Last Updated on by Artem
Did you get your chair dirty? Don’t worry – it happens to the best of us so…
This guide explains exactly how to clean your office chair in no time! It goes over both, cleaning fabric office chair and leather office chair.
Without fewer ado…let’s get right to it.
Cleaning Fabric Office Chair
Here are a few basic steps you need to take in order to clean a fabric office chair once you spilled something over it. More often than not, there will be nothing left if…you follow these steps right away so don’t wait! (or you can always buy a new budget ergonomic office chair like these).
Step 1: Sop Up – Don’t Wipe
If you spilled something on your fabric office chair (no matter what it is, coffee, mayo or ketchup), grab a dry cloth and sop up as much liquid as possible. Make sure you are using gentle “patting” rather than wiping. Sopping moisture up makes it easier to collect as much liquid as possible.
If you dealing with thicker liquid (e.g. sauce), use same dry cloth but this time try pinching motions. So you’d be grabbing some fabric with your fingers (with the dry cloth in you hand) and pinching away the liquid you have just spilled.
If you are dealing with tea or coffee, this might be the only step you actually need to take.
Step 2: Clean The Rest With Damp Cloth
This is the step you might need if you spilled something thicker than tea or coffee. Once you removed most of it with a dry cloth, go grab a damp cloth (all you need is a bit of warm water) and repeat the pinching motion on the stain. Warm water will help to break the stain even further.
Once you removed most of it, rinse the damp cloth with water and finish up with brushing off the rest. You can now use wiping motions because you removed most of the stain.
If you took timely measures to get rid of the dirt (i.e. immediately cleaned your office chair), then you will almost certainly remove it with ease using these two steps.
Leather Office Chair Cleaning
Cleaning a leather office chair is very similar to what you would need to do with the fabric office chair. The only difference is that it is usually even easier because the liquid can’t really soak into the leather.
If you spill tea or coffee on your leather office chair you can start with water based cleaning right away – grab a damp cloth and wipe out the liquid off the chair’s surface. You may need to rinse it once or twice and repeat the process. Once you are done, use a clean cloth to wipe off excess moisture of the office chair. Ideally you would need a lint free cloth (as it doesn’t give up any of that fluff when used) but any other clean cloth to wipe things off will do just as fine for leather office chairs.
Clean Office Chairs With Old Stains
Mesh Office Chair
Whether you can remove stains would depend on their origins and age. An older greasy stain (e.g. butter, milk…) is trickier to remove than a stain that came from coffee or tea.
You should be very careful when using things like dish soap to remove stains because it can be fairly concentrated so you might end up with a new, “clean” stain instead. The dish soap concentrate can simply “burn” the fabric of the upholstery.
One of the safer ways for cleaning stains off the upholstery is by using something like Vanish. To use this cleaning method, you will need to follow the cleaning instructions on the package. They are pretty straight forward. It will ask you to cover the dirt with the powder and add a bit of water to the surface removing reaction can take place. You will need to keep it that way for 15-30 minutes or so. However, please double check the cleaning instructions on the actual package as you might have something that needs more/less exposure.
If you don’t have access to Vanish, you can try a proven soda and vinegar method. Here is what you need to do:
- Saturate the stained area with straight vinegar
- Cover the area with baking soda and gently rub it into the fabric
- Let it sit for 30 minutes
- Rinse the area with water
- Add some more vinegar on the stain and let it sit like that for 15-20 minutes
- Rinse the upholstery it with water
You can then use a mixture of mild soap and water to clean off the rest of the stain off the upholstery if it’s still there. You can even use dish soap but make sure it’s diluted with water (all you need is to mix a few drops of soap and water together).
Leather Office Chair
Removing deep stains from a leather office chair is usually done with mild soap. In fact, using soap and water is everything you really need to get rid of stains on office chairs made of any kind of leather.
Important thing to note…do not try rubbing alcohol into the chair! Avoid using alcohol as it can break leather or even change its color. Make sure this cleaning method is not on your list.
- Mix a few drops of dish soap with water and apply the solution to the office chair
- Let it stay there for a minute and start cleaning it with (ideally) lint free cloth
- You don’t need to rub it for too long as you will see results fairly quickly
- After you are finished, rinse the cloth with water and wipe the rest with clean dry cloth
- Let the chair to air dry for a few minutes
How do you clean a smelly office chair?
How do you deep clean an office chair? If your chair is old and smelly, your best bet is to call a professional cleaner and give it for their dry cleaning service. This type of water free cleaning will help to fight off bacteria that create the odor. In this case it is the best way to clean the chair.
In fact, they might be able to remove some of the old stains that your chair came with…after all, it’s an office chair cleaning service!
You can also use dry cleaning for other types of furniture. Things like sofas, recliners, carpets…and other pieces of furniture will benefit from an occasional professional cleaning.
To Sum It Up
Cleaning office chairs is fairly easy…if you do it right away!
Older stains may be removed in some cases by using water based cleaning.
Older and smellier office chairs can benefit from dry office chair cleaning. This type of water free cleaning can also help to remove some (if not all) of older stains so you might want to consider it for that purpose.