You spend awful hours sitting on your office chair, whether it is at home or your workplace. The office chair gets through a lot of wear and tear and is prone to get dirty with this heavy use. It is essential to clean it regularly to have a comfortable, clean, and fresh feeling while working. Here in this article, we have shared some simple techniques to clean your office chair at home by yourself. Let’s dig into how and with what material you can give your upholstery or non-upholstery office chair a new life.
How To Clean An Office Chair
There are a few materials you would require to carry out all the cleaning. These materials are elementary to get your hands on and are readily available at home—no expensive or out-of-reach remedies, just simple and quick methods to clean your office chair.
- Vacuum Cleaner: you would require a vacuum cleaner specifically with a dust or upholstery attachment.
- Dishwashing soap
- An empty spray bottle
- Clean and colorless clothes, you can take a piece of an old t-shirt or any other fabric but make sure that it is a microfiber and doesn’t leave color or lint behind.
- A soft-bristled brush
- Vinegar, baking soda, or rubbing alcohol
- Duster
Check The Cleaning Tag
Before cleaning your chair, it is imperative to check the type of chair you have and the care tag of your chair, which you get from the manufacturer. There are different ways to clean different chairs. If you neglect this step, you might damage your chair’s material. If the tag says S, that means you can only use solvent-based cleaners for your chair. W labeled chair means a water-based solution can be used for cleaning. Whereas S/W or W/S means any of both cleaners can be used. X tagged chair means you can only vacuum them.
Steps To Clean Your Fabric Office Chair
- Remove the larger particle of debris that can be picked easily or removed by slight rubbings like food pieces or other loose debris.
- Vacuum out the whole chair from head to toe. There are many nooks and crannies in an office chair where the Vaccum might not reach, use a duster to get rid of debris, dust, lint, hair, and food particles. Vacuuming is essential; skipping this step will make cleaning difficult.
- After vacuuming the chair choose a cleaner according to the chair type. For an S-coded chair, take any solvent-based cleaner or foam cleaners and spray it on the chair. Rub it with a cloth over the chair’s fabric. Once the stains are bolted out, use a damp cloth, not a wet cloth, to clean out the solvent residue from the chair. Let the chair dry and see the results.
- If your chair is W-labeled, you can use water on your chair’s fabric to clean it, and it is pretty helpful. You don’t have to buy a specific cleaner from the market; you can simply improvise one at home. Take a portion of baking soda, dishwashing soap, and water in a spray bottle. Mix it well and spray it out on the chair. Rub the stain, but be careful, and don’t rub firmly, so you don’t damage the upholstery. If the stains are too stubborn and won’t come off with a cloth, use a soft-bristled brush to remove them. Use a damp cloth to wash away the solution from the chair. Let the chair dry and vacuum it in the end too.
Rubbing Alcohol
If your chair has some spots of hard stains, you can also use rubbing alcohol to get rid of them. Damp a cotton ball in rubbing alcohol and apply it on the stain spot directly. Be careful of your chair type. Be gentle if your chair has mesh upholstery. We do not recommend using rubbing alcohol on acrylic fabric upholstery. For S-coded fabric, you can add rubbing alcohol in water and then use it to clean out the stain of your chair. However, you must test it out on a small portion of your chair before carrying out cleaning. If it suits your chair’s fabric, then it is the best remedy for the stains.
Cleaning The Wheel
Apart from the upholstery, the wheels of the chair have a tough life too. Turn your chair upside down, remove the hair or large debris particle out of the wheels. Use a sharp-edged tool or a knife to scrape the hardened debris on the wheel. Use a wet cloth to rub the wheel and clean them. You can also use some dishwashing soap mixed in water to clean the wheel. After cleaning them, use a paper towel to dry them off. You can clean the wheels while attached to the chair or remove them to clean better. If you have removed them, add some lubricant too before placing them back in their place.
Cleaning The Body Of Chair
After cleaning the fabric and wheel of the chair, clean the other parts of the chair as well. It is quite easy as they are mainly plastic or metal; you can simply use damp clothes to remove the dust of the chair’s body. If your chair’s body has tenacious dirt, then you can use a little dishwashing soap and water to clean with a wet cloth. After cleaning, wipe the body with a dry cloth to dry it.
How Often To Clean An Office Chair
It is beneficial if you clean the stain the moment you get it. We recommend daily maintenance of the chair as the stain won’t get stubborn, and you won’t face difficulty afterward. The daily cleaning of the chair takes hardly 10 to 15 minutes. It not only gives your chair a good appearance but also increases its lifespan. You can vacuum it or use a damp cloth to clean it daily. However, if you clean the chair after a month with loads of stubborn stain and dirt, it will require a lot of hard work and 45 to 50 minutes of cleaning.
Wrapping It Up
Don’t let your dirty office chair ruin the aesthetics of your workplace or house. Get up and follow up on these instructions to clean your office chair. There aren’t any excuses left not to clean it yourself now. Don’t forget to clean the legs, armrests, and wheel of the chair and feel fresh in your cleaned office chair.
