The living room is the centrepiece of the whole home - when visitors show up, it’s usually where they spend most of their time. It’s also an area for relaxation, so ensuring that it provides a warm and welcoming environment is a must. The furniture is the most used and viewed part of the room, so when doing a thorough house clean it’s important to give them the attention that they need. Here are a few important things to consider when cleaning and taking care of your furniture pieces.Sofa cleaning is a tricky business, because they come in a variety of styles and materials, but there’s one thing you can always depend on, and that’s the vacuum cleaner. Give your sofa a proper clean with it, both on top and underneath the cushions and you can say goodbye to any embedded crumbs ruining your day. For anybody with biscuit eating children; this is doubly important.Another piece of general advice to consider is to flip the cushions every once in a while. Say, every couple of weeks. This may seem like a small thing, but if both sides of the cushions get regular usage they’ll wear slower and extend the life of the material. The small things are important. Now for the specific advice. Take a look, see what furniture cleaning tips apply to you!Leather, being on the more expensive side is a material that requires more care than most. The main thing to keep in mind is to keep your leather furniture out of direct sunlight. Intense light and heat causes the material to crack and become discoloured. It’s not a good look, take it from us. When it comes to the cleaning, warm water is all you’ll need for small marks. Just dab it with a sponge, and rinse. For heavier duty stains, you’ll need a special leather cleaning agent, or if you’re caught without that; try the following;Mix two parts warm water with one part vinegar (be careful with the measurements) and that’ll lift most stains right off. The acidic properties of the vinegar make it an effective cleaner and deodoriser. Just be sure to test it on an inconspicuous area first, just in case.For other fabrics, laundry detergent and warm water is a good substitute for specialised upholstery cleaners. Just mix three parts water to one part detergent and mix until it’s nice and foamy. Be sure to only use a mixture that doesn’t contain bleach. After the cleaning process, just let the material dry naturally. The heat from a hair dryer or a mobile heater could potentially do more damage than good, so keep that in mind. If all you want to do is a little spot cleaning, why not try hand wipes? They lift stains off and are relatively dry, so they’re perfect for small marks. House cleaning in general can be a never ending task - with so much to do and so little time in the day to do it, you can be forgiven for wanting a reprieve every now and again. Get in touch with one of the many professional cleaners if this is how you feel - they can clean every part of the house, taking care of the upholstery cleaning without much of a problem. Whatever method you choose, just take your time, and find the right cleaner for you!