August is back to school month! It is that time when everyone sends their kids back to school, and they go back to their regular routines in their work and personal lives. It is a good time to talk about routine maintenance in your household to extend the life of your furniture and flooring.
1. For daily tasks, clean as you go. Pick up clutter each time you pass through the room to keep it where it belongs. When you get home, take a few extra seconds to put what you are carrying away instead of setting it down in the entryway to deal with later. Procrastination only makes the problem larger.
2. Clean up spills or tracked dirt as soon as you see it. Not only will your home look nicer if you do, leaving the dirt and spills too long will cause it to stain.
3. Dust weekly. Use a microfiber duster or cloth to wipe down or dust items that collect dust before cleaning the furniture and flooring. DO NOT USE A FEATHER DUSTER! While cute and traditional, feather dusters launch the dust into the air so it can settle somewhere else where microfiber dusters capture the dust to remove it from the environment.
4. Do light cleaning once or twice per week. This means run a vacuum over the carpet, rugs and furniture as well as a sweep or dry mop over hardwood, tile and vinyl flooring. Pay attention to areas that are often forgotten like behind furniture and under tables.
5. Do a little heavier cleaning once per month or every other week if anyone has any respiratory conditions (asthma, allergies, etc.). This means moving the furniture to clean underneath it and vacuuming under the cushions and in the framing of the furniture.
6. Blinds and curtains should be dusted monthly. Curtains should be washed twice per year. Bed linens should be washed weekly and pillows should be washed twice per year even if they have protective covers. Fabrics are magnets for dirt, dust and odors. Since all dust eventually moves down to furniture and floors, maintaining a cleaning schedule protects more than just the item being cleaned.
7. All this helps maintain the floors and furniture between the deep cleanings. Carpet, rugs, hardwood and upholstery should be performed every 6 months. To make carpet, rugs and upholstery last even longer, consider applying protector to them at each cleaning making them more resistant to dust, dirt and spills. Tile floors should be deep cleaned once per year.
While this seems like a lot of effort, maintaining your furniture and floors makes your home look nice, safer to live in and much less expensive than having to replace poorly maintained furniture and flooring more often than necessary.
Call ServiceMaster of Gwinnett for your maintenance cleaning of your floors and furniture. We clean carpet, rugs, hardwood flooring, tile and upholstery.
