How to Clean an Office Chair and Upholstered Chairs at Home

Keeping furniture in order is not easy, especially if there are active children and pets in the house. If you approach this work without special knowledge, you can waste a lot of time and effort, and even hopelessly ruin the furnishings. For example, one of the important care activities, cleaning stools from stains, should be performed in an extremely gentle way. To successfully treat furniture and effectively combat dirt, you can use various types of products, both homemade compositions and professional cleaners. The main thing is to choose the right option; this is the only way to get rid of stubborn stains and maintain the integrity of the chair upholstery.

Basic rules

Any chair, regardless of its purpose, is cleaned according to the rules. First the upholstery is processed, then you can move on to the frame. These two stages will require different tools. While the upholstery is being processed, the frame should be covered so that a cleaning composition unsuitable for this material does not get onto the surface. It is important to adhere to the following recommendations:

It is recommended to first test any product on an inconspicuous area.
Do not use hot water for cleaning.
If you need to treat kitchen chairs or a computer (office) chair, it is recommended to select products that effectively dissolve grease.
You should apply the cleaning composition not to the stain, but to the sponge. However, it should not be too wet.

After cleaning a product with a soft seat, you must carefully remove any remaining detergent. Do not use preparations containing chlorine. They discolor the fabric and can contribute to its deformation.

When processing, it is prohibited to use aggressive chemicals. They can cause an allergic reaction in people who use the chair daily.

Do not use hot water

Apply the cleaning compound to the sponge, not to the stain.

Choosing a product depending on the upholstery

Before you clean your chairs, you need to find the right product. The composition should be chosen depending on what the furniture is upholstered with. In addition to the characteristics of the materials, it is important to consider the color of the chair. For dark upholstery, you cannot use a soap solution (after drying, unsightly white stains may remain); for light upholstery, dark-colored preparations are not suitable.

Material	What can you clean with?	What not to use
Synthetics	Preparations for cleaning car seats	White spirit, varnishes and turpentines
Velor and flock	Alcohol and soap solutions	Solvents that contain gasoline or acetone
Tapestry	Laundry soap, water-based detergent	Formulations containing alcohol
Chenille	Soap solution, a mixture of water and ammonia	Automotive facilities
Silk	Water-based preparations	White spirit, gasoline, turpentine
Microfiber	Mild detergent diluted with water	Bleaches

When processing natural and artificial leather, it is prohibited to use stain removers, varnishes and turpentines. A soap solution works well for quickly removing stains. Detergents for fabrics that require delicate care also provide excellent results.

Before cleaning a leather chair, the upholstery should be slightly wet - you can spray it with water from a spray bottle.

How to Clean a Fabric Computer Chair

As soon as you decide to clean a computer chair with fabric upholstery, the question probably immediately arises as to how to do it correctly. Cleaning such furniture does not involve any complex procedures or the use of special products. In some cases, cleaning computer chairs takes place right in the office and takes a minimum of time for the process itself. If you don’t have household chemicals on hand or you simply forgot to buy them, then you can clean the chair with improvised means that can be found in every home.

Folk remedies

Before you start cleaning, it is advisable to vacuum the fabric upholstery. This will help remove the top layer of dust and increase the efficiency of the cleaning itself. Otherwise, if you ignore this step, the dust, when wet, will turn into one continuous dirty spot. It is still possible to cope with this trouble, but it will take more time.

How can you clean a computer chair if you don’t have any special cleaning products at hand?

Laundry soap. Grate a small amount of 72% soap and stir it well in warm water. Make sure that the solution is not too strong; 3 tablespoons of shavings per bucket of 5-7 liters of water is enough. After the entire surface of the chair has been treated, rinse it with clean water and leave to dry.
Mix baking soda and water in equal proportions to make a thick paste. Cover the computer chair with the mixture, leave it for 20-30 minutes and then remove it with a paper towel or vacuum cleaner. Depending on the degree of soiling of the chair, the time can be increased.
To not only clean your computer chair from dirt, but also restore its color, you will need salt. Dissolve 3 tablespoons of salt well in 3 liters of warm water and clean all the upholstery. Try not to wet the material too much, and after finishing the process, blot it with a thick towel or paper.

Store-bought household chemicals

Household chemical stores offer a wide range of products for all types of upholstery and any furniture. You can also safely find a product that will help you clean the dirt on your computer chair:

shampoos for delicate fabrics;
stain removal sprays;
gels for colored upholstery;
aerosols in the form of active foam;
stain removers for specific materials;
means to refresh the color of upholstery and others.

When choosing, you should carefully study the composition of the detergent. It is strictly not recommended to use products based on chlorine, acids, gasoline, petroleum products, and bleaches.

Effective homemade formulations

Not everyone knows how to clean chair upholstery at home. Special cleaning compounds will help you quickly deal with heavy stains. They give good results on light stains that have appeared recently. If there are a lot of old, stubborn stains on the chair, the treatment will have to be repeated several times.

Soap solution

A solution of laundry soap and water removes grease stains and traces of tea and coffee. It is used to process leather or textile upholstery. To prepare, you need to finely rub 1/3 of a piece of laundry soap and dissolve the shavings in two glasses of water. Next, treat the stains and wait an hour. The last step is to rinse the material with clean water. If the leather stool is very dirty, you can additionally add a little professional water-based product to the mixture, which has a soft composition.

Salt mixture

The saline solution is great for removing traces of food grease from kitchen chairs. It can be used for tapestry upholstery. For 1 tablespoon of salt take 500 ml of water. The composition is stirred and applied to the fabric using a cloth napkin. After this, you need to wipe the chair with a damp sponge and leave until completely dry.

If the furniture has synthetic upholstery, if there are stubborn, stubborn stains, you can add a little mild stain remover to the mixture.

Automotive facilities

This option is suitable for synthetics. Automotive formulations are good because they are convenient to dose. A little product from the can is sprayed onto the stain, after 20-30 minutes the residue is removed with a damp cloth. When working with leather or leatherette, you can additionally treat the stain with a cleaning composition for materials that require delicate care.

How to properly clean a chair?

To ensure that your chair lasts a long time, it needs to be cleaned frequently using a vacuum cleaner or brushes. Also, you can wipe it with a piece of woolen cloth, which should be moistened in a solution prepared in this way: dilute any detergent with warm water in a ratio of 1 teaspoon per 1 liter. You can also find instructions for using certain detergents on the label.

This way you can clean the chair from dust, but removing stains and stubborn dirt is more difficult. They can only be removed using special chemicals.

Upholstered chairs can usually be cleaned with a vacuum cleaner or brush. To do this, you need to use nozzles, which should be guided, as if in lines, in a certain direction, which will help suck out dust from the recesses. Brushes must be wrapped in several layers of gauze before cleaning.

Soak gauze in a solution of salt, which is prepared as follows: stir 1 teaspoon in 1 liter of clean water.

In order to clean a chair with plush or velvet upholstery, you need to wipe it in the direction of the pile with a sponge, or best of all, with a piece of soft cloth, which must be moistened with warm water. If you notice a greasy stain on furniture, you can remove it at home by treating it with purified gasoline. Plush upholstery is not recommended to be vacuumed or cleaned with hard brushes. You can clean such furniture using a solution of vinegar in water in a ratio of 1:2 or ammonia with water in a ratio of 2:1.

Cleaning algorithm

Cleaning should be done in stages, strictly following the recommended sequence of actions. The operating algorithm is as follows:

Clean the product from dust.
Remove grease (this is especially important for kitchen furniture).
Carry out general cleaning, choosing a product depending on the type of upholstery.
If necessary, remove stains.

After this, the furniture is thoroughly dried. It happens that the stool is clean and only one stain needs to be removed. However, even in such cases, it is necessary to thoroughly clean the upholstery: if you wash only a small area, unsightly, difficult-to-remove stains will remain on the product. It is important to follow the correct procedure, then cleaning chairs from stains will be successful.

Removing dust

Every housewife should know how to clean chairs from dust at home. You can use a proven method - the wet knocking method. To do this, you need to thoroughly wet a large towel, wring it out and fold it in several layers. After that, cover the chair with it and knock it out. All the dust will remain on the towel. This is a convenient and simple method that gives good results.

Knock out the dust by first covering the chair with a wet cloth

Elimination of greasy conditions

Cleaning a chair with fabric upholstery at home from greasy stains is quite simple. The most effective method of dealing with the problem is to sprinkle large crystals of table salt on a chair with a soft seat. Then leave them on the upholstery longer (for several hours or overnight) so that the fat is completely absorbed. You can also soak a cotton pad in glycerin and rub the greasy areas with force.

Sprinkle salted areas with table salt and leave overnight

Removing stains

There are several answers to the question of how to clean a chair. The choice of product depends on the origin of the contamination. The fresher the stain, the easier it is to remove. To remove old, ingrained dirt, you can use aspirin (dilute 2-3 tablets in water and wipe the upholstery), ammonia (treat the dirt, leave for several hours, wipe the chair with a clean sponge). You can take borax (one spoon of the substance per glass of water, pour the mixture into a spray bottle, spray and rinse after 40-50 minutes).

Type of pollution	How to clean
Coffee and tea	Apply a little chlorine-free detergent to a cloth cloth. Treat contaminated areas of the chair
Other drinks (juice, beer, wine)	Sprinkle the upholstery with coarse salt. Soak a cotton pad in vodka and blot the stain
Blood	Soak a swab in hydrogen peroxide. Process the material until foam appears, then clean the chair with a clean cloth.
Fat	Pour a mixture of salt and soda onto the contaminated surface and rub vigorously with a stiff brush.
Dirt	Treat the upholstery with a sponge soaked in soapy water.

After removing the stain, you need to go over the entire surface of the chair with detergent. This will save you from the appearance of unsightly stains. The furniture cannot be used for its intended purpose until it is completely dry.

Treat the stain with the selected product according to the instructions.

Removing detergent residue and drying

To remove residual cleaning product from the fabric, you need to wet a regular dishwashing sponge in warm water and walk over the surface of the chair. The procedure must be repeated several times. The most convenient way is to place a basin filled with water next to the furniture and rinse the sponge in it.

It is strictly forbidden to use a hair dryer to dry chairs, as it can deform the structure of the upholstery. You just need to leave the kitchen furniture or computer chair indoors overnight (away from steam heating radiators, so that the frame does not deteriorate). The product will dry quickly.

Wipe the surface with a damp sponge several times

Cleaning the frame

To clean a wooden frame, you need to dilute baby soap with water and apply the resulting mixture to the surface using a cloth napkin. Then rinse the cleaned area.

To polish a chair to a shine, you can use a mixture of turpentine and vegetable oil in a 1:1 ratio. Any detergent will work for cleaning plastic. After treatment, the surface is polished with a soft cloth folded in several layers.

Undiluted vinegar is well suited for cleaning metal; it is applied to the surface of the product using a cotton pad. Then the iron frame is polished with a swab dipped in any vegetable oil.

Mix water with baby soap and wipe the frame

For polishing you need to mix turpentine and oil in equal proportions.

It is good to clean the metal frame with vinegar

How to care for certain types of upholstery

Flock upholstery

Most often, furniture is covered with flock. This material is quite practical and easy to use. Flock can breathe in hot weather, and it does not tan in cold weather.

How to remove stains?

Under no circumstances should you try to scrape off dried dirt or stuck together flock fibers. To clean upholstery at home, soak a sponge or soft cloth in soapy suds and work it over the stain. After this, the remaining soap must be removed using a dry cloth. If you need to remove a fresh grease stain, wet the problem area with water and lightly soap it. Wait a few minutes and rub the area of the stain in a circle with a sponge or brush.

Remember that you cannot use aggressive chemicals or various solvents to clean flock. In addition, it is not recommended to squeeze flock covers or bleach this material. Serious stains on the upholstery of your chair should be removed using detergents (it is best to purchase water-based cleaners for this purpose).

Jacquard upholstery

Furniture fabric made from this material will not fade and will retain its bright color and attractiveness for a long time. If the upholstery of your chair is made of jacquard, then it will not deteriorate due to sudden temperature changes and will not quickly wear off.

How to remove stains?

It is strictly not recommended to scrape dirt from the fabric. If you want to clean your chair at home, try removing dirt with a soft sponge. Soak it in soap suds and treat the upholstery fabric. Remove any remaining foam and dirt using a dry cloth.

If you need to remove a stain, for example, from a lipstick or pen, treat the problem area with an alcohol solution (10%), and then wash with water at room temperature. A greasy or wet stain can be removed by applying a soft towel to it, which will absorb moisture and dirt.

The jacquard upholstery of the chair cannot be washed with powders that contain chlorine or other similar products. To clean it at home, simply scrub the upholstery with soapy water, and then after a few minutes, wipe the dirty areas with a sponge. Let the surface dry.

Velor fabric

When cleaning velor upholstery at home, never scrape off dirt from the pile. A soft sponge and soap solution, as well as dry wipes to remove remaining dirt and absorb excess water, will help remove the stain.

Microfiber

You can remove stains from microfiber upholstery using a foam sponge. Soak it in soapy water and treat the fabric. A solution of alcohol and warm water will also help remove stubborn stains.

In order to clean a chair covered with microfiber, it is strictly forbidden to use strong chemicals (especially those containing petroleum products).

General dust removal is done using a small amount of warm water and soap. Treat the fabric, and then, after waiting a few minutes, scrub the stains with a sponge or soft brush. Dry the upholstery and iron it using a steamer. If the above methods do not help clean the chair from dirt, you can only use cleaning products specially designed for furniture fabric.

Splender upholstery

Splender is considered to be a very high-quality material used for upholstery of upholstered furniture. At home, you don’t need to take special care of it. If you notice that your chair has been stained with oil or grease, you can remove the stain as follows: sprinkle a little salt on the stain and wipe it thoroughly with a sponge, after wetting it with alcohol.

Knowing these simple recommendations, you can effectively clean your fabric-upholstered chair from dirt and dust without unnecessary effort, without damaging the material.

Handle furniture carefully, regularly care for it with a vacuum cleaner and brush, and it will last a long time, remaining a decoration of your interior.