5 Times You Need to Clean Your Upholstered Furniture

Furniture, especially quality furniture, is expensive. Sometimes, it makes more fiscal sense to professionally clean furniture with an expert rather than tossing it out or simply buying new stuff. Discover five situations where cleaning your furniture with a professional may be best.

1. You've Had a House Fire

Even small fires can leave your home and furnishings reeking of smoke. The acrid smell permeates everything. Once you have cleaned the soot from all hard services, you will need to address any furniture you want to save.

Hire a professional upholstery cleaner rather than attempt to do the job on your own. This is a task that requires commercial cleaning equipment as the job is just too big for typical household cleaners. You can also inadvertently make the situation worse by rubbing soot deeper into the fabric.

When you call the upholstery cleaner, be sure to let them know you want to clean your upholstery from smoke damage following a fire. This may affect which deodorizers and cleaning products they choose to use. Be aware that the upholstery cleaner may need to repeat the process a few times to get it completely clean and deodorized.

2. You've Inherited Furniture

Whether your parent has passed away and you are left with a house full of old furniture to get ready for an estate sale or your aunt left you her prized antique Victorian couch, cleaning the upholstery is a must. While you could attempt to clean it on your own with a vinegar and soap solution, scrubbing upholstery by hand is hard work.

If you have multiple pieces, you could spend an entire weekend trying to get the furniture clean. Unfortunately, trying to clean the upholstery yourself is more likely to damage the fabric and cushions than to actually clean it and scrub out stains. Too much scrubbing can lead to fabric pilling. Old fabrics are even more fragile, and even plain water can stain fabrics that are supposed to be cleaned with solvents instead.

Do-it-yourself upholstery cleaning also often leaves furniture over-saturated. Even if you use a home upholstery cleaner, it won't be able to extract the water a commercial upholstery cleaner can. Save yourself the hassle and save your inherited furniture — hire a professional to do the job for you.

3. You've Bought Used Furniture

With used furniture, not only do you not know the history of the furniture, you potentially get stains and dead skin cells as well.

Unfortunately, not everyone can afford to spend hundreds or thousands of dollars on new furniture. If you decide to purchase a piece of used upholstered furniture, buy yourself some peace of mind as well. Call a professional upholstery cleaner to come thoroughly clean that new sofa or occasional chair before you use it.

4. You've Gotten Your Furniture Out of Storage

Even when it is your own furniture, anytime you have stored upholstered pieces, such as during a move, you should professionally clean them before moving them back into your home.

Ideally, your rental storage unit was free of bugs, spiders, and mice and didn't smell musty. However, realistically, you will feel better knowing you are moving freshly cleaned and deodorized upholstered furniture into the new residence rather than stale furniture that could have pests.

5. Someone Had an Accident

Whether one of the kids got sick or had a potty-training accident, or you spilled a glass of wine down your couch, old stains have a way of attracting new stains and holding odors. A professional upholstery cleaning will remove the stains and get your furniture smelling good again.

Whatever your situation, professionally cleaning your upholstered furniture with an expert will restore it, deodorize it, and add new life to it. Contact us today to schedule an appointment.