The sofa is a place to relax the whole family. Sometimes a variety of contaminants appear on it. It can be crumbs, traces of coffee or tea. Children and pets can also leave different marks on fabric surfaces. The sofa over time loses its attractive appearance. It requires urgent cleaning.
You can remove stains and scuffs yourself at home. To do this, use simple tips. How to clean the sofa will be discussed later.
Varieties of spots
To determine how to clean the sofa at home, it is necessary to consider the possible types of pollution. In each case, you need to act in accordance with the situation.
It should be noted that even with careful use of furniture, it will still become contaminated over time. Dust settles on the sofa, and the smells in the apartment and dust falling from the street with air masses accumulate in the fabrics. Over time, the furniture loses its former gloss. It takes on a gray tint and becomes untidy.
On the surface of the furniture remain sebum, skin particles, hair. If there are animals in the house, they pollute the sofa much faster. Children also bring here various things, toys, which contributes to the gradual pollution of surfaces. Often spots on the sofa appear from food, drinks. There may be specific pollution, for example, traces of pens, varnish, paints.
Recommendations of specialists
To understand how to clean the sofa from dirt at home, you should use the advice of experts. They recommend regular cleaning of the furniture surface. No need to wait until the sofa turns gray. Regular cleaning will keep the furniture in tidy condition.
Before starting cleaning procedures, it is necessary to determine if there are any spots on the surface of the upholstery. If such contaminants are present, their origin is established. It is advisable to remove stains immediately after their appearance. The old traces of food, drinks, animal paws are much more difficult to remove.
For cleaning, gentle means should be used. You can use special purchased compounds. Many owners resort to the help of improvised means. Such substances are always in the house. With their help, it is easy to achieve a good effect during processing. You should also consider what material is upholstered in the sofa.
Regular cleaning
Studying how to clean a sofa at home, you need to start with the features of a planned cleaning. Such an action is recommended to be carried out at least once a week. If you regularly eat food on the couch while watching TV, clean more often. Remove traces of dust, hair and other small contaminants from the upholstery.
You can use one of two methods when conducting a scheduled cleaning. In the first case, dust and other dry impurities are easily removed with a vacuum cleaner. If such household appliances are not in the house, try knocking out the upholstery. This is a more time consuming process.
To knock out the dust accumulated over the week, you need to take a canvas of clean cloth. It could be, for example, an old sheet. It must be immersed in water, and then squeezed carefully. The material should be slightly damp. Sheets are covered with a sheet. Then a plastic knock is tapped on the upholstery. Dust, which will rise up from such actions, will settle on wet material. It is necessary to perform several approaches, between which the fabric is rinsed, wrung out and laid out again on the couch.
Vacuum cleaner
Housewives who use a vacuum cleaner at home have practically no questions about how to clean the sofa from dust. Progress does not stand still. Today there are vacuum cleaners on sale that are able to efficiently remove dust from furniture upholstery. They are easy to operate.
People who are allergic to dust are recommended to clean their apartment with a vacuum cleaner at least once a week. The sofa becomes home to dust mites. Due to the products of their life, an allergy appears. Vacuum cleaners can remove dirt without raising clouds of dust into the air.
A set of similar equipment includes several different nozzles. With their help, you can carefully vacuum not only smooth surfaces, but also inaccessible folds, crevices. Regular use of the vacuum cleaner allows you to keep the sofa clean for a long time.
Grease stains
Even with regular cleaning, a situation may arise when the upholstery needs to be cleaned urgently. This happens when some kind of liquid is poured onto the sofa or food is dropped. It is not difficult to clean the sofa from stains at home if you know simple technology.
It is imperative to remove the stain of fat from the upholstery immediately after it appears. Otherwise, it will become more difficult to eliminate it after it has completely dried. You need to prepare a regular chalk. It should not contain dyes. Only white bars are suitable. Chalk should be crushed into crumbs. This powder is sprinkled on the place of contamination and left on the spot for several minutes. The substance absorbs and retains fat in itself. With a dry brush, the chalk is swept away. If necessary, the procedure is repeated again.
Normal kitchen salt absorbs fat well. It, like chalk, is scattered on top of a stain. The salt should cover the pollution with a thick layer. After 10-15 minutes, you need to brush it off. The first time you can achieve excellent results if the pollution is small. If there is an extensive spot, the procedure is repeated. Salt also absorbs liquid. This is an excellent tool to combat various pollutants.
How to remove blood stains?
Quickly and effectively to clean a sofa from stains at home is possible only if the product is selected in accordance with the type of pollution. It happens that the upholstery is contaminated with hard-to-remove substances. That is the blood. If a nuisance occurs, you should immediately take a small cloth and wet it with cold water. She is covered with a stain. Blood cannot be washed completely if hot water is used for cleaning.
After 5-7 minutes, the napkin must be removed from the surface of the sofa. The upholstery in this place is blotted with a paper towel. Such actions are performed several times. The procedure is carried out until the stain disappears. It is impossible to rub it, otherwise it will increase in diameter, stains will appear.
If the blood had time to freeze on the upholstery, use saline. It is kneaded in a glass of water at room temperature. One tablespoon of salt is added to the liquid. A tissue towel is soaked in this solution. It is applied to the stain for several minutes. Then wet the wet surface with a dry cloth. It is strictly forbidden to use ammonia for cleaning. This compound will stain the upholstery.
Other types of pollution
You can clean the sofa at home from dirt in other simple ways. It is imperative to consider the type of upholstery. It can be fabric, leather or eco-leather. So, traces of a ballpoint pen from any type of surface will help remove alcohol. You need to moisten a cotton pad with them, carefully attach it to the upholstery. If you start rubbing it, stains will appear. Therefore, this procedure is performed carefully. Vata is often changed, again and again wetting it with alcohol.
It is difficult to remove stains from juice, as well as fresh fruits. Alcohol is used for such contaminants. The cleaning technology is the same as in the case of removing strips from a ballpoint pen.
Traces of coffee and tea are easily removed with soap. You will need to cook a small bowl of warm water. A small bar of soap is left in it. It should soften, dissolve in water. After that, a tissue towel is wetted in the solution. She is treated with a stain. Then, with a damp cloth moistened with clean water, traces of soap are removed.
Perform these actions quickly. If the soapy solution is not immediately removed from the surface, stains form. After that, the fabric is dried using a paper towel.
Cleaning a leather sofa
When considering ways to clean a sofa from dirt, it is necessary to consider the features of actions in the presence of leather upholstery. This is a porous material. It quickly becomes covered with a layer of dirt, losing its spectacular gloss. Large particles of dirt can scratch its surface. In this case, the texture becomes rough.
To maintain the spectacular appearance of a leather sofa, it must be regularly cleaned of various contaminants. First of all, dust is removed from the surface (you can use a vacuum cleaner). Then wipe the surface with a damp cloth.
When the upholstery is cleaned, it must be treated with a special protective cream. It can be petroleum jelly or a regular face cream. With this composition, they rub the surface. With a paper towel, the excess that the upholstery cannot absorb must be removed. This will avoid the appearance of oily sheen. The sofa looks gorgeous for a long time.
Upholstery cleaning
How to clean the sofa yet? Pay attention to the subtleties of cleaning fabric upholstery. In case of improper actions during cleaning, the material may lose its attractive appearance. On it appear stains, scuffs. Fabric upholstery does not like moisture. If it penetrates into the deeper layers, this will lead to premature wear of the filler.
Moisture-saturated upholstery and filler fibers become a good environment for the development of fungus and bacteria. They will cause an unpleasant odor, the appearance of dark spots. Therefore, when cleaning such sofas, it is important not to allow them to get wet. If juice, tea, water or other liquids are accidentally spilled on the sofa, they must be immediately removed from the surface with napkins.
General recommendations
Experts advise protecting the sofa upholstery with additional covers. This will significantly extend their service life. If there are animals in the house, purchase furniture from special fabrics. In this case, claw marks will not remain on the surface of the upholstery.
Having considered how to clean the sofa, everyone will be able to timely and correctly remove various impurities from the surface of the upholstery.