subject: The Very Best 1 Cleaner for Your Cased Goods [print this page] The Very Best 1 Cleaner for Your Cased Goods
It's hard to believe, but the best upholstery cleaner for your sofa is simply your vacuum. If you maintain your upholstered furniture well by using a vacuum weekly, you'll prevent most dirt build up. Your house vacuum should have an attachment specifically for handling upholstery.
If you've got a spot that the vacuum can't handle, while the best upholstery cleaner is of course the one recommended by the manufacturer of your furniture, you'll find that most high quality carpet cleaners can double as upholstery cleaners too. The best carpet cleaners are meant for a variety of mishaps, from pet accidents to spilled wine. With upholstery, you'll need to be gentler than with a carpet; otherwise you risk damaging the more delicate fibers in your upholstery, causing either weak and threadbare patches or faded spots. If you choose to use a carpet cleaner or other commercial fabric cleaner, be sure to test it in a small and inconspicuous place first. The undeside of an arm cover is one of my favorite options for testing. If the tested area fades, you can try diluting the cleaning product and test again until you determine the solution that will be the best upholstery cleaner for that piece of fabric.You might find you don't need a commercial product at all, depending on the nature of the stain. Most stains on upholstery come from spilled food and beverages. One of the easiest drink stains is coffee. All it usually takes is a bit of soap or watered down laundry detergent blotted lightly with a wet cloth -- just don't rub too hard. Beer can be cleaned in the same way, so long as you follow up with a light vinegar solution afterward to fully clean the spot. All you need to make the best upholstery cleaner for juice stains is diluted vinegar with a dash of ammonia. While red wine sounds tough, often the best upholstery cleaner for those spills is plain old table salt! Leave a nice layer of salt over the stain for a while to soak up the wine, and then vacuum it up. Greasy marks from dropped food can often be handled the same as wine.
Of course, with especially bad or resistant stains it's probably best to consult a professional. The best upholstery cleaner is one that understands which chemicals are best suited for different types of fabric stains (the best upholstery cleaner for an ink stain may not be the same one to use on a blood stain). A real pro can also clean deeply, far below the surface of the fabric, but without doing damage.
