Best way to clean a sofa / three piece suite?

moomintroll_3

Hi.

We've had our sofa / three-piece for a while now and its time to give it a good clean... What's the best way to clean something like this?

My wife is worried about the covers shrinking if we stick them in the washer so I was wondering, if we took the covers off and washed them in luke-warm water by hand with some gentle detergent that would work OK or is there a better way to do this?

The sofa is dark blue -- well, its meant to be ;-)

Any and all hints and tips for doing this kind of job greatly appreciated.

Thanks.
G

suki1964

Unless the covers say they are removeable and can be washed, then the chances are they will shrink, or worse still you can only remove the seat covers and they will fade leaving you with two tone furniture(as I found out myself the hard way)

Am afraid to say since that costly mistake I have mine cleaned along with the carpets once a year by a professional company

secretdancer

We cleaned ours on a cool wash in the washing machine despite them saying dry clean only. Shrunk slightly but we still got them back on. My mother got a professional cleaner to do hers - a year later they are threadbear.

Both are second hand sofas, a few years old. Seems like a lottery either way.

heatherw_01

Steam cleaners can clean well without soaking the sofa so it shouldn't shrink.

Murtle

We steam clean ours - and it works a treat! Never had shrinkage problems or difference in colours, other then clean and dirty (when we've only done half!)