Comfort is one of the key factors when working productively. It is very important that you are in the best position to be able to produce an excellent output – no matter what your task may be. Fortunately for us, there are a lot of ergonomic office chairs that have thick cushions and maintain our good posture. All this while keeping us snug when doing business.

However, these chairs are often overlooked when sanitizing the office. No matter if it’s latex or fabric, a well-maintained chair is a must. Remember that you bring bacteria with you in every place that you go to. So think of you and your team’s commute and the people they interact with before coming to the office. All these bacteria you and your employees acquire stays with you and pass on to the surface of your chair. Because these pathogens in the office are not cleaned often, this is where bacterias and germs can grow and leave a funky smell or worse, be a cause of illness.

Here are a few points to remember when cleaning office chairs:

Get rid of dust

The first step to cleaning chairs is dusting off those small particles that can be a cause of your allergies. Chairs easily gather dust and you’ll be surprised how much of it is stuck in the upholstery. They can be easily cleaned by vacuum, preferably with a brush end. Vacuum it from top to bottom each week or every other week. For fabric covers, you might need a more thorough vacuuming technique. It is also recommended to use an upholstery cleaner spray at least once a year to protect the chair from unwanted residues.

Remove the stains and spills

The key to easily removing spills is handling them as soon as you see them. Use a wet cloth to pat the spilled area blot as much liquid as you can. Chairs come with care tags that you can refer to when cleaning, so make sure to check those. Below is a useful reference when looking at the care tags

• S – the chairs should only be cleaned with a solvent-based solution
• W – the chairs should only be cleaned with a water-based solvent
• SW – the chairs could be cleaned with either a solvent-based solution or a water-based solvent

If you were not able to act quickly and spill left a stain, a simple way to get rid of it is by using rubbing alcohol. Take a cloth or a cotton ball and dampen one small area with the alcohol, if it does not leave any damage, you may go ahead and remove the entire stain

Cleaning chairs depends on what kind of material you have. We have covered the most common kind of office chairs below.

Leather chairs

Leather chairs are one of the easiest ones to clean. However, they still absorb oils from your body and can be left with stains. The best material to clean these is cleaning foams. Make sure that they are soft enough as scrubs can be too harsh for leather and will leave scratches. To keep them in tip-top shape, it’s advised to wipe them weekly and change often so that debris won’t damage the upholstery.

Clean leather chairs using a mild liquid detergent and distilled water. Carefully wipe the leather to rub off stains, then rinse with a damp rag to remove the soap residue. When drying, check for problem spots like creases to make sure you covered all areas. There are also leather cleaners available in the grocery that you can use once in a while.

Mesh chairs

These types of chairs can catch and attract dust because of their open-weave design. Let your mesh chairs breathe by using a hand vacuum weekly to get rid of trapped dust. Most of the mesh are also removable so you can wash them easily. Use dish soap and warm water to wash out the dirt, but be careful not to break down the fibers.

Vinyl chairs

Along with the leather chairs, these are pretty easy to clean up as well as they don’t soak up spills like the traditional fabric upholstery. You can clean these chairs by simply wiping them with liquid soap and warm water, be sure to be extra careful to the fold and seams of the material. Rinse and dry well after cleaning.

Plastic chairs

These office space type plastic chairs are often found in pantries, common areas, and coworking spaces. Most plastic chairs are made of polypropylene, which can be easily managed by warm water and mild detergent. If there are stubborn stains, just add a few more drops of soap and you should be good to go.

If these rules are too much to take in, you can always hire professional janitorial services that are trained to properly handle and clean any chair material. If you’re worried about the cost of hiring cleaning services for chairs, weigh in the cost of in-house cleaning and the time spent by employees each week just to clean their chairs. You’ll see it might be worth the investment.

Clean the arms, legs, and wheels

You’re almost done, but don’t forget about the skeleton that holds your chair together. First, place a cloth on the floor and turn your chair upside down. Unscrew the wheels from the legs of the chair to remove any gunk that could be causing the wheels to be stuck. Some use a butter knife to remove the accumulated debris. This will then leave you with a chair that moves around without any trouble.

Now, to the arms and legs, if these areas are dirty too, you may use dish soap and warm water to clean it, then dry with paper towels. It should leave you with nice looking arms and legs.

Ultimately, developing the habit of cleaning your area in the office, including chairs helps in the long-term maintenance of your office furniture. Additionally, it reduces dust and gunks that can cause your people to have a runny nose, allergies, or (in the time that we live in now) second-hand exposure to diseases and viruses.