It’s a costly mistake to ignore regular maintenance cleaning of your upholstered furniture. It’s easy to pass by the living room and think: since the room rarely gets used the furniture shouldn’t need cleaning.
Unfortunately, like all textiles, your upholstered furniture acts like an air filter It collects dust, smoke, cooking oils and other indoor pollutants. Since this type of soiling is evenly distributed and accumulates gradually, it easily goes unnoticed. But over time it tends to dull the fabric colors, and on some fabrics the pollutants actually begin to degrade the fibers.
Think how much dust settles on your coffee table. Could you imagine not dusting it for over a year? Fabrics are even better at filtering and holding onto dust than are hard flat surfaces. Now all it takes is for someone to come along and put a hand on the fabric or sit on it. This grinds the dust and soil deeper into the fabric. Body oils and other oily air pollutants cause the fibers to stick together, which takes away the soft fluffy feel of the fabric.
You wouldn’t wear the same clothes day after day and never launder them just because you hadn’t spilled anything on them. For the same reasons, upholstery also needs maintenace cleaning. A good “rule of thumb” is to clean upholstered furniture every 4-5 years, even if it is never used. According to internationally accepted cleaning standards, regularly used furniture should be professionally cleaned every 12-18 months.
An important reason for maintenance cleaning is the delicate nature of most upholstery fabric. Fabrics that contain natural fibers such as cotton, rayon, wool, linen or silk, will limit some of the cleaning options available.
Unlike synthetic carpets, which would be very difficult to overclean, aggressive cleaning of natural fibers can result in damage. A professional upholstery cleaner remove as much soil as possible without damaging the fiber, color, finish or texture of the fabric. A piece of upholstery that has gone well beyond the time for maintenance cleaning can be very frustrating to both the owner and professional cleaner. The cleaner will be forced to restrict his cleaning options because of the delicate nature of the fabric, limiting a positive outcome.
Regular maintenance upholstery cleaning is the best investment you can make to keep your furniture looking new for many years. Be sure to consider upholstery cleaning as one of your annual home maintenance projects. You’ll be glad you did!
Learn more about our 12 Step Upholstery Cleaning Process.