New furniture is exciting, it adds spice to your room and your home as a whole. Old furniture is also just as important, because it may be valuable or carry sentimental value. Whatever the case, protecting your furniture and taking care of it is an important and some times difficult task. There are several things you can do to extend the life of your furniture by cleaning it, and they are all pretty simple.
For non leather or other sensitive surfaces, you can clean it weekly by vacuuming and wiping it down with a cleaning fluid that dries up without using water. Many of these are safe for all fabric materials. This is a good method for newer furniture, so that you can actually prevent anything from happening to it. A lot of people go years before they notice that their furniture has become dingy or mistreated.
Leather is a tricky material to clean, and so is imitation leather. Couches, chairs, stools, and tables, can all be easily cleaned with a leather oil. It absorbs quickly, and leaves your furniture shiny and supple as the day you purchased it. Keep in mind, small animals that live in your home may lick the furniture, and it could be dangerous to their health.
If your furniture requires a bit more than wiping down, or vacuuming underneath the surfaces, steam cleaners are the answer to your problems. While you cannot use these on leather or any surface other than cloth, you can use them on most fabric upholstery. There are even smaller machines for usage on furniture. The steam cleaners work by getting deep down into the surfaces of the material, so that you can be assured that all of it is clean.
Stains are pretty tricky too, and you may think that some things will never come out of your furniture. For blood, and staining bodily fluids, clean it immediately with cold water. Hot water will cause the staining to set quicker, but cold will rinse it from the fibers. If your furniture is white, you should not be too afraid to use bleach on small stains.
For food particles getting stuck on your furniture, such as gum or other sticky things, an ice cube and peanut butter can solve your problem. Use an ice cube to freeze it and make it hardened, and then peanut butter to help with scrubbing the sticky gunk off.
Closing Comments
Furniture cleaning can be done quickly, and should be done quickly. Since furniture pieces are all different, and vintage materials have different requirements for cleaning than new simple ones, you should always get a 2nd opinion on what needs to be done to your piece of furniture.
