dirt
- Getting rid of odor
Soft sofa with light fabric or leather upholstery - a bold decision:such furniture will decorate the house, instead demanding attention and care. Cleaning from stains and divorces at home is a laborious, but doable thing. Knowing the precautionary measures and safe cleaning means, it is possible to keep the sofa in good condition for a long time, while saving on dry cleaning and buying expensive stain removers.
Can I clean the sofa myself
Clean once a new and neat, and now inaccurate with the divorce padding can and at home. To do this, you can use a special stain remover for upholstered furniture. Many housewives do so: planting a stain from tea or coffee, in a panic break into the nearest supermarket for an expensive and aggressive chemical. This is not necessarily for a variety of reasons.
First, if the stain is fresh, it's not so difficult to wipe it off. The task will cope with such a tool as usual baking soda. Secondly, chemical products can damage soft furniture. If dirty stains can be removed by sparing methods, the upholstered chemistry of the upholstery can not return the original look. Thirdly, products with aggressive ingredients are not safe for children and pets.
Prevention
Why do I get a divorce? Moisture, even in small quantities, getting on the surface of the upholstery, dries up, leaving an inconspicuous trace. If you do not remove the dust from the sofa, then the divorce will be more and more evident, and the white sofa will get a dirty shade.
To avoid difficulties with cleaning and avoid calling cleaning services, follow the preventive rules:
- Periodically remove dust with a vacuum cleaner. Use narrow nozzles to get to each speck of dust in the folds between the backrest and the sofa seat. Uncleaned sofa is easier to clean, when cleaning will be formed less dirty divorce, and the kind of furniture will be neat and clean.
- You can knock the dust out of the sofa in the following way: wet the sheet, cover the furniture and slam it. Knockout dust eliminates the appearance of furniture dust mites that cause allergies.
- Wear special covers on the couch. They are easy to remove and wash separately. Using different cases, you can update the interior or create the illusion of new furniture. The benefit of the cover is that it does not allow the spilled liquid to soak up the upholstery of the sofa, taking its part on itself.
- Some housewives cover the sofas with blankets or blankets for protective purposes.
- Be careful in operation: do not put food and drinks on the exposed surface, use the stand. Particular care should be taken with strongly coloring products: vegetable and fruit juices, wine, etc.
When to clean the sofa
Spots can occur even if you use furniture very carefully. Sooner or later, traces of cutaneous fat will be found on it. Dust from the open window and from the owners' clothes constantly settles on the surface of the sofas. If the furniture owners like to have a bite, sitting comfortably on the couch, then stains from drinks and food are inevitable. And if you have a feast, and guests are seated on a sofa because of a lack of chairs, then certainly wait for stains from salads, juices and desserts, because in the festive vanity, nobody cares about the cleanliness of the sofa. If the house has a child with developed artistic abilities, then your furniture can suffer because of the young artist: traces of paint, markers, pens, plasticine will often have to be laundered.
Once you notice the stain, you need to immediately start removing it. The longer you pull, the more difficult it will be to remove the contamination. Old age spots seldom give way, especially on such an uncomfortable for cleaning object as a sofa. Vacuum or exhaust furniture is recommended at least once every six months, but preferably once a month or more often.
Cleaning Instructions
Before cleaning your sofa, examine the properties of its upholstery. Textiles have their own characteristics, like leather with suede. From the type of material depends on what you will remove stains from the couch and remove the stains. And for each pollution there is a method, because some spots can be easily removed by means that will aggravate the situation in another case.
- Suede, plush, velvet - fabrics that are cleaned in a dry way.
- The leather surfaces can be cleaned with a damp cloth.
- Before cleaning, test the product on an inconspicuous area of the upholstery. If the fabric is not shed, then you can apply the product.
- When cleaning, the direction of movement must be from the edge of the spot to its center so that the dirt does not spread.
- Cleaning is carried out in the direction of the fibers of the fabric.
- Keep on cleaning cloth for no more than half an hour.
- Fleecy upholstery should be more carefully and often cleaned of dust, as it is more attracted to this 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 immediately. Elderly coffee traces can not be taken out. To wash the sofa, prepare a solution: 1 liter of water + 2 tablespoons.vinegar + 2-3 drops of detergent. Wet a rag in the solution and wipe the stain, then remove any remaining liquid with a dry cloth.
Than clean the grease spots? The most budgetary way is salt. Just put it on the stain and leave it. She will absorb the fat, and will only vacuum the surface of the furniture. To salt better absorbed the fatty trail, you can gently rub it with soft movements. If necessary, the salt can be replaced with a new one. If the method does not help, mix the salt with the soapy chips, add a little water and wipe the sofa with the mixture applied to the brush. A dishwashing aid can also help - however, remember that the abundance of water will damage the upholstered furniture.
The stain of fruit and vegetable juice firmly clings to the fabric. The composition of the drink has organic dyes, which are not so easy to remove. However, you can do without special stain removers, if you "take the bull by the horns."Immediately after getting the juice on the sofa, prepare a mixture of ammonia and vinegar( in equal proportions).Apply the product on the stain, wait until it disappears, then wipe it with a rag soaked in clean water. Dry the upholstery with a hairdryer. The method is suitable for removing stains from children's purees, ketchup, berries.
You can also remove stains from wine at home yourself. Quickly blot the stain from the drink with a napkin so that it does not creep. Then sprinkle with salt so that it absorbs excess moisture. After 10-15 minutes, wipe the stain with a tissue moistened with alcohol. In order not to leave a divorce, after half an hour, wipe the place of soiling with a soap solution.
Which way to remove a stain from chocolate, condensed milk, jam? There is no need for haste. First, wait until the sticky product dries, then gently separate the crust from the fabric. The remaining stain wipe with a soap solution.
The chewing gum can easily be removed by placing a piece of ice wrapped in a bag. When the chewing gum freezes, it can easily be separated without damaging the surface.
Paints, Inks and Other Pollution
If you wrote with a ballpoint pen and inadvertently carried it to the couch, do not get discouraged! First, try rubbing this stain with an eraser. If it does not help, try moistening the cotton pad with a nail polish remover and gently wipe the mark from the handle. With the upholstery from the fabric, the ink is easy to remove, but with a leather sofa there will be problems. 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. The point is not only in the cost, but in the complexity 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 carefully wipe with a soap solution.
Important
Magazine "Miss Purity" warns: clean the sofa from watercolor colors you need right away! Do not wait for the stain to dry out. Old watercolor stains can not be taken out. Watercolor is well cleaned with laundry soap. Wipe the stain with a piece of soap, then a damp cloth.
Gouache is also well washed with soap. However, with synthetic tissue it is easier to remove than with natural tissue. Fresh stain wipe with a soap solution, and the aged stain scrape off.
Advice
Do NOT use hot water, it only fixes the coloring pigment of the gouache.
Greasy spots, appearing from the old furniture, can easily be removed from the leather surfaces, simply by passing a soapy rag over them. With tissue surfaces, the situation is more complicated. Tapestry upholstery can be cleaned with soapy water. Apply it to a dirty place, leave for 15 minutes, then carefully remove with a clean damp cloth. For cleaning fabrics with hairy surfaces, use a sponge to wash dishes.
Traces of cosmetics are eliminated by a solution of alcohol: for 0,5 glasses of water - 2 tablespoons.alcohol. Do not wash blood stains with hot water. The injured surface can be rubbed with soap or shampoo, then gently rinse off with cold water. Traces of livelihoods of animals can be removed with the help of products sold at the pet store. Such products will effectively remove stains and relieve the furniture of the smell, from the improvised means it absorbs the smell of soda, a little worse - washing powders on its basis.
The leather item deserves special attention. If the spots on the dark surface are not so noticeable, and remove them easily, the white leather sofa needs special care. To maintain whiteness periodically wipe the sofa with cow's milk. In cases of contamination of such upholstery, give preference to special stain removers or cleaning services.
Get rid of the smell
A completely clean sofa can smell unpleasant. The easiest way to eliminate odor is to ventilate the room where the furniture is. If the odor does not erode, try using a cat's filler for the toilet. Just scatter the balls on the surface of the furniture. After half an hour, remove the filler and vacuum the sofa. If the smell is eaten, try cleaning the sofa with water with lemon juice or with conditioner for linen. In extreme cases, you will help dry cleaners.
Now you know how to clean the sofa from stains at home. If people's ways have not worked, do not despair. In hardware stores there will always be money to solve your problem!