Washing Furniture Upholstery in a Washing Machine

While conventional upholstery stays attached to furniture and needs tricky place cleaning or professional therapy, you can quickly and conveniently remove upholstered slipcovers and toss them in the washing machine when soils and stains happen. Washing a upholstered slipcover not just brightens its physical appearance, it prolong its existence and protects your upholstered furniture in excessive wear and tear.

Security Check

While most removable upholstery can go into the washing machine, several cloths require cleaning. Consult the care label to ensure that the material in question is preshrunk and colorfast. Otherwise, avoid laundering it in the washing machine, as untreated cloths can bleed colors and shrink when washed. If the maintenance guidelines are missing or unclear, perform your own colorfast test by dabbing a damp cloth on a concealed portion of the cloth. If the color moves on the cloth, do not wash it in the machine, since it is not colorfast.

Pretreat Tough Stains

Pretreating fabric helps your washing machine perform better. Body oils, lotions and other fluids are difficult to eliminate on their own; pretreating delivers a powerful, effective boost. Apply a stain remover to place clean stained regions or make your own cleaning solution by combining a combination of equal parts liquid laundry detergent and water. Expand the solution on the place and gently rub it with a sponge or microfiber cloth. Allow the solution sit on the place till you clean the product, because this provides it time to penetrate the fibers and lift stubborn stains. Refrain from flood spots with water, since this can produce a water stain.

Into the Wash

Keep away from warm or hot water, as cold water is kinder to delicate fibers, especially when used in combination with the delicate cycle on your washing machine. Do not place an upholstered slipcover into the dryer since this may also cause shrinkage and fading. Instead, tumble dry on the fluff or air-only placing or air dry after laundering. Do not enable the slipcover to dry completely, as it is a lot easier to set the slipcover back when it’s slightly damp. Isolate upholstery from other kinds of wash and laundry in small, single batches for perfect cleaning.

Hints and Techniques

Before throwing upholstery into the washing machine, vacuum the cloth first. By running the vacuum’s brush attachment across your slipcover first, it eliminates fine dust and debris and produces the laundering task considerably easier. In case you have a special upholstery attachment, then use that instead. In case your spot-cleaning solutions do not work, then use club soda instead. Pour the club soda directly on the stain, scrubbing vigorously with a clean cloth. Club soda can remove oil and grease stains from most fabrics, even ones that contain polyester or other manmade fabrics.

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