Our best tips to minimise mess on your sofas this Christmas

Ah, Christmas. No wonder we all love it – it’s a time of joy, of family, and yes, a little bit of overindulgence. If you’re having guests over during the festive season, you might naturally be bracing yourself for a bit of mess, especially when it comes to your sofa.

The sofa is a natural focal point of any room, and the place where friends and family gravitate to watch their favourite programmes, socialise, and enjoy good food and drink. That means it can endure its fair share of stains and damage, especially at this time of year, so after a quick survey here in the office, I humbly present to you some of our top tips on how to protect yours from the worst of it. (Don’t forget that if worst comes to worst, you can always refresh its appearance with a replacement sofa cover from our extensive range right here at Cover My Furniture!)

Get your interiors ready in advance

OK, so it might not be the most appealing task in the world, but doing a big clean and tidy of the major rooms can really end up saving you a lot of stress on the day. If you like, you can think of it as a spring clean in the winter. (All the golden cleaning rules still apply; for example always clean top to bottom, rather than the other way around. Otherwise, you can end up dislodging layers of dust and other debris onto surfaces you’ve just cleaned!) By giving your interiors a clean slate by the time your guests arrive at Christmas, you might find that new messes, spills and stains are a lot easier to spot, and therefore a lot easier to deal with.

While you’re cleaning, it’s worth taking a second to quickly re-evaluate the space, especially the areas around your sofa. Is there anything which could be in danger of getting bumped or knocked into or onto it, with more people milling around? Plant pots, bottles, candles? Is it worth moving anything, or even temporarily re-arranging the room entirely?

And once you’ve finished, you might not want to put all the cleaning stuff entirely away in their usual cupboards. Leaving them in a prominent or easily accessible place for Christmas can give you valuable extra seconds to react when an accident happens, which can make all the difference when tackling time-sensitive spills like coffee or red wine.

Watch out for problem foods and drinks

Speaking of which, it’s a good idea to identify which foodstuffs and drinks are likely to be the biggest threat to your sofas. The most common stains are tea and coffee, wine, chocolate, and fruit juice – all of which are in plentiful supply at Christmas!

Sweets and similar sticky snacks especially are worth paying particular attention to. Not only are they omni-present, but the majority are also easily squishable, and lots of younger children tend to have a habit of stashing them in or around family sofas. There’s plenty of potential for mess there – either when they go back to eat them all en-masse, or when they forget about them only for someone else to sit on them later.

For these reasons alone, it’s generally a smart move to keep treats in the kitchen, or a similarly designated room, and set a rule that they’re only to be eaten there. It might not be followed to the letter, but let’s be honest, most kids will be quite happy to fetch themselves some sweets or chocolate and then eat them then and there. I know I would have been!

Consider a throw for your sofa

In much the same way as a loose sofa cover, a throw is an easy and convenient way to protect your sofa. What’s more, it provides a wonderfully comfortable extra layer for you and your guests to sit back and relax upon, and at this time of year it also softens the appearance of your interiors too, creating a particularly cosy and inviting atmosphere. Always lovely in the winter! And if it gets too messy or takes the brunt of any stains, it can be simply removed and put straight in the wash. It probably comes as no surprise to you that it’s a particularly popular option with pet owners for this reason.

One last thing – while we all love to spend our days in a clean house, it’s important to give yourself the time to relax too, especially during the festive season. You’ll likely have more than enough on your plate with all the usual pressures of hosting, not least the job of getting Christmas dinner on the table!

While mess on your sofa isn’t ideal, it’s not the end of the world. In fact, that’s exactly what we’re here for – with a replacement sofa cover from Cover My Furniture, it’s simple and easy to restore the appearance of your sofa to good as new. We have a huge range of colours, styles and shades to choose from, including covers from leading brands like Multiyork, Parker Knoll and Laura Ashley. Why not take a look around, and see what you can find?