Tag Archives: area rug

Keeping a clean, healthy home during the holidays

Deck the halls and fire up the oven! Holiday season is upon us. It’s time for gatherings, finger foods, beverages, decorating, and laughs. It’s also time for spills, drops, tracks, and less time to clean them all up! Tis’ not the season for much stressing over messes and stains. Here are a few tips for a cleaner stress-free holiday season:

holiday_table

  • The welcome mat does more than just welcome. Put area rugs down in high traffic areas to protect your wall to wall carpeting and hard floors. If soiled or spilled upon, you can pick up the area carpet, bring it to be cleaned, or clean it yourself and hang it to dry. Cleaning your wall to wall is not as quick, and hard wood is still exposed to the additional soil and debris tracked in by company. Protect busier areas from all of the extra traffic this season and place a few area carpets down, primarily at entrances and busy hallways.
  • The best policy: No Shoes! Hands down, the best way to avoid wearing in traffic areas is to ask guests and family to remove their shoes at the door. Less soil will be tracked into and throughout your home. It’s another way to say “come on in, stay a while, and relax” in a maintainable, clean and healthy environment.
  • Vacuum, Vacuum, Vacuum. Break it out before and after each gathering. Vacuuming daily is ideal, but for those of us thinking this is highly impractical for the holiday season, do it at least before and after guests. It’s one extra step to do it both times, but it’s definitely worth it to the life of your carpets.
  • Emergency! Emergencies get your immediate, fast attention. Gently blot spills and splatters as soon as you are aware of them. The best results we’ve seen to remove spots starts with a spray of Chem-Dry’s carbonated spot remover and blotting with a cloth towel. No spot remover? Dab the cloth in lukewarm water, but not too much because it can cause the stain to sink deeper. If you’d like a can of spot remover, stop by our office between the hours of 8:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. Monday through Friday and pick one up! Take caution with which spot removers you do trust on your carpets because some can actually set the stain rather than help remove it.

Last but not least: have fun! Don’t stress too much about any one thing. Stressing along with the holiday rush opens opportunity for more accidents. Select simple guidelines to follow, prepare as much as you can in advance, and don’t forget to stop and smell the holiday swag. We wish you the happiest – healthiest holiday season.

How can I keep my carpets, area rugs, and upholstery looking their best?

Area carpets, wall-to-wall carpeting, and furniture pieces are all investments we make for our homes. We purchase area carpets to not only to protect our floors and warm our toes, but to represent our personalities. Wall-to-wall carpeting softens echoes and gives us great comfort. Furniture pieces are inviting to family and guests while serving as great design statements.  So how should you go about keeping them all looking great for as long as possible? Well for starters, protect them!

When we say to protect your textiles, we don’t mean cover the loveseat in a thick plastic cover like what you used to stick to at Grandma’s house. We suggest that you spray it with a stain resistant barrier, often referred to as fabric protection. Typically, fabric protection is sprayed on in a fine mist to evenly coat the tiniest of fibers.  For best results, it’s important to allow ample drying time for the product to set.

sofa

The protection barrier will assist in repelling liquids, allowing them to “float” on top for a period of time. Spill some grape juice in the living room? Thanks to your protection, you have ample time to blot the spill before it seeps in. Dirt and sand can settle into the pile of carpets and grind it down under traffic, creating irreversible wear spots.  Along with regular vacuuming, treating the carpets with protector will help prevent the dirt from settling in.  Now think of how often you sit on your couch in shorts and a t-shirt with your arm on the rest or your head cushioned by the back. Oils from our skin and hair are absorbed by textiles sometimes creating tough stains. With protection on your furniture, it will resist these oils and you’ll see better cleaning results.

If you’ve just purchased new carpeting or a new piece of furniture, ask the seller if it has a factory applied stain resistant. If it does, understand that it is not something that lasts forever. Overtime it loses effectiveness and wears away. Keeping up on having your piece protected It is crucial to keeping brights their brightest and darks their deepest. If it has not been pretreated, call around to your local carpet and upholstery care companies such as Chem-Dry, and they’ll be able to apply it for you.

So remember, you can apply this form of protection to area rugs, wall-to wall carpeting, upholstered furniture, cushions, and decorative pillows.  Some even spray it on their curtains, outdoor furniture, umbrellas and more. Don’t forget about that that car and boat interior either!  Protect textiles when they are new and immediately after each cleaning. With this little bit of preventative maintenance, you’ll cut costs not having to replace these items, and when you find that perfect piece, be confident it’s a protected investment .