How to effectively clean the fabric of the sofa at home?

Upholstery of upholstered furniture during operation is exposed to a lot of different influences: even the most accurate person, spending on the sofa time with a book or at the TV, leaves on it traces of skin fat, dust from clothes. The situation becomes more complicated if the owners of the house are accustomed to having a snack while watching the broadcast, sitting in an armchair at a coffee table, or there is not enough space in the room to install a dining table at home celebrations. In this case, some of the guests usually sit on the couch. It is not surprising that after such feasts, stains of wine, fat or coffee remain on the upholstery, and the question of how to clean the sofa becomes particularly acute.

If there is a child in the house, plasticine or paint may appear on the couch. A cat or a dog sometimes contrives to contaminate the upholstery with wool, saliva, leave on it prints of dirty paws, if the owner has not had time to wash the paws of the pet after a walk. Finally, both children and animals can make a "puddle" on the couch, and urine has the ability to penetrate into the fabric and soft filler under it, leaving not only a characteristic stain, but also a difficult-to-extract odor.

The most common and easily removable contaminant is dust and soot from exhaust gases. Small particles settle on any surfaces, but synthetic pile upholstery has the ability to attract them due to accumulating static electricity. Cleaning the sofa from the skin is reduced to removing dust with a damp cloth, and a flock or other covering with a pile should be cleaned with a vacuum cleaner with a special attachment for upholstered furniture. This treatment allows to remove not only surface contamination, but also dust that has got into the filler.

If you get a liquid on it or even lightly moisturize the person on the sofa, a light sofa will become covered with stains of divorce. Old contamination of this kind is sometimes very difficult to remove. The fight against dust is the surest way to prevent the appearance of dark divorces on fabric upholstery.

If there is no vacuum cleaner, or if velor was used for the upholstery, the dust from the upholstered furniture can be removed using a stick or a special firecracker. Correctly clean the light sofa, so that it does not form a divorce from the effects of moisture, the best way is:

• old sheet moistened in a solution of table vinegar (for 1 liter of water take 2 tablespoons of 9% vinegar);
• it is good to squeeze it out so that the fabric is a bit damp - you can do it in the washing machine in the "Spin" mode (approximately 800 revolutions);
• cover the sofa with a cloth and knock it out, hitting the clapper over the seat, backrest, soft armrests;
• carefully remove the sheet (it will be visible traces of settling on the wet dust) and dry the sofa.

It is very important not to use furniture until the upholstery is completely dry. Accelerate the process with a hair dryer is highly undesirable: uneven heating can also cause the formation of stains and divorces.

If the furniture has not been treated for a long time from dust, then it appears shiny dark spots on the armrests, along the front edge of the seat, on the back of the head and the back of the people sitting down. Most often they are caused by the interaction of particles of soot and dust with moisture and skin fat, secreted by the human body. On dense coatings of leather or leatherette, these spots can easily be removed with a sponge soaked in a soap-soda solution or dishwashing detergent diluted in water. These substances readily dissolve fat and are safe for upholstery. And how to clean the sofa with a cloth cover?

Lint-free upholstery (for example, tapestry) should be washed with a brush by one of the same means, applying foam at first to the stains and withstood 5-10 minutes. Rinse with clean water, soak a well-absorbent cloth. If necessary, repeat the treatment until the shaded traces disappear. To make the same solution, having reduced its concentration in 2-3 times, and to clean out all surface of a sofa. This measure will not create traces on the edges of the wet spot when cleaning the greasy place. The solution for general cleaning does not need to be made very saturated so that you do not have to remove soap or dishwashing detergent additionally.

Fleecy flake type coatings should be treated with a foam sponge in case of appearance of stained spots. As a cleaning agent suitable solution of laundry soap, "Fairy" or specially designed for cleaning furniture chemicals ("Vanish"). Cleaning a light sofa is a little more difficult than a dark one: in addition to the treatment of the stain, you will have to wash the whole upholstery completely and dry it thoroughly without heating, in order to avoid the risk of divorce.

Sometimes it happens that various substances leave the upholstery, leaving a colored or greasy trace: wine and coffee, blood, urine, creams or slices of food, clay, paint, etc. In most cases, to clean the sofa at home, you need to immediately, trying Remove as much contaminant as possible from the surface before it is absorbed into the fabric and dried. To do this, you can use paper napkins, clean rags, gauze. These materials easily absorb fat and moisture, allowing you to maximally clean the sofa from stains.

The remaining spot must be processed, starting from the edges to the center, so as not to increase the area of contamination:

• fruit and juices - a mixture of vinegar and ammonia 1: 1 apply on the stain and allow to dry, then wash the dirt with clean water;
• blood spots quickly washed with cold water with the addition of aspirin (1 tablet per 1 glass) or salt (1 tablespoon per 1 liter);
• wet the urine with a napkin or cloth, moistened with a carpet, soft furniture or liquid soap;
• cream, fatty food, plasticine first remove from the surface of the tissue with a solid object, leave the trail covered with salt, so that it absorbed a part of the fat;
• beer or coffee soak with a napkin, then wipe with a soap solution with the addition of vinegar (2 tablespoons per 1 liter);
• wet the wine, cover with salt and rub;
• chocolate, jam, condensed milk is better to dry a little, so as not to smudge over the surface of the upholstery, then remove the crust and rinse the trail with a soap solution;
• adhered chewing gum should be strongly cooled, having placed from above a package with ice or the frozen products, preliminary having wrapped them in a pure towel then it is easily removed by the knife.

When the primary contamination is eliminated, a trace remains in its place, which can easily be removed by means of caring for furniture, carpets (Vanish or specially recommended for some kind of upholstery). In order not to then have to clean the entire sofa from light fabric, the treatment is better to produce from the edges to the center of the spot, and after finishing the work, immediately dry the wipe with a napkin.

To remove the smell from various drinks, you can successfully apply special shampoos for furniture. Diluted according to the instructions to put on the surface of the sofa and dry it. In some cases, the smell can not be eliminated so simply: the aroma of spilled beer or urine is very persistent. In those cases when the stain was not treated immediately after ingress of liquid, the filler and the upholstery soaked in it leave a strong and unpleasant odor, even if there are no traces left on the surface.

The smell of beer or juice can be removed with acetic solution (2 tablespoons per 1 liter of water). A piece of cloth sufficient to cover the dirty area, moisten well, squeeze a little and spread on the couch. Press the fabric tightly so that the moisture with the vinegar smell hits the filler and soaks the upholstery. Repeat the treatment several times and dry the sofa. The vinegar aroma is weathered on its own for 2-3 days. If desired, you can add a little conditioner to the laundry.

The smell of urine, especially feline, is much harder to get out. When decomposed in air, substances that are practically insoluble in water are formed. How to clean the sofa in this case, people have known for a long time. To remove persistent odor from the upholstery and foam rubber, you can try the following folk remedies:

1. The smell of human urine on dark furniture can be weakened with the help of tincture of iodine: 15-20 drops of a pharmaceutical agent to dissolve in 1 liter of water. Clean out this solution with upholstery and try to moisten the filler to the greatest possible depth.
2. Light upholstery is best cleaned with acetic water, lemon juice, diluted in a proportion of 2-3 tbsp. l. for 0.5 liters of water or a weak solution of potassium permanganate.
3. Traces of cat urine have a particularly strong smell, and they have to be removed in several ways. First you need to soak the upholstery with vinegar (1 part 9% vinegar to 3 parts water), dry the furniture. After that, sprinkle the surface with soda and sprinkle it from the spray with a solution of hydrogen peroxide (mix the medicine with the water 1: 1). The product will foam strongly, it should be left on the upholstery for 2-3 hours, then remove the residues with a damp cloth and dry it. After completely drying, collect soda crystals with a vacuum cleaner or brush off.
4. If the cat "did its business" in the absence of the owners and the urine managed to get inside the sofa, you should dilute the vanishing foam to clean the carpets. Spill the sofa so that the liquid penetrates as deep as possible: you can put a heavy object on the seat or press it with your hands, pounding the solution deep. Wet the upholstery and dry the sofa for a few days. After drying, vacuum it.

If the smell is very deeply ingested in the tissues and filler, it will not disappear after the first treatment. In this case, cleaning the sofa at home will have to be repeated, adding to the product used conditioner for laundry.

Keep the furniture from contamination and increase the life of its products will help cover the dense material that will not miss the grease and dirt to the upholstery. Even traces of the cat's "crime" are much easier to wash from the fabric than to clean the sofa entirely, and if there is a child in the family, the cover can prevent the purchase of new furniture. A rich choice of fabrics in modern shops will allow you to choose a material for sewing a cover that can complement the interior and even repeat the upholstery. And remove the dirt from the cloak can be in a conventional washing machine.