Why bother?
Although a key element in desk jobs, not a lot of people pay enough attention to their office chair. If you already have a clean computer and a clean desk, it’s time to move on to cleaning your chair. If your office manager hired a professional office cleaning company, you don’t need to worry. There are a few tricks you can use if you’re supposed to do it on your own.
There are hundreds of shapes and sizes of office chairs. Some are bigger, some are smaller. Some have caster wheels, some don’t. Some have leather upholstery and some have fabric upholstery. However, they do have a lot of things in common.
Remove the dust
Firstly, they all gather dust. If you’ve never cleaned your chair, you’ll be surprised how much dust you’ll find scattered through the upholstery. Grab a small vacuum cleaner, preferably with a brush end, and start vacuuming it from top to bottom. If your chair is covered in fabric, you’ll need to be a lot more thorough with your vacuuming technique. You should be doing this at least once every two weeks. If less dust accumulates you won’t need to spend as much time cleaning it. To further protect your chair from dust and other residue, use an upholstery cleaner spray at least once a year.
Remove the stains
Now that you’re finished with dusting the chain, it’s time to remove the stains. Using cleaner and an appropriate type of cloth, wipe each stain on its own and then give your chair a general wipe. You should also take care of the arm rests. A dry cloth will be enough to remove dust. Use some cleaning solution on the cloth if the arm rests are also stain
Clean the wheels
Last but not least, it’s time to clean the central piece and the caster wheels. In order to do so, place some clean cloth on the floor and turn your chair upside down. Depending on the amount of dust and debris that’s clogging the wheels, you’ll need either a simple can of compressed air or a powerful vacuum cleaner.
If there’s little to no debris, use the can of compressed air to clean the surfaces. However, if you’ve never cleaned the wheels, it’s going to take a little more than just a bit of compressed air. First, use a high-power vacuum, like the ones used by professional office cleaning companies. Then, use a scrub brush and some cloths moistened with alcohol to soften and remove any potential grease, debris, or muck. That should leave you with a set of clean wheels. In order to maintain them clean and fully functional, remember to dismantle the chair every 6 months or so.
Tighten before reusing
Don’t forget to tighten any loose screws and to lubricate the moving parts. If you follow these steps regularly, you’ll never have a dirty office chair ever again.