There are countless great reasons to have upholstered furniture in your living room, bedroom, and other areas throughout your home. Unfortunately, without the right care upholstery can become worn and dirty over time. One of the worst things that can happen to upholstery is it becoming stained, but this is easily preventable by taking advantage of the following tips.

Hopefully you will notice any food, drink, or anything else that may spill on to your upholstery. If you catch the spill as soon as it happens, you should be able to minimize the chance of a stain. As soon as something spills, you should act quickly a blot it out with a soft, white cloth. Softly dabbing the area is the best course of actually, as rubbing it can actually make the stain harder to clean.

The next step you take will depend on your specific furniture. If the tag has a W on it that means you should use a detergent that is water-based. On the other hand, an S means the cleaning product should contain no water. Decide which cleaning product is right for your upholstery and use a small amount at first.

Apply the cleaning formula to another cloth, and continue to carefully blot the area. This process will work fine for most types of food and drink stains, but if you’ve spilled something unusually tough to get out on your furniture you may need to do a bit of extra research to find the best course of action.

Follow these suggestions and you should never again have to worry about a permanent stain on your upholstered furniture.