Just as your other furniture gets heavy and regular use, office chairs can become a significant source of allergens and germs. Office chairs – especially adjustable ergonomic chairs often have crumbs, dust, lint, and hair stored and hidden in the nooks and crannies. Luckily, you can keep your office chair like new with some standard household cleaning supplies.
Suppose you have recently invested a lot of money in an ergonomic office chair that you simply love. In the beginning, everything is golden, and the chair looks great and feels great. But before you know it, your anxiety begins to kick in with the thought, “What if I accidentally spill something on it and stain it?” and “Will I be able to make it look like new again?”
Just check out these effective tips and methods on how to clean office chairs to get rid of that anxiety for good.
What is an Ergonomic Office Chair?
An office chair is classified as ergonomic when it has adjustable seat depth, seat height, and lumbar support. This indicates that you’re able to adjust the chair’s height accordingly so that your legs are perfectly perpendicular to the floor.
Moreover, the seat pan in ergonomic office chairs should enable you to adjust it so that you can sit comfortably. With its lumbar support, there is sufficient support for your lower back so that your spine doesn’t bend or curve and stays in an accurate position to maintain a good posture.
These ergonomic office chairs are specially designed to provide ample support to the human body by considering aspects like support, comfort, posture, and health. Furthermore, they minimize the adverse effects of being seated for more extended periods.
Ways to Clean Your Office Chair
If you have an office chair that’s gotten stained or dirty and needs some cleaning to do, then you’re in the right place. Throughout this article, we look at a few different ways to clean office chairs, including the ergonomic office chairs, to make them look new again.
1. Brush or Vacuum Dust from the Entire Chair
For this, the tools you require are:
- A small bucket or a bowl
- Cloth or rag
- Antibacterial soap
- Lukewarm water
- Vacuum cleaner
The best kinds of textile for brushing your office chair are fabrics. It is not recommended to brush office chairs made out of leather or faux leather. Get a chair brush to perform a quick cleaning of the back, seat, base, and arms of your ergonomic chair.
The kind of brush required for this technique is a bristle brush (hair brushes won’t do the trick). Think of it as the sweeping of house cleaning for your office chair, especially if you go for a fabric upholstery finish. Using a soft-bristled brush, gently brush and lift after each stroke ends to remove any dust particles or crumbs. Keep brushing till all the particles have been removed.
Another easy alternative would be to run a vacuum cleaner from the top of the chair to its wheels to pick up any hair, dust, lint, and other debris. If there are any hard-to-reach spaces, use a can of compressed air or a duster to clear out the difficult areas.
2. Disinfect Chair with Wipes or Sprays
For this, the tools you require are:
- Disinfectant Sprays or wipes
Many people these days are into disinfecting everything as they go long. If you are one of them, you might also find yourself wanting to disinfect your office chair. Sure, you can disinfect an office chair, but just remember one thing.
After using such harsh chemicals on the frames, base, and arms of your chair, you must always rinse them off thoroughly. Disinfectants contain harsh chemicals, so be kind to your hair and thoroughly rinse and wipe off everything before you think you’re done cleaning.
Note: Do not use wipes or disinfectant spray on the fabric of your ergonomic office chair directly unless it has been approved to be safe to use on that particular type of fabric. If you are careless in this matter, it might have undesirable results on the material.
In addition, disinfecting the chair with only wipes can affect your textile’s warranty. Many textile companies won’t maintain their products’ warranty if they’ve been misused or abused with chemical cleaners that haven’t been cleaned off regularly.
3. Spot Clean With Soap and Water
For this, the tools you require are:
- A small bucket or a bowl
- Lukewarm water
- Rag or cloth
- Antibacterial soap
The best textiles for spot cleaning your ergonomic office chair are leather, faux leather, and fabric. Any kind of textile can be cleaned effectively using this method. Use a mixture of lukewarm water and soap for spot cleaning parts of your office chair that require a bit of extra attention.
Antibacterial soaps will help you fight against the plethora of microorganisms that might be living in your chair. This kind of spot treatment is safe for a vast assortment of fabrics, genuine leather finishes, and faux leather.
In general, it is the most crucial task in this cleaning kit. You can use this method to quickly remove spills on any textiles. There’s no need to soak the chair, as no fabric likes being soaked. So spot treat with care using just a damp cloth and some water.
4. Spot-Treat Stains with Rubbing Alcohol
For this, the tools you require are:
- Rubbing alcohol
- Damp cloth
If the dishwashing soap and water solution doesn’t remove some stains, try using an alcohol-based cleaner to lift them off. Test a small area of your office chair, such as the seat’s underside, to ensure the cleaner won’t ruin the fabric.
Then rub a few drops of rubbing alcohol gently on the stain without soaking the fabric. Remove the excess with a moist cloth and allow the fabric to air-dry naturally. If alcohol also doesn’t do the trick, use a different cleaning agent.
5. Polish and Buff
If you want to take your office chair cleaning up a notch because you’re incredibly fancy and like keeping your things fancy and polished, you’ll need a polishing cloth. Use a polishing cloth on any metal or plastic surfaces for a quick buff and eradicate any dust that might have built up.
6. Use an Upholstery Cleaner or Seek Professional Cleaning Services
To tackle stubborn stains and for deep cleaning, get out your portable upholstery cleaner or sign up for the services of a skilled upholstery cleaner.
How to Clean Office Chair Wheels
In case you were wondering how to clean office chair wheels, don't worry. We've got that covered too.
1. Flip your office chair upside down and detach the wheels
Some wheels pop off merely by pulling, while others might need a screwdriver. You can do this step easily by being seated in another chair.
2. Use a knife to scrape out debris
Whether it is crumbles of dried food, small stones or pebbles, or gunk, the movement of the chair can be hindered. Slip in a butter knife into the tiny cracks between the wheels and their covers to pop out and scrape off any debris stuck.
3. Wipe the office chair wheels with a dry cloth
If there’s anything that can’t be scraped off with a butter knife, this will do the work. If the wheels are dirty, use a wet cloth and add some drops of soap. If you have to clean between the wheel and cover, use a cotton swab dampened with water to clean between the cracks.
4. Use a paper towel for drying the wheels
Any moisture on the wheel will keep it from moving smoothly, so thoroughly wipe the wheels with paper towels.
5. Put the wheels back and flip them back over
Your office chair should be able to roll smoothly now. If the wheels on your chair have screws, don’t forget to put back the screws in before sitting on the chair.
Wrapping Up
Hopefully, this guide should help you clean your ergonomic chair and make it look new again. After all the effort your ergonomic office chair makes in supporting you and ensuring you maintain a good posture, it surely does deserve a little bit of tender loving care.
So relax. You’ve got this. Without a doubt, your ergonomic office chair is going to be spotlessly clean and probably even the cleanest one around.
