How Often Should My Sofa Be Cleaned?
When was the last time your sofa received a thorough wash? Like most surfaces in the household, it gets covered in dirt and grime. However, unlike the floors, walls, cabinets, countertops, tables and other areas, the sofa rarely gets cleaned. This neglect sees it gradually lose its charm and appeal, until one can barely recall how the sofa used to look like before. The upholstered furniture absorbs sweat and body soils when the skin rubs onto it, food and drink spills during those snacks that are enjoyed while resting on the cosy cushions, dust settling in from the air above, to fur and dander from the pets who no doubt enjoy napping on the fluffy cushions. One gets so used to the state of the furniture, and become surprised when they see how the sofa used to look like one day when going through old family photos. Just like all other items in the household, proper care is needed for the sofa to remain its optimal look and feel.
Vacuum regularly – but it’s not enough
That dust beater and vacuum will come in handy. This is especially in between the deep sofa cleaning sessions, in order to keep the levels of dust build-up low. You can vacuum multiple times a week depending on the level of traffic that is in your household. Do not wait until the sofa gets all dusty. Since the particles will be piling up on the furniture around the clock, you will need to run the vacuum over the upholstery and cushions routinely.
Deep sofa cleaning
This is where the tough job is – getting to the grime that is buried within the sofa, extracting it to leave the unit truly clean. Just how often should you do it?
The sofa cleaning can be scheduled every 6 months. However, there will be cases when it will need to be more frequent, especially with kids and pets in the household. If you notice a musty smell coming from the furniture, then the cleaning is overdue. While the vacuuming is basically a DIY task, for the sofa cleaning this is best left to the professionals, which is even an item that is usually included as one of the terms in the warranty provided by the manufacturers.
Why You Should Hire A Professional For The Sofa Cleaning
First, it is to ensure that the job is done right. The different types of upholsteries, from natural and synthetic fabrics, to leather sofas, each have their required cleaning methods. Dealing with a coffee stain on a fabric sofa is different than dealing with the same coffee stain on a leather sofa. The underlying material is a huge determinant in the type of cleaning agent that can be used. Here, the focus in on working with products that will dissolve the stain, while still being safe for the particular type of upholstery that is being worked don. This can be a tall order for the DIYers, without adequate training and experience to handle the task. It often results in the wrong agents being used, which leads to different kinds of issues – from corroding of the upholstery, bleaching out of the dyes used, to damaging the structural integrity of the furniture – which is not how you want things playing out. Getting a professional sofa cleaning company to take care of the job will ensure that your unit is worked on without posing a risk to it, and that you get quality results at the end of the process.
You also get to save on time. Taking on the sofa cleaning as a DIY task can put a strain on you. Right from the start, where you have to research on the particular products that can be safely be used for working on your particular type of sofa, given that the natural and synthetic fabric upholstered units, all through to the leather sofas each have their requirements; waiting in line at the local dealership store to hire the machinery for working on your unit; the actual cleaning task itself as you deal with the stubborn dirt and grime, all through to the extraction processes that come in to remove the moisture from the upholstery– these will chomp away hours of your free time. Meanwhile, you could have spent those precious moments relaxing and unwinding from your busy days at work, bonding with your friends and family, engaging in your hobby or clearing that backlog of office files that you brought home with you, not sweating out over the sofa cleaning chore.
So how do you know the right company to hire? After all, not everyone who claims to be a professional is actually one. You want to ensure that your sofa is in safe hands, and the personnel that you’re letting into your property can be trusted. Here are a couple of pointers that you can look for to enable you to narrow down your selection:
- Experience: Here, the focus on how long the company has been providing the sofa cleaning services.
- Licencing: Certainly, you want a company which is legally recognised, and one where you can make follow-ups on, not just a random guy in a truck, where you don’t even have a physical address to track.
- Insurance: Accidents can happen, even with companies that have been in the industry for decades. To ensure that you’re protected from liabilities, it is recommended that you engage with a company has been insured, with the coverage catering to your property in case of any eventuality.
- Reviews: Seeing feedback from previous customers who have hired the company will give you a picture of the quality of services that they provide.
Before you hire the sofa cleaning firm, ensure that you have had a discussion about the type of machinery and products that they will use, and any preparations that you may need to undertake on your part. Also, get a detailed quotation for the services to be rendered. This is particularly important so that you can be fully aware of what you’re signing up for, and avoid arguments later on.
