How to Clean a Gaming Chair: The Complete Guide

You’ve got to admit, your gaming chair is looking a little dingy. You don’t want to go live on stream in a dirty chair, but you also have no idea how to clean it. How do you get your gaming chair spic and span again?

To clean a gaming chair, you can use mild dish soap and water. A handheld vacuum can suck up surface crumbs and other debris. For stubborn stains, you might need a more specialized cleaner depending on the material of your gaming chair.

Whether your gaming chair is made of PU leather, real leather, mesh, or upholstery, I’ll tell you which cleaning products to use ahead. By the time you’re done reading, you’ll know exactly how to keep your chair looking nice! 

How to Clean a PU Leather Gaming Chair

Did you find your gaming chair for a steal at under $300? More than likely, the chair is made of polyurethane leather or PU leather. 

PU leather has the added benefits of looking and feeling like leather but without the hefty price tag that a real leather gaming chair has. The material lacks durability though and will eventually peel and crack.

That being said, how well you care for a PU leather gaming chair can be the difference between the upholstery cracking in two months or two years. 

Here is how I recommend you clean your PU leather gaming chair. 

Step 1: Remove Surface-Level Dirt and Debris

From dust to dirt and crumbs, debris can accumulate on your gaming chair if you use it for everything from working to gaming and lounging. 

If you’re not careful, you can easily grind debris into the PU leather, where it can create unsightly stains. 

Before that happens, be sure to make it a regular habit (at least once a week if not more frequent) to sweep away any surface-level debris. You can use your hand to do this, sending the dirt and crumbs into a wastebin. 

For a more thorough job, I’d recommend using a handheld vacuum cleaner. Turn the vacuum on and run it over the entire seat to suck up even those small dirt particles that you might not have seen. 

Step 2: Clean the Chair with Soap and Water

PU leather, even though it’s not the real deal, is like authentic leather in that you shouldn’t get it too wet. 

Even if your PU leather chair is waterproof or water-resistant (which many gaming chairs are to combat sweat), you still don’t want to soak the chair unless you have to.

I’d recommend spot-cleaning your chair if you can. That said, if your gaming chair is truly worse for wear and needs cleaning from top to bottom, then so be it. Keep reading for instructions. 

Get into the habit of using distilled water to clean leather products. Sure, this is recommended more for real leather gaming chairs than faux leather. Even still, by avoiding the minerals in tap water, your PU leather chair will look better and could last longer.

You only need a couple of drops of dish detergent or dish soap. The milder the soap, the better. The soap you select shouldn’t have an odor nor a color, as both could be imparted to your PU leather gaming chair.

Fill a small basin with the water and soap and mix until they’re sudsy. You can use a soft microfiber cloth to dip into the basin and then scour at the stain. 

Before you target the spot on your PU chair, you want to test how the faux leather will react to the dish soap and water. Pick a hidden spot and clean it. 

More than likely, your chair will be fine. You’ll want to know that before you clean an obvious area like the seat or back of your chair, though. 

Sometimes, dish detergent isn’t strong enough for certain types of stains. For example, if you spilled ink on your gaming chair, you’ll need rubbing alcohol and a cotton swab to fix the issue. Baby wipes can also help.

If not spot-cleaning, then take the microfiber cloth, wet it in the soap and water, and wring it out. You want to keep your chair as dry as you can when you clean it. 

Wipe the PU leather gaming chair from top to bottom, including the corners of the seat that you don’t reach very often as well as the underside of the seat and the back of the chair.

Feel free to keep cleaning the arms, the base of the chair, and the wheels. 

Step 3: Remove Any Lingering Soap Residue

Your PU gaming chair looks fantastic if you do say so yourself. However, it’s still a bit sudsy, and you know that won’t fly.

Indeed, it won’t. You’ll need another microfiber cloth, this one clean and dry. Dip it in distilled water and wring it out so the cloth isn’t soaking.

Then go over the entirety of your gaming chair that you cleaned with soap. When you don’t see any more soap bubbles or streaks of white, your PU leather chair is officially clean. 

Step 4: Fully Dry the Chair 

Remember, leather and water don’t get along, even PU leather. 

There’s no need to plug in your hair dryer or anything like that to dry the chair. Instead, you’ll need yet another microfiber cloth. This one should be clean and dry as well.

Rub the cloth all over the chair, drying every last square inch of the chair you cleaned. Mold and mildew can develop on PU leather as these fungi can on real leather. 

In that case, you’d have to use a specialty cleaner or throw your chair away, so make sure it’s very dry before you consider it clean.  

How to Clean a Leather Gaming Chair

You decided when you bought a gaming chair that you wanted to splurge and get the real deal. You spent several hundred dollars, maybe even a thousand dollars or more, but yours is a bonafide leather gaming chair.

How you maintain your chair won’t be all that disparate from the steps above, but the differences are more profound. 

For example, you don’t only have to use soap and water to clean a leather chair, and I’d recommend a leather conditioner to keep your gaming chair looking spiffy.

Let’s go over the steps now. 

Step 1: Remove Surface Debris

It’d be even more detrimental to accidentally grind dirt or crumbs into a real leather chair than it would be a PU chair. Prevent that heartbreaking outcome by sweeping away debris. 

Once again, I would recommend doing this several times per week or at least once weekly depending on how often you use your gaming chair as well as how you use it (do you snack in the chair or is it strictly for sitting and gaming?).

A handheld vacuum cleaner is again handy for cleaning your leather gaming chair and will be more thorough than if you were to remove the crumbs by hand. The vacuum can get into those tight crevices!

Step 2: Clean the Leather Chair

Now that your leather gaming chair is free of dirt and crumbs, it’s time to clean the rest of the upholstery.

If your expensive new chair has a stain or two, don’t worry, as I’ll tell you how to treat stains a little later in this section.

For now, let’s talk about general cleaning. If yours is darker leather or anything but white leather, you have two cleaning options. 

One option is to combine water and mild dish soap as you did when cleaning a PU leather gaming chair above. Once again, you should only use dish soap that is color and fragrance-free.

Your other option is to clean your leather gaming chair with a combination of water and vinegar, using the same amount of one as the other. 

For both cleaning methods, you’ll need a dry microfiber cloth, so be sure to have several cloths handy. 

To clean your leather office chair using dish soap and water, take the cloth, dip it into the mixture, and wring the cloth so it’s not dripping wet. Then wipe down the entirety of the chair from top to bottom. 

If you’re using vinegar and water, stir the two together and moisten a microfiber cloth in the mixture. 

This time, rub the cloth in circles. This will cause any hidden dirt that’s been trapped within the fibers of the leather to come to the surface. 

What if your gaming chair is made of specialty white leather? You can clean the leather with a mixture of vinegar and oil.

Use ¼ cup of vinegar and half a cup of oil, transferring the fluid into a spray bottle. Mist the upholstery and allow the mixture to work for at least five minutes.

Step 3: Remove Any Soap Residue

Your leather gaming chair looks shiny and clean, but it’s still covered in either soap or vinegar and oil. You’ll have to clean the residue, and the way to do that is with a damp microfiber cloth.

Just as you did when cleaning a PU leather gaming chair, dip a microfiber cloth in water, wring it out, and then wipe down your whole chair. 

Take special care not to soak the leather, as you don’t want to accidentally ruin your chair!

Step 4: Dry the Chair

With your leather gaming chair clean, it’s time to dry it. As you did in the last section, you can use a soft, clean microfiber cloth for the job. 

Step 5: Condition the Leather 

Make that leather shine with a nice application of leather conditioner.

You can always make your own conditioner, but since you splurged on a leather gaming chair, you might as well splurge on a commercial leather conditioner too.  

Make sure to follow the usage instructions to the letter. Too much leather conditioner can make your chair soggy and slippery, not sleek and shiny like you wanted! 

Step 6: Treat Stains

After cleaning your leather gaming chair and conditioning it, it’s time to treat any stains that may have appeared on your upscale upholstery. 

Toothpaste works on white leather gaming chairs, especially if the chair has scuffs or other noticeable discoloration. You should use gel-based toothpaste with a mild (or no) fragrance. 

Moisten the area a bit and apply a dollop of toothpaste over the stain or discoloration. With a clean, soft toothbrush, rub at the scuff or discoloration until it’s gone.

What if ink has discolored your brand-new leather gaming chair? The same solution as cleaning ink from PU leather applies. 

As you’ll recall, you should try rubbing alcohol and a cotton swab. If that doesn’t do it, then you can apply oil-free, non-gel cuticle remover. 

You want to use a lot of the stuff, covering the stain generously with cuticle remover. Then, leave it on the stain overnight and clean any residue in the morning using a damp microfiber cloth.

If an oil stain has rendered your leather gaming chair unappealing, take some cornstarch or baking soda and apply it directly. Allow at least a few hours to elapse, but ideally, overnight is better. 

During that time, the cornstarch or baking soda absorbs the oil that’s saturated into your chair.

What about those weird, seemingly unexplainable dark stains? Remove those from leather with cream of tartar (one part) and lemon juice (one part). Make a paste, rub it on the spots, and allow the paste to do its thing for 10 minutes. 

Those dark stains should be gone! Repeat if the stains are still noticeable until you’re pleased. 

How to Clean a Mesh Gaming Chair

Gaming chairs and mesh go together like peanut butter and jelly because playing games can be a sweaty business. Having a chair that allows sweat a place to exit and encourages natural airflow is going to make for a less stinky chair.

Cleaning mesh isn’t a whole different ballgame than maintaining a gaming chair made of real or PU leather. Here are the steps to follow.

Step 1: Remove Debris with a Handheld Vacuum

Begin by removing crumbs, dirt, and other debris that has settled on your chair after several long hours of beating the latest big boss.

A handheld vacuum cleaner is the handiest tool for the job. Be sure to get both sides of the mesh so that any particles trapped within the material can dislodge for a cleaner chair.

Step 2: Clean the Chair with Soap and Water

I hope you have some dish soap handy, as you’re going to need it. As I’ve recommended this entire time, you should use mild dish soap without a fragrance or a color. 

Fill a basin with water and add up to two squirts of the dish soap. That ought to do it. Then mix until the water gets nice and sudsy.

Dip a clean microfiber cloth into the mixture, wring out the excess water, and begin wiping down your chair.

You don’t want to soak mesh too much if you can help it just because it will take your chair longer to dry. You might have to plug in a hair dryer rather than use a dry microfiber cloth for the job, so the entire process ends up taking you longer.

You’re allowed to clean more than just the mesh upholstery with the soap and water mixture, but the plastic and metal components as well. 

Step 3: Use a Cotton Swab for Those Hard-to-Reach Places

The one downside to cleaning a mesh gaming chair is that reaching between the holes of the mesh can be a real pain. 

Your microfiber cloth alone might not be able to do it, so I would recommend a pack of cotton swabs, as you’re going to need plenty.

One by one, dip the swabs into the water and soap mixture to get all the spaces between the mesh looking as good as new again. 

This is going to be a time-consuming process, but it’s one you have to commit to if you want your gaming chair to be truly clean. 

Step 4: Dry the Mesh Chair

Next, it’s time to dry your chair. To get into all those teensy-weensy mesh openings dry, don’t try to use a microfiber cloth. I’d recommend a can of compressed air instead. 

How to Clean a Fabric Gaming Chair

You love a nice, comfortable seat, so you naturally gravitated towards a fabric gaming chair. You’re quite pleased with your selection, as sitting in the chair is indeed as plush and lovely as you had been hoping for.

Since fabric isn’t the most breathable material, you’re going to want to get into a regular habit of cleaning your gaming chair, especially if you do a lot of high-intensity streaming in the chair. 

How you clean an upholstered gaming chair doesn’t differ so much whether it’s polyester or knitted fabric. Here’s how you do it.

Step 1: Remove Surface Debris and Dust

That’s right, just as you’ve done for any other gaming chair material, the first part of cleaning your fabric chair is vacuuming it with a handheld vacuum cleaner. 

The vacuum will pull up any dirt, dust, and crumbs. It’s very easy to grind these messes into upholstered material, and the stains that can be left behind are much more damning compared to some of the other gaming chair materials I’ve talked about. 

Step 2: Clean the Chair with Soap and Water

The tried and true combo of water and dish soap once again comes to the rescue here. 

The ratio of water to soap is a bit different when cleaning upholstery. You want one part dish soap for every 16 parts water. 

Use distilled water as you have this entire time and keep the temperature lukewarm as well. You already know by now that I’m going to tell you that colorless, fragrance-free dish soap is best.

If you want to use a microfiber cloth and clean your fabric chair that way, you can. I’d recommend a spray bottle more, as you won’t get your chair too soaking wet when you clean it. 

Step 3: Remove Soap Residue from the Chair

If you weren’t already using a microfiber cloth before, you’ll need one now. It should be clean and dry, but you’ll moisten it with distilled water. Wring the excess water out and then wipe down the chair to remove any lingering dish soap residue. 

Step 4: Dry Your Chair

While you can always let your upholstered gaming chair air-dry, I’d recommend manually drying it with a microfiber cloth. This way, you’re not inviting any mold or mildew to start a party on your gaming chair! 

Conclusion 

Keeping a gaming chair clean should be a regular part of your routine to prevent stains from setting in and your chair from becoming too odorous to use. I hope that no matter which type of gaming chair you own that you can now clean it when the need arises!