How To Care For Your Leather Fabrics
For many of us, the first piece of leather furniture -- whether it be a nice recliner, a romantic loveseat, a full-sized couch, or even your car seats -- is more than just a durably upholstered home furnishing that will, with proper care, last decades. It’s a mark of financial adulthood. After limping through college or graduate school, or those penurious first years on the job market, using cheaply made, already shabby thrift store furniture that wasn’t really worth properly caring for, we cherish those pieces that represent a less hand to mouth existence. For those who travel enough rungs up the economic ladder that leather home furnishings cease to matter, there’s the promise of leather car seats as a reward.
But all of this means that the buyer has to start thinking about stain removal, too.
Ditto for leather clothing. A leather jacket, depending on how it is tailored, can represent the ultimate in disaffected cool (as James Dean, Jean-Paul Belmondo, and various punk rockers have variously demonstrated) or the most in bourgeois elegance. But, either way, they have a value far beyond image. There’s a reason so many World War II veterans held on to their bomber’s jackets for the remainder of their lives. Leather, made from cow- or sheepskin, is warm, protective, yet porous: the perfect coat material for all but the warmest part of the year.
But precisely because clothes and furniture made from leather are so durable, comfortable, and generally excellent, fabric care becomes an issue in a way that it never would for that discount store polyurethane jacket or that ancient, fuzzy Goodwill couch (beer-stained by several generations of college students). For ordinary care, it’s generally enough to clean leather upholstery with a cloth made from soft material (nothing that will scratch) on a weekly basis. If your leather furniture is seeing heavy use, if you own a shedding pet, or if you live in an environment that’s heavy in airborne debris -- the pollen infested Southeast or the smog ridden Southwest, or near a construction site, or just a dusty old apartment -- a weekly vacuuming usually achieves the desired effect.
But that’s only half the cleaning battle. You also need to worry about stains. Leather is a sensitive material, and whether it be falling food or spilled soda, all sorts of liquids and solids can leave leather marked for life -- and not in a pleasant way.
And precisely because leather is so sensitive, the customer is trapped in a catch-22. She or he can’t simply neglect cleanup duties. But neither can she or he use the harsh chemicals that most stores offer in their “Fabric Care” sections. These cleaners, which were synthesized in a laboratory somewhere and are best used on considerably coarser surfaces (countertops, synthetic fabrics, bathroom tiles), will not leave any leather surface better than they found it.
One solution -- and an essential aspect of leather care, no matter what -- is to use a towel to blot the offending material before it has a chance to set in to the fabric. BLOT is the operative word in that sentence. Do not, whatever you do, wipe the spill, as this may simply spread it further. Blot it up with a soft towel as quickly as you can manage. The sooner spills are blotted up, the less chance there is of a permanent, disfiguring stain.
Having blotted the spill, you will, with any luck, be able to clean up any residue with simple soap and water. Use a gentle soap and warm -- not hot -- water.
If a mark persists, however, even after the water used to clean up the spill has dried, then you may be interested in using commercial stain removal. After all, that’s what those stain removal products are there for. Stain removal is a delicate process, though, and the buyer should beware of, again, using a stain removal product made from chemicals so harsh as to punish the leather surface even worse than the original stain would have done.
If you decide to opt for stain removal, then, search carefully to find a stain remover made from natural chemicals. Such an all natural stain remover would not have been available even ten years ago -- which means that commercial stain removal was not really a good option then for leather care. However, with the proliferation of natural products, as more and more consumers begin to worry about the impact that their purchases have on the environment, all natural versions of many kinds of home cleaning products have been made available. All natural stain remover is, then, a must for anyone who owns leather and is serious about keeping it looking sharp, year after year.
Thankfully, there are new innovations in stain removal that are made from ingredients to safely remove ink and other stains from a variety of surfaces. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Partnership Program, Design for the Environment’s (DfE) Safer Product Labeling Program has recognized a number of cleaners with the DfE Safer Product label. The DfE mark enables consumers to quickly identify and choose products that can help protect the environment and are safer for families.
So when tough stain removal is the objective, remember that there are safe, natural stain removal products on the market today. Today’s natural stain removal products can safely remove even the toughest stains while also protecting fabric, leather, vinyl, and many other surfaces from future stains.
About StainHotline.com
StainHotline.com, operated by The Casite Company, offers safe, environmentally friendly stain removal and upholstery protection products.For stain removal products to help with leather stains, carpet stains, wine stains, ink stains, and for odor removal, please visit http://www.stainhotline.com.
But all of this means that the buyer has to start thinking about stain removal, too.
Ditto for leather clothing. A leather jacket, depending on how it is tailored, can represent the ultimate in disaffected cool (as James Dean, Jean-Paul Belmondo, and various punk rockers have variously demonstrated) or the most in bourgeois elegance. But, either way, they have a value far beyond image. There’s a reason so many World War II veterans held on to their bomber’s jackets for the remainder of their lives. Leather, made from cow- or sheepskin, is warm, protective, yet porous: the perfect coat material for all but the warmest part of the year.
But precisely because clothes and furniture made from leather are so durable, comfortable, and generally excellent, fabric care becomes an issue in a way that it never would for that discount store polyurethane jacket or that ancient, fuzzy Goodwill couch (beer-stained by several generations of college students). For ordinary care, it’s generally enough to clean leather upholstery with a cloth made from soft material (nothing that will scratch) on a weekly basis. If your leather furniture is seeing heavy use, if you own a shedding pet, or if you live in an environment that’s heavy in airborne debris -- the pollen infested Southeast or the smog ridden Southwest, or near a construction site, or just a dusty old apartment -- a weekly vacuuming usually achieves the desired effect.
But that’s only half the cleaning battle. You also need to worry about stains. Leather is a sensitive material, and whether it be falling food or spilled soda, all sorts of liquids and solids can leave leather marked for life -- and not in a pleasant way.
And precisely because leather is so sensitive, the customer is trapped in a catch-22. She or he can’t simply neglect cleanup duties. But neither can she or he use the harsh chemicals that most stores offer in their “Fabric Care” sections. These cleaners, which were synthesized in a laboratory somewhere and are best used on considerably coarser surfaces (countertops, synthetic fabrics, bathroom tiles), will not leave any leather surface better than they found it.
One solution -- and an essential aspect of leather care, no matter what -- is to use a towel to blot the offending material before it has a chance to set in to the fabric. BLOT is the operative word in that sentence. Do not, whatever you do, wipe the spill, as this may simply spread it further. Blot it up with a soft towel as quickly as you can manage. The sooner spills are blotted up, the less chance there is of a permanent, disfiguring stain.
Having blotted the spill, you will, with any luck, be able to clean up any residue with simple soap and water. Use a gentle soap and warm -- not hot -- water.
If a mark persists, however, even after the water used to clean up the spill has dried, then you may be interested in using commercial stain removal. After all, that’s what those stain removal products are there for. Stain removal is a delicate process, though, and the buyer should beware of, again, using a stain removal product made from chemicals so harsh as to punish the leather surface even worse than the original stain would have done.
If you decide to opt for stain removal, then, search carefully to find a stain remover made from natural chemicals. Such an all natural stain remover would not have been available even ten years ago -- which means that commercial stain removal was not really a good option then for leather care. However, with the proliferation of natural products, as more and more consumers begin to worry about the impact that their purchases have on the environment, all natural versions of many kinds of home cleaning products have been made available. All natural stain remover is, then, a must for anyone who owns leather and is serious about keeping it looking sharp, year after year.
Thankfully, there are new innovations in stain removal that are made from ingredients to safely remove ink and other stains from a variety of surfaces. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Partnership Program, Design for the Environment’s (DfE) Safer Product Labeling Program has recognized a number of cleaners with the DfE Safer Product label. The DfE mark enables consumers to quickly identify and choose products that can help protect the environment and are safer for families.
So when tough stain removal is the objective, remember that there are safe, natural stain removal products on the market today. Today’s natural stain removal products can safely remove even the toughest stains while also protecting fabric, leather, vinyl, and many other surfaces from future stains.
About StainHotline.com
StainHotline.com, operated by The Casite Company, offers safe, environmentally friendly stain removal and upholstery protection products.For stain removal products to help with leather stains, carpet stains, wine stains, ink stains, and for odor removal, please visit http://www.stainhotline.com.
