furniture
So you have just spent thousands of dollars on a new material couch, and you’re wondering how your old couch deteriorate so quickly. Will I have to buy another sofa for another three years? Well, fear not. If you follow the below rules, your material couch can easily last a decade or longer.
No Eating
Sounds like an obvious point right? And I’m sure when you first buy your new couch, this will be a hard rule. Unfortunately, over time though most people become lax with reinforcing this rule. Eating on a fabric couch causes stains and crumbs to be dropped down crevices that likely never gets adequately cleaned. The staining is obvious and makes your couch look unkept immediately. The crumbs may seem more innocuous, but they lead to the accumulation of a host of different bacteria. Some of these include strains of E.coli which are commonly found in faeces. These bacteria emit an unpleasant aroma, and if left unchecked and if the right conditions are met, they can multiply in the material of your sofa.
No Pets
Another obvious one and I know it’s hard to boot your furry little friend off of you lounge on a cold night when you’re watching t.v, but it’s a rule that you need to stick to. Similar to food and the growth of bacteria, pets shed their own type of microorganisms. Proteobacteria are a common form of bacteria that make their way into your home via pets. Whilst proteobacteria make up a broad range of bacteria, and they have been linked to ill health effects such as Whooping and other illnesses. If this isn’t enough of a reason to get your pets off of the couch, then think of the material itself. Every time one of your pets jumps onto your lounge, they will slightly scuff the material with their nails. Done a few times it will seem they are causing no damage at all, but over time, after hundreds of jumps, they will cause threading and wearing on this material They also shed hairs that can penetrate the fabric of your couch and can never be removed. So please keep your cute furry friends away from your new furniture.
Throws and covers
Another simple and inexpensive way to protect your new furniture is throws, covers and cushions. Not only do they protect your couch to some degree, but they can also make your couch look great. They are easy to wash and after some time if you after a new look, new throws can change the look and feel of a room and best of all they are relatively inexpensive. Now, how do these items protect your couch? Well, the human body excretes sweat, oils and sheds skin cells, even whilst you are sitting still. These oils penetrate materials and cause the slow erosion of the delicate fabric threads. Skin cells unfortunately and unavoidably become an all you can eat buffet for dust mites. Did you know that dust mites excrete twice their body weight every day? Gross right? A throw or cover acts as a barrier to dust mites, their faeces and the sweat /oils that leak from your skin. The best bit is these throws are easy to clean and make a big difference in protecting your furniture.
Upholstery Protection
Adding a layer of upholstery protection is also a great way of making your furniture last for years to come. These solutions are commonly applied via an aerosol can. They form a thin and invisible shield that repels stains and acts as a semi-permanent barrier. This upholstery protection solution needs to be applied quite regularly; every three months is an excellent routine to get into. Note though that these solutions should only be used on a clean couch, applying them over a stain is the worst thing you could do, making it nearly impossible for these marks to be removed in the future.
Regular Cleaning
Even if you stick to all of the rules above, and you buy throws and add upholstery protection such as scotch guard. Eventually, you will have to clean your furniture. You can try and do it yourself and become frustrated with the results and potentially damage your furniture through bad cleaning techniques or the wrong chemicals. The best thing to do is to use a professional upholstery cleaning business. They have years of knowledge and experience in dealing with different fabrics. They have equipment such as hot water extraction machines that clean upholstery ten times better than you can and cause no damage. If you use an upholstery cleaner such as Empire Upholstery, they may even throw in the free application of upholstery protection for free.
Stick to all of the rules mentioned above and have your couch regularly cleaned and protected and it’s likely that you will have a couch that looks as good as the day you bought it for years to come.
You must be logged in to post a comment.