Dusting & De-furring the Furniture

The cloth furniture in our homes sees a great amount of traffic and a great deal of wear and tear. And just like the floors, picture frames, kitchen, and bathrooms in our home, the sofas and armchairs we still in need upkeep to keep them in tip-top shape! Dust settles onto our furniture, and if we have pets fur collets onto the furniture as well. If we don’t take care of it, it can become quite an unsightly mess.

But how do we go about keeping the furniture clean, especially with so much dust and pet hair that makes the task all the more difficult? The first step is obviously assessing the sort of surface that you’re cleaning. Is your sofa cloth or leather? If it’s leather, it only needs a simple wipe down—with clean rags and an all-natural cleaner; but cleaning dust and fur out of cloth furniture is much more involved.

Choosing Your Method of Attack

There are a few tools out there that can help you “dust” your cloth sofas and armchairs. Small, whisk brooms and (surprisingly) shower squeegees are great tools for cleaning the furniture. The purpose of the whisk broom is to work up the dust, and it can pull fur out of the fabric weave. The squeegee is helpful for pulling fur off of the fabric, and it can cover a greater area than the smaller whisk broom. The only downside of a squeegee is that it doesn’t get up dust from the fabric. You can decide which to use for your cleaning method: one or the other, or both!

Whisking the Sofa

It’s very simple using the whisk broom on the sofa or armchair. To begin, pull the whisk broom across the fabric, from top to bottom. Once you get to the seat, whisk this, and then the foot. Then begin the next section again, working from one side to the other in small sections. Use enough strength to adequately pull out dust and fur. If there’s a lot of fur in the weave, pull up the hair that builds up as you go.

Using the Squeegee

If you decide to try using a squeegee to pull off the fur, work in sections (from top to bottom, from one side to the other) again. But pull the squeegee across the fabric slowly with a little more strength than the whisk broom. The fur should pull of easily. The squeegee, while great for pulling off hair and fur, it won’t be adequate for dusting.

After you’ve finished, quickly vacuum the floors around the sofas and chairs to pick up any loose dust or clumps of fur that have been pulled off. This nifty cleaning hack is the perfect way to shape up the cloth furniture in your home with confidence and ease!