Caring for furniture in modern conditions - This is a huge arsenal of special chemicals. But it will be useful for housewives to find out information on how to use simple and safe means. You can learn how to organize furniture care at home from the material provided.
Here are useful tips for caring for furniture using the most common products to remove dirt and stains. By following all these rules for caring for furniture, you can extend its service life and maintain an attractive appearance for many years.
Use simple tips for caring for furniture and this will help you organize comfort and order in your home without the threat of harm to the health of your household through the use of safe products. Instructions for cleaning upholstered and cabinet furniture can be used both at home and in the hotel business.
Instructions for caring for wooden cabinet furniture
Housewives have to do a thorough cleaning of their apartment twice a year. This labor-intensive event is usually carried out in spring and autumn, in the off-season. A lot of dust accumulates in hard-to-reach places, and it is sometimes impossible to completely get rid of it without moving the furniture. However, when moving furniture, it is easy to damage the surface of the floor, regardless of whether it is planked or covered with linoleum. Parquet floors coated with clear varnish are especially sensitive to damage. The proposed instructions for caring for furniture will greatly simplify the task.
To avoid scratches on your floor, you need to take certain precautions. I recommend placing pieces of soft thick fabric, felt, felt or foam rubber under the legs or stands of cabinets, bedside tables, tables, sofas.
It is best to glue pads made of soft material to the legs of chairs and stools, which will reliably protect the floor from scratches - after all, these pieces of furniture have to be moved several times a day, for example, when sitting down to have lunch or work at a desk.
It happens that the doors of cabinets or bedside tables are difficult to close. This usually happens if the floor is uneven. To correct this when caring for wooden furniture, you need to place a piece of thick cardboard or foam under one or two parallel legs.
If the drawers of a desk or sectional furniture no longer move freely inside, then when caring for cabinet furniture, you can rub their ends with a piece of soap or a paraffin candle.
Do furniture makers need social networks?
Needed. I hope you have no doubt that furniture companies need a website? Social networks are at least one way to increase its traffic. It is also an effective tool for receiving applications, communicating with the audience and increasing loyalty to your brand. Furniture makers who really want to make a profit must consider all promotion methods, but choose the main ones depending on their own goals and resources.
Below are detailed instructions that will allow you not to waste your budget on an empty imitation of activity, but to get real profit from social networks.
Caring for polished, varnished and glossy furniture at home using simple means
Simple care of polished furniture at home will preserve its attractive appearance. You should not place anything hot on the polished surface of a table or bedside table: a cup of tea, coffee, a plate of steaming soup, etc. Polishing does not withstand exposure to high temperatures, and contact with hot objects can end sadly - both for the furniture and for you - whitish spots will appear, which are sometimes impossible to get rid of. Don’t be lazy once again to place special napkins or coasters under the hot plate. If you are dining at a polished table, you need to cover it with a thick tablecloth or oilcloth. Under a thin tablecloth, you can place a folded fabric (for example, flannel).
If you follow these rules, caring for polished furniture with home remedies will not require much time spent on cleaning.
If ink is spilled on polished furniture, you need to rub the stain with a rag soaked in beer and let the surface dry, then lubricate it with wax and clean it with a soft woolen rag.
Any furniture, both wooden and plastic, should not be installed in close proximity to heating appliances. The distance between the furniture and the central heating radiators must be at least 40-50 cm, otherwise the furniture may warp and the polish may fade and change color. Polished and colored plastic furniture quickly fades under the bright rays of the sun.
When caring for polished furniture, wipe off dust with a soft, clean cloth, always dry - exposure to water, especially hot water, will cause the polish to become dull, and white spots and stripes may appear on it. In order to protect the polish from drying out and small cracks appearing on the surface when caring for lacquered furniture at home, sometimes it needs to be wiped with a special cleaner for polished furniture.
A similar composition for caring for glossy furniture at home can be prepared at home. Mix vegetable oil and dry white wine in equal parts, add a few drops of ammonia - and the product is ready. This mixture is applied in a very thin, even layer to the surface of the furniture, from which the dust has previously been wiped with a dry soft cloth. After 15-20 minutes, when the mixture has dried, gently polish it with light circular movements using a cotton swab or cloth.
If the furniture is lined with bog oak veneer, it can be polished and refreshed using the following product. You need to take a wax candle stub and cut the wax very finely with a sharp knife. Then pour the resulting powder with dry white wine or beer (150-200 g) and add 1 tsp. ground coffee. Boil this mixture over low heat for 1-2 minutes and, after cooling slightly, apply it using a cotton swab in an even, thin layer on the surface. The composition should dry for 30-40 minutes, then the furniture should be rubbed until shiny with a soft, dry cloth.
You can try to remove white stains on polished furniture caused by contact with hot objects by rubbing the stain with wax, covering it with filter paper and pressing it lightly with a not too hot iron. After some time, wipe with a soft cloth.
To add shine to a light polish, furniture can be wiped with olive oil by lightly sprinkling it on a cotton swab or soft cloth. After this, the furniture should be thoroughly wiped with a dry, clean cloth.
A greasy stain on upholstered furniture will disappear if you put clay soaked in vinegar on the stain.
Stains from greenery, especially on light, polished furniture, can be easily removed with an ordinary eraser.
Fresh acid stains should be immediately moistened with ammonia and then rinsed with water. If ammonia is not available, it can be replaced with a solution of bicarbonate of soda (1 part soda to 5 parts water).
To add freshness to mahogany furniture polish, use the following composition: mix dry red wine and vegetable oil in equal parts and add a few drops of ammonia. The same product perfectly removes dirt from furniture that is difficult to wipe off with a dry cloth.
If polished furniture is infested with flies, you can wipe it with a cotton swab or a cloth soaked in a small amount of cold beer.
The varnish that covers the furniture will shine again if you treat the furniture with a swab dipped in kerosene and carefully polish it with a soft woolen cloth.
Caring for unpolished and matte furniture at home
When caring for unpolished furniture, it should be wiped with a dry soft cloth or treated with special attachments for a vacuum cleaner. In case of heavy contamination, you can remove dust and dirt from the furniture with a damp cloth, but be sure to wipe the surface of the furniture dry afterwards.
When caring for unpolished furniture at home, it can be renewed using a specially prepared composition. Place the finely planed wax in a glass jar and fill it 2/3 full with turpentine. Place the jar in a short metal bowl filled with very hot water. When the wax is completely melted, you need to mix the mass well.
Before treating with this composition, you should wipe the entire surface with a cloth soaked in warm soapy water, then with a clean damp cloth and wipe dry. Then apply a mixture of turpentine and wax, distributing the mixture evenly in a thin layer. The mixture should be left on the furniture for 24-36 hours, then thoroughly rubbed and polished with a woolen cloth or a piece of felt.
It happens that unpolished furniture lined with valuable wood develops swellings that spoil its appearance. This problem can be helped by caring for matte furniture, removing bubbles with a hot iron. This is done like this: apply 3-4 sheets of white thick paper to the surface of the furniture and iron the swollen area through the paper. If this does not work, you can carefully puncture the bubble with a sharp, thin instrument and pour a little glue into the resulting hole. After this, iron the damaged area of furniture again with a hot iron through several layers of paper.
However, this method is not suitable for polished furniture. If the polish is damaged, you should contact a furniture specialist to repair it.
We often use straw furniture to create the interior of balconies or loggias, and kitchen areas. However, in such rooms the most dust, soot, and fumes from a gas stove and various household appliances accumulate. Straw furniture gets dirty very quickly and requires cleaning. It can be cleaned quite well with a brush dipped in a strong solution of table salt. This returns it to its original light color.
If straw furniture begins to turn yellow over time, it can be bleached a little by wiping it with a cloth generously moistened with a not very strong solution of potassium permanganate (a few crystals of potassium permanganate per 1 glass of warm water). After cleaning, the furniture should be wiped with a clean damp cloth and dried thoroughly.
Heavily soiled straw furniture can be carefully washed with moderately hot water in which a small amount of washing powder or laundry soap is dissolved. Then the straw is washed with clean water using a rag and dried well.
Which social network to choose: Instagram and all the others
In the course of our research on which social networks to promote a furniture business, we made some conclusions.
Instagram is the most promising social network for furniture makers. There is maximum involvement. The same content on Instagram and other social networks with the same number of subscribers receives tens of times more responses. Moreover, these are not only likes, but also real applications. When promoting, maximum attention should be paid to Instagram. All other social networks are developing, rather, in addition to it. Our findings are identical to the Insense study.
VKontakte is the largest social network in Russia, and this must be taken into account. There are people on VKontakte who are not on Instagram, so investing here can pay off. Official information about the social network.
You need to have Facebook, if only because it is from it that your Instagram profile is managed. The Russian-speaking audience on Facebook is much smaller than on VKontakte. According to the Lead Generation Academy, as of June 2020, its number is 23 million. But this is a very high-quality audience: there are many adults, educated and wealthy people here, this must be taken into account if you are selling expensive furniture. But you shouldn’t expect a big response from Facebook. This social network successfully resists commercial activities. It artificially lowers the impression rate of content from brand pages. You can read more about this algorithm in this article.
Twitter and Odnoklassniki. Twitter never took root in Russia, and the popularity of the network is falling altogether.
The Twitter audience has stopped growing. The monthly number of active users of the microblogging service in the second quarter of this year was about 328 million. The same figure was noted in the first quarter of 2017. However, when compared with the second quarter of 2020, the increase was at 5% (according to 3D news).
Odnoklassniki, on the contrary, is the second largest social network in Russia. But it does not have a high level of engagement based on our research on furniture business promotion on social networks. If you still decide to test this social network, “you can read the complete guide to Odnoklassniki on the Texterra blog.”
YouTube is a promising channel, but promotion there is complicated by the high cost of producing video content. It’s one thing to shoot a short video for Instagram on a smartphone, knowing that users will only watch it from the small screens of mobile phones.
A detailed study of the social media audience is provided by Brand Analytics.
Another channel is messengers. It is unknown whether the furniture theme is popular there or not, how users will react, and whether investments in promotion will pay off. If you want to try it, tell us about the results later.
Back in 2020, we wrote an article about how to use instant messengers for advertising. If interested, you can read the link.
So far, messengers are used by sellers to communicate with clients, clarify their requests, and send them photos with a selection of products. This also needs to be taught. It’s not enough to send a photo and ask, “How do you like it?” It is important to give the correct explanations using the techniques “Highlight of the product”, “5 steps to set the price range”, “PrePoVoz” and a number of others. We teach sellers these subtleties in a special distance learning course.
This article describes only work on Instagram, VKontakte and Facebook.
Rules for caring for upholstered furniture
Upholstered furniture also needs regular care. When caring for upholstered furniture upholstered in fleecy fabrics or tapestry, you can clean it with a vacuum cleaner or a not too hard brush specially designed for this purpose.
If furniture upholstered with synthetic fleecy fabrics is very dusty, you can clean it in this simple way. Soak a thin cotton cloth or gauze in a strong, warm solution of table salt, wring it out and wrap it around a brush with stiff bristles. After treating the furniture with such a brush, you need to clean the upholstery with a dry and softer brush.
Contaminated upholstered furniture can also be cleaned this way. Prepare a solution of warm water and table vinegar at the rate of 1 tbsp. l. for 1 liter of water. Dampen a large enough clean rag in this solution to cover the entire surface of the furniture. Cover the furniture with this rag and knock it out with soft blows of a special beater or a regular stick. As the rag becomes dirty, rinse it in clean water and, after moistening it in a vinegar solution, continue the process. Finally, clean the furniture with a soft, dry brush. These simple rules for caring for upholstered furniture will help maintain its beautiful appearance for many years.
Useful tips
- Never use chemicals if you choose granite and marble surfaces. Laundry soap is the only safe and effective option .
- Rub the walnut into cracks and scratches on the wood surface. This is the most affordable way to disguise them for a while.
- When cleaning vertical surfaces, lay down paper. Then the removed dirt and grease will fall on it, and not on the floor.
- Use polish when cleaning. It will not remove grease, but it will slow down the contamination process .
Over time, kitchen furniture really loses its original shine and luster. We will not say that these products will return her to that same look, but they will definitely make her cleaner, newer and more beautiful. Choose an option that will help cope with even the most serious stains and refuse household chemicals. Tell your friends that using chemicals is not always safe and share one or all of the methods.
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Caring for leather furniture at home
Dust from upholstered furniture covered with leather should be wiped off with a damp soft cloth. From time to time, it is good to wipe such furniture with a cotton swab or sponge dipped in beaten egg white, after removing the dust with a dry soft cloth. Egg white gives the upholstery a shine and makes the furniture look like new.
Over time, the paint on such upholstery may peel in places, and the furniture appears worn out. To renew worn leather or faux leather upholstery, you can lightly touch up the damaged areas with a high-quality shoe polish in a matching shade. The cream should be applied to a clean and dry furniture surface and rubbed gently with a soft cloth. Caring for leather furniture at home includes washing, polishing and vacuuming.
You can buy special paint for leather of the required color. Applied to the surface of the product, it dries and leaves a thin protective film, hiding scuffs and stains on the upholstery.
Light-colored leatherette or leather upholstery can also be wiped with a soft cloth dipped in warm milk. This will protect against tarnishing and yellow spots, and will also thoroughly clean the surface from dust and dirt.
To protect the upholstery of upholstered furniture from excessive dirt and stains, various blankets and capes are often used. A ready-made set of bedspreads for a sofa and armchairs can be purchased in a store or sewn from dense fleecy or tapestry decorative fabric. Faux fur bedspreads look very good on furniture. Such “clothes” for armchairs and sofas should match the tone of the upholstery of the upholstered furniture and harmonize with the interior of the room.
Sometimes the walls of the room become damp, especially in the autumn-winter period. This can also have a negative impact on the wooden furniture that is in it. When exposed to excess moisture, the boards swell, and the shelves or drawers of sectional furniture are difficult to slide in and out. This can be avoided if you place the furniture not close to the walls, but at a short distance from them (at least 5-7 cm). If the room is very damp, you can cover the back walls of the furniture with wax paper, which absorbs moisture well.
If, on the contrary, the air in the room is too dry (this usually happens when central heating radiators are in operation), additional humidification is required. To increase air humidity, you can place ceramic vessels with water on the windowsills. In addition, well-chosen in shape, color and style, these ceramic vases can complement the interior.
Features of furniture themes
In the case of a client choosing furniture, it is necessary to have time to “capture” it at the right moment. This complicates things. A person buys a home, then chooses materials for renovation, and only then moves on to furniture. It also happens that everything basic has been done, but there is not enough for something. We must take this feature into account when creating content for social networks. For example, publish tips on repairs, choosing crews, and much more.
Another feature is that furniture is not bought spontaneously - it is an expensive and important purchase. But they can buy inexpensive accessories, items for interior decoration, etc. You also need to keep this in mind when creating content.
