How to Thoroughly Clean an Office Chair
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The chair in the photo above is a chair that I borrowed from my office so I could comfortably work from home during the COVID-19 pandemic. As you can see, the chair is filthy, and as far as I know it has never been cleaned in the 6 years that I have been at the company. So naturally, the first thing I did when I got it home was thoroughly clean it. I'll show you exactly how I did it in the demo below.
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Lets talk about cleaning solutions. The best kind of cleaning solution for office chair cleaning is household ammonia. Household ammonia is an excellent choice because it is a powerful cleaner that will suspend dirt, body oils, food oils/greases, and more. The other great thing about household ammonia is that it will completely evaporate when you are done cleaning, so it will leave zero soapy residue, or cleaning product odor in your chair. On the downside, household ammonia does have a bit of a pungent odor. The odor will only be noticeable during the cleaning process and will quickly go away as the chair dries after cleaning.
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You will need: water, household ammonia, 2 spray bottles, a soft brush, and a small wet/dry vacuum
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STEP 1 OF 1 - Office Chair Cleaning
Before cleaning, dry vacuum the chair to remove as much dry soil as possible. The more dry soil that can be removed the better.
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A soft brush can be used to agitate the fabric. Do not use a brush with stiff bristles, as the bristles may damage the fabric.
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Spray a small area on the chair with water, then vacuum the water with the vacuum. Repeat these steps to rinse all parts of the fabric.
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Photo of the chair prior to cleaning.
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Brush the chair with the soft brush. This will help the cleaning solution do its job and lift the soils from the fabric.
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Allow the chair to dry. It is important that the chair dries within 24 hours. A fan can be used to speed up the drying time.
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Spray the chair down with the cleaning solution. I recommend using 1/2 cup household ammonia, 2 cups water.
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Rinse the cleaning solution and soils with water. Spray 5 to 10 pumps of water, then vacuum the wet area with a wet/dry vacuum, and repeat.
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This is how dirty the water was after cleaning my office chair. For extremely dirty chairs, this cleaning process can be done twice.