Category: Couch

How Often Should You Clean The Furniture And Upholstery In Your Home?

Regularly cleaning your furniture can not only extend its life but can also minimize the level of allergens in your home. Although there are no strict requirements when it comes to how often you should clean your furniture and upholstery, there are some general guidelines that you can follow.

Upholstered furniture like armchairs, sofas, loveseats, and recliners should be thoroughly vacuumed at least once a month. If time allows, you should try to vacuum them even more often than that, running the upholstery brush attachment over the surface of the fabric and using the crevice tool to clean out any cracks between the cushions. This doesn’t take long to do and can make a big difference in how clean your furniture stays. If you have aluminium windows in your house you could extend this to a month and a half as these well sealed windows keep more dust and allergens out of the home and improve insulation.

Vacuuming helps remove particles like dust, pollen, and pet dander. These particles can easily become airborne every time someone sits on, moves, or uses the furniture. Unfortunately, contaminants like these can reduce the air quality inside your home, which can aggravate problems like allergies or asthma. By regularly vacuuming your furniture, you can improve the overall air quality inside your home, resulting in air that is cleaner and healthier to breathe.

Removing dirt and dust is also good for your furniture. Tiny pieces of dirt have sharp edges. If they are left in the fabric, they can wear away at the fibers every time someone sits on the piece of furniture. Over time, this can cause the fabric to wear out more quickly. Vacuuming away any dirt or dust can slow down this process, allowing your furniture to last longer.

It is also important to periodically deep clean your furniture. Usually, this means shampooing it just like you would with your carpets. Most experts recommend having your upholstery professionally cleaned once a year. For pieces that you don’t use very often, you may be able to extend that out to as long as two years between cleanings.

Of course, there are exceptions. If you have young children, they can really do a number on your furniture. Spills and stains are quite common, meaning that you most likely will need to have your furniture cleaned more often.

The same goes for pets. When dogs, cats, or other pets spend time on your furniture, they tend to leave a lot of messes behind. Regular cleaning can help remove any pet-related contaminants, ensuring that your furniture is as clean and well maintained as possible.

Because kids and pets are so hard on furniture, you may need to have your upholstery cleaned every six months or so in a busy household. Of course, not every piece of furniture in your home will need to be cleaned that often. However, the pieces that get the most use can probably benefit from this type of frequent cleaning.

Although you can rent equipment to clean your upholstery yourself, it usually is best to hire a professional to do it for you. Upholstered furniture is usually made up of multiple layers. Along with the surface fabric that you can see, there are also layers of padding underneath. If the furniture is not properly cleaned or dried, it could cause problems further down the road. Professional cleaning is relatively affordable and is definitely worthwhile when you consider that it could help prevent damage to your furniture.

Hopefully, this gives you a better idea of how often you should clean the furniture and upholstery in your home. Typically, the best option is to set your cleaning schedule based on the amount and type of use that each piece of furniture gets. Cleaning pieces that are frequently used or that are especially prone to stains more often is the best way to keep them in good shape.

6 Tips For A Healthier And Clean Home

Your home is a haven that should be safe, comfortable, and healthy. Unseen dangers can affect you and your family’s well-being. Maybe not bump-in-the-night, paranormal intruders, but chemicals, germs, viruses, and other pests can do harm if left unchecked.

Your home should be kept clean at all times, to reduce the chances of health hazards which can have serious consequences for you and your family. However, making sure that the house is clean at all times can be such a chore that often, we tend to ignore it until we no longer can. While this is not a way out, it is also a very unhealthy practice and should be avoided at all costs. Thus, you should strive to keep your house clean, either by doing it yourself regularly or hiring a professional cleaning service to get it done quickly and efficiently.

Here are 6 tips to get you on your way to a cleaner, healthier home.

Tip # 1: Be prompt about removing trash from your home. Waste will only decay as it sits in a trash can. After emptying the fridge of last weeks leftovers, remove it from your home before a slimy, smelly residue is left in your container.

Tip # 2: Keep laundry and other perpetually dirty things off of your floor. A raised laundry basket will allow for easier cleaning with a broom underneath, preventing dirt and dust from piling up and being tracked throughout your home. A shoe rack by the door can also save many a rug and carpet from discoloring

Tip # 3: A short weekly routine of wiping down the flat surfaces in your home with a barely moistened cloth will stop dust build up and give the allergy sufferers living there a relief.

Tip # 4: Keep your surfaces free of everlasting clutter. Some things will pile up naturally, like mail, magazines, books, empty food containers, and even socks that lost their match. Spend an hour once every month to go through these things and recycle, donate or toss what’s not needed any longer. Keeping your home free from stuff you don’t use and that doesn’t give you joy will help you feel calm and in control.

Tip # 5: Put things away as you use them. It’s so much easier to pick things up as you go rather than wait and have to undertake a huge cleaning session all at once. Sometimes this is easier said than done, but it’s something to strive for nonetheless. The key to making this work, of course, is to ensure that everything has its own place. Do that first if you haven’t already

Seven Nasty Things You Can Find Hiding In The Average Household Couch

After a long day, you probably don’t think twice before plopping down on your couch to relax and watch some TV. What you probably don’t know, however, is that your couch could be harboring some unpleasant and potentially harmful contaminants. Check out this list of seven nasty things you can find hiding in the average household couch. After reading through all of these items, you probably will view your couch in a whole different light:

1. Dust mites. Even though you have most likely heard about dust mites before, you probably haven’t given a lot of thought to what they really are. These microscopic members of the arachnid family feed on skin flakes from people and pets. They also sometimes eat mold. They hide in the soft surfaces of your home, including the fabric of your couch. That means that you could be sharing your couch with hundreds of thousands or millions of dust mites.

2. Mold. If your couch gets wet and isn’t properly dried, mold can develop inside the cushions and in hidden cracks and crevices. Even if your couch never gets wet, it still could develop a mold problem if you live in a humid environment. Excess humidity can cause mold and mildew to grow on the surfaces of your couch, which can be problematic for anyone who has breathing difficulties or an allergy to these substances.

3. Potentially harmful microbes. People and pets often carry bacteria, viruses, and other potentially harmful microbes along with them wherever they go. Some of these contaminants are transferred to furniture pieces like couches. These microbes can continue lurking in the fabric of the furniture, which could increase the likelihood of other family members or pets getting sick.

4. Food particles. If you eat food on your couch, it most likely is full of crumbs and tiny food particles. Typically, that means that it is also full of sugar, grease, and other ingredients that are commonly found in food. When upholstery fabric gets greasy or oily, it tends to attract dirt, which can leave your couch looking old and grubby, even if it is relatively new.

5. Pet dander. If you have pets, your couch is most likely full of pet dander. All animals leave behind these tiny flakes of skin. For people who are allergic to animals, dander can increase symptoms. It also provides food for dust mites, which can lead to an increase in these unwanted pests.

6. Hair and skin flakes. Like pets, people also lose skin flakes wherever they go. That means that your couch is most likely full of tiny flakes of skin from all of the people who have sat on it in the past. Again, this means that your couch is essentially a smorgasbord for dust mites.

7. Chemicals. The materials that are used in the construction of couches often contain chemicals. For instance, the foam that is used inside of couch cushions often gives off volatile organic compounds for a long period of time after you bring the couch into your home. These chemicals are a large part of the reason why furniture pieces like couches give off a distinctive “new” smell when you first bring them into your home.

Even though all seven of these nasty things can commonly be found hiding in couches, all hope is not lost. All that you have to do to keep these contaminants in check is to regularly clean your couch. Along with vacuuming it at least once a month, you should consider having it professionally cleaned on an annual basis. This is an affordable way to keep it clean and well maintained.