5 spring cleaning tips for home textiles

A good home textile can spruce up any room, but do you know how to make them look their best? Here are our best spring cleaning tips for freshening up your curtains, tablecloths, bed linen, and upholstery.

1. Steam your home textiles

You may think that steamers only belong in the world of fashion and clothing care. But steaming also happens to be a quick and convenient way to clean and freshen up your home textiles. Steaming your curtains instead of ironing them will save you the trouble of bringing out an ironing board or having to remove the curtains from the rod.

Look around your home. Do you see any home textiles that you think could benefit from being steamed? Below are some of the most common home textiles that are perfect to steam during spring cleaning.

Curtains
As previously mentioned, steaming your curtains is super convenient since you can leave them hanging on the curtain rod. Simply press and move the steamer against the fabric and watch all wrinkles and creases disappear. The hot steam removes wrinkles and creases, while also fighting bacteria and odors. For an extra crisp result, use an iron steamer. 

Furniture and upholstery
Of course, how to care for your furniture always depends on what material they are made of. You should avoid steaming your leather or suede couch. But for any fabric sofa, couch, or armchair, steaming is a safe and efficient way to remove creases in the fabrics and fight odors and bacteria that are trapped in the upholstery. The same goes for pillows, throws, and blankets. 

Beddings
Steaming your bed linen is an effortless way to freshen up your duvet covers, bedspreads, sheets, and pillowcases. You can either steam to make your clean duvet wrinkle-free after washing or refresh your sheets between washes. The hot steam nourishes and lifts the textile fibers and makes your bed linen feel extra soft and fluffy. Finish off with some fabric spray to add a gentle scent of rose and musk.

There is no need to remove your sheets from the mattress when you steam them. In fact, it’s better to leave them on. Your mattress will also benefit from steaming since the hot steam helps get rid of trapped bacteria.

2. Shave off pilling

Has your favorite sofa or armchair developed pilling? No problem, this is completely natural and can easily be fixed. Pills, or bobbles, are just excess fibers that are typically found where abrasion happens on the fabric, like on armrests, or on fabrics that are extra prone to develop pilling, such as wool blankets. Read more about pilling.

With a fabric shaver, you can quickly de-age your furniture by shaving off these superficial signs of wear and tear. Gently sweep the nozzle over the bobbles and let the precision razor blades trim off the irregularities. Steamery’s fabric shavers work on all kinds of textiles, but we recommend starting with a smaller surface and being extra careful with delicate fabrics.

3. Remove dust and surface dirt

A common way to remove dust and surface dirt from sofas and armchairs is to use a vacuum cleaner. But over time, this will cause unnecessary wear and tear. Our advice is to use a clothing brush to gently sweep dust off your furniture. With bristles made of sisal fibers, Steamery’s clothing brushes are ideal for rougher fabrics used for couches, armchairs, or lampshades.

For more delicate materials and fabrics that attract a lot of lint and hair, we recommend using a reusable lint brush. The tiny bristles catch loose particles and gather everything inside a hidden container. It is a smart solution for removing pet hair without disposable tape rollers. When the brush is full, simply twist the handle two times to empty the container.

4. Say farewell to stains

The golden rule is to treat all stains as soon as they appear. But sometimes life gets in the way, and we have other urgent matters to attend to. Don’t fret, some stubborn stains can still be removed even after they have dried. If the stained textile is washable, like bedsheets, tablecloths, or curtains, you can pre-treat the stain with stain remover and then follow the regular washing instructions.

If you spill on your couch, or any other non-washable home textile, you can also spot-treat the stain with stain remover, wait for five minutes, and then wipe it off with a damp cloth. Even if the fabric is washable, we still recommend spot-treating or handwashing only the stained area to save time, water, and energy.

5. Think green when you spring clean

Finally, we would like to encourage you to think green when you are spring cleaning your home. For the sake of your health and the planet, we recommend using reusable tools and avoiding harmful chemicals at all costs. Try to invest in high-quality cleaning supplies that last a long time and remember that you can get far with soap, lemon, and vinegar.

We hope these tips can come in handy for spring cleaning season, or any other time of the year for that matter. Good luck and happy cleaning!