Biggest Challenges
1. Hard-to-remove pet hair
2. Dusty, crumby cushions
3. Stains on the fabric
Tools You'll Use
- Rubber gloves
- Vacuum cleaner with attachments
- Dishwashing liquid and water, or solvent-based spot remover
- Soft cloth
Fastest Fixes
1. De-hair the chairs. If it takes a moment to notice that the cat or dog is not, in fact, sitting on the couch, recliner, or upholstered chair, de-fuzzing is your first priority. Don't waste your time with a lint roller; it's ineffective for a large task like this. Instead, don a pair of clean rubber gloves. Run your hands over the arms, seat, and back of the furniture, gathering and tossing the fur as it balls up. For water-safe upholstery (which doesn't change or transfer color when blotted with a damp cloth in a hidden spot), wet the gloves for better pickup.
2. Conquer crumbs. Even with a no-food-on-the-sofa rule, dust and debris somehow make their way into seat crevices. The most effective tool for this mess is — no surprise — your vacuum cleaner with the upholstery attachment. Run it over the cushions, top to bottom, left to right, then behind and underneath them with the crevice tool (pocketing any spare change, of course). Or try this attachment-not-necessary cheat: Shake out or brush crumbs, etc., onto the floor, and vacuum them up there.
3. Spot-clean stains. The downside to debris-free furniture: finding a spill or mark you didn't know was there. For water-safe fabrics, squirt a bit of mild dishwashing liquid into a cup of water, and whisk up a lot of suds. Dip a clean cloth into just the suds, and dab at the stain until it's gone; rinse the cloth, wring well, and blot out any soap when done. For fabrics that aren't water-friendly, like silk, go with a solvent-based remover, such as Guardsman's Afta Dry Cleaning Solvent and Spot Remover, available in a bottle with a handy applicator tip ($3 for four ounces).
Make It Easier Next Time
- Apply a static-eliminating spray, like Static Guard ($4 for 5.5 ounces), to fabrics to make pet hair and dust easier to remove.
- Try 3M's Scotch Fur Fighter ($10) — a GH VIP Award winner — with disposable sheets that grip and remove embedded hair from fabrics.
- Cover the arms and seats of the sofa or frequently used chairs with a washable throw to help keep the upholstery itself cleaner.
- Stash an absorbent microfiber cloth in a nearby drawer to soak up spills before they stain.
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