Cleaning and looking after a chair here.

1. By material: what to use

Material	Routine	Spills
Mesh	Vacuum with a soft brush. Dust sits on the weave rather than in it.	Damp cloth, mild soap, blot rather than rub. Dries quickly.
Fabric	Vacuum. Once a year, a damp microfibre wipe over the whole seat.	Blot immediately, work from the outside of the stain inwards, then let it dry fully before sitting.
Velour	Vacuum along the pile, not against it. Brush to lift crushing.	Water sparingly — velour marks. Test on the underside first.
Eco-leather	Damp cloth, nothing else. Dry immediately.	Wipe at once; anything sugary left overnight bonds to the coating.
Genuine leather	Damp cloth; conditioner once or twice a year in this climate.	Blot, never soak.

89 of our 157 models use mesh, 61 fabric, 20 velour and 51 leather or eco-leather, so most chairs here are the first two rows.

2. What ruins upholstery

• Alcohol-based cleaners on eco-leather. The single fastest way to start the coating peeling. Household disinfectant sprays are usually alcohol-based — check before you spray anything on a seat.
• Soaking fabric. Water that reaches the foam takes days to dry in humid weather, and what grows in there afterwards is worse than the stain.
• Steam cleaners. Heat plus moisture is exactly the combination that breaks down polyurethane, whether it is foam or coating.
• Bleach, on anything. Obvious, and still the second most common thing people tell us about after the fact.
• Direct sun. Not cleaning, but it does more damage than dirt. Fading, brittle plastic, and coatings that let go early — the full list is here.

3. The parts that are not upholstery

These take five minutes and are skipped by almost everyone.

• Castors. Pop them out — most pull straight off — and clear the hair and grit from the axles. Fine sand in a bearing is what turns a smooth castor into one that scratches parquet.
• The gas cylinder shaft. Wipe it and leave it dry. Do not oil it: oil collects dust and makes a grinding paste.
• Screws under the seat and on the armrests. Thermal cycling loosens fasteners. Half a turn once a year prevents a loose joint wearing its hole into an oval, which is permanent.
• The mechanism. Nothing to do beyond keeping dust off it. If it clicks or wobbles, that is a different problem: fix it or replace it.

4. Twenty minutes a year

Put it in the calendar once and the chair outlives the lease:

1. Vacuum the seat, back and base.
2. Wipe the upholstery according to its material, from the table above.
3. Pull the castors, clear them, push them back.
4. Tighten the visible screws half a turn.
5. Check the chair is not sitting in the afternoon sun. Move it if it is.

Questions

The short version

Vacuum more than you wash. Damp cloth, never solvents, never steam. Clear the castors once a year and tighten the screws while you are down there. And keep the chair out of the afternoon sun — that does more damage than anything you spill on it.