Signs That Your Furniture Needs Professional Upholstery Cleaning

In the everyday course of life, it is often difficult to remember to frequently clean furniture, let alone how to clean different types. Wood furniture has a different technique than fabric furniture upholstery, which varies from leather furniture, and so on. In the case of leather and wood furniture, it’s not always necessary to resort to a professional cleaning, because there are plenty of products to buy for the household. When it comes to fabric furniture upholstery, it will oftentimes be significantly easier to consult a professional cleaning service. Of course, using a vacuum, or even lint roller, can pick up surface layer dirt. But your upholstery will eventually reach a point where the only option is to turn to a professional to get the job done.

Luckily, this type of furniture has some pretty obvious signs of when it is time for professional cleaning. In general, a good rule of thumb is to use a professional cleaner at least once a year. It might be more frequent, however, if you have pets or young children. Here are a few of the biggest indicators that your furniture needs a cleaning.

Fuzzy or Worn Down Appearance

As we mentioned above, lint rollers and vacuums are pretty good for regularly picking up any pet hair that accumulates on furniture. Over time though, that hair will get pushed into the threads of the fabric, creating an overall “fuzzy” look that would definitely rather be avoided.

Similarly, body oils, dust, dirt, sweat, and smoke particles can all stick to the upholstery, dulling the original color of the fabric over time and making it look dingy. Especially if you own a lighter colored piece of fabric furniture, you might notice a change of both texture and color, even as soon as two years after purchase! An easy way to be absolutely sure it is time for a cleaning is to look at the underside, or hidden, part of the couch to see the original color. If the two differ in shade or texture, you know it’s time.

Allergies

Hypothetically speaking, say your roommate decides to adopt a cat out of the blue. Having not been around cats your entire life, you start to develop allergies. A quick trip to the doctor reveals that you are, in fact, allergic to cats. Instead of making her put the cat up for adoption, you decide to move out, thinking that’ll fix your problem. However, some of the symptoms remain. Why? Your furniture likely has cat dander stuck in the fibers, especially if you let the cat on your furniture before you received the diagnosis from the doctor.

Allergy triggers, like pet dander, aren’t the only types of things that can cling to your fabric furniture upholstery. If you like to leave a lot of doors open in a high-pollen spring, you run the risk of pollen particles sticking to the furniture affecting any pollen-related allergies you might have. The best course of action, in either situation, is to have a service clean your furniture to remove these particles. Specifically for pet dander, there are services that specialize in pet dander removal.

Stains and Discoloration

Thanks to a little thing we call “life,” accidents happen. No one is a stranger to stains, or doing a quick Google search on how to get rid of them when one arises. Over the years, stains can build up on fabric furniture upholstery that might lead you to wonder if it’s time to replace that piece of furniture. But stop! It will be significantly cheaper and less time-consuming to have a cleaning service come to your home and professionally remove those stains.

Odor

Have you ever left a restaurant and noticed that your clothes smell like the food? That is because fabric absorbs those smells.  Similar to clothing, fabric furniture upholstery can absorb smells that will accumulate and start to smell poorly over time. Some absorbable smells include cooking odors, sweat, body odor, pet odor, and even moisture. If you suddenly walk into your living room and smell something that seems a little “off,” smell the furniture. It might be time for a professional clean.

These four signs are essentially neon-flashing arrows pointing to the need for a professional service to clean your furniture. Contact us today for On-Site Care and Repair so you can continue your job while we do ours.