Spring Cleaning Time ... for your furniture

Years ago, I read Cold Sassy Tree by Olive Ann Burns, about life in a small town in Georgia in the early 20th century. The story surrounds the Tweedy family and their general response to the grandfather's marriage to a very young milliner Miss Love Simpson, only 3 weeks after the death of his wife. Miss Simpson was from Baltimore - "practically a Yankee" by Cold Sassy, Georgia standards. There were many things about Miss Simpson that caused the town to gossip, but the one that has stuck with me is how she cleaned her house.

Yep. I remember the chapter on house cleaning.

Miss Love Simpson believed in true 'spring cleaning.' When she first moves in with her new husband, she begins to move room by room, cleaning, scouring, pulling out rugs, removing draperies, dusting, sweeping, scouring, and updating.

I love spring cleaning. There is just something about the new growth outside that makes me want to sort and clean and organize and purge on the inside. It's when you move the stack of boardgames on the shelf and find that missing Monopoly piece (oh, THERE's the little dog!). Or when you clean out your closet and discover a scarf from college may have actually come back into style (okay, maybe not).

Some people clean often, a lot, and regularly. Some clean in one long day every month. Some clean just before they're having guests over.

Here's the big question...

Do you CLEAN and MAINTAIN your furniture as well as you care for your house or your car or your clothes?

With every LaDiff delivery, we provide our customers with a Care Package of information. Included is a booklet that gives general ideas of how to care for your new purchase. Just like you gas up your car, refill the windshield wiper fluid, get the oil changed, check the air in the tires, and schedule yearly inspections, you need to take care of your furniture too.

The irony is that most people expect their furniture to last longer than their car or their clothes, but they provide little to no maintenance to ensure that it lasts and looks good too.

A website called, appropriately, furnituretips.com, provides starting answers for how to care for your 'furniture investment.'

A few simple tips and reminders from LaDiff are:

1. Wood furniture (veneered or solid) should be kept dust free to prevent drying out. Accumulations of dust particles that settle on wood eventually settle into it too, causing cracking and discoloration.

2. Unless you have granite, corian, or melamine, ALWAYS use a coaster to protect the surface from water rings, stains, scratches, or other marks: this applies to wood tables, glass, travertine, marble (marble does NOT like acids and one red wine spill can ruin your beautiful marble table).

3. Scratches happen: very few surfaces are completely impervious. If the surface is softer than whatever was set upon it, there may be a scratch left behind. (placemats, coasters, cutting boards... these can help keep the surface in good condition). Added note: some woods are softer than others! American cherry is one of the SOFTEST Hard Woods - if your child does homework on your cherry dining table without a mat or notebook under their paper & pencil, you may see their work left behind in your table top!

4. Often, the more expensive your purchase is, the more it will take to maintain it. Seems like the opposite should be true, right? It's like buying a car: a BMW and an Audi are more expensive to maintain than a Chevy or Ford. If you want a luxurious Elmo leather, for instance, remember that this is a natural hide in its most beautiful form, needing no correction. Because of that, it is soft, supple, and will age beautifully... but it is also NOT resistant to staining. Your richer, softer, more natural leather will absorb oils (pizza hands?), acids (wine?), and general dirt, making cleaning it and removing the stains a near impossibility.

5. Cushions do not fluff themselves. Wonder why your sofa has that smooshy look on one cushion only? Is that where you plop down to watch Real Housewives or Jersey Shore? You may need to do some regular fluffing. If the cushions are not attached to the frame, pull them off and gently push, pull, and pound on the filling. If necessary or if you can, remove the cover and/or restretch it around the insert. Feather or down filled? Feel free to pound HARD to fluff those guys back up. If the cushions are attached or it's a tight-seat style, you can fluff the seat and back with your fists. Of course, you really should consider sitting in more than one place - the other cushions are getting jealous. (photo courtesy of Apartment Therapy)

6. Glass is NOT scratch proof. Period. Glass is beautiful and very durable, but you need to use regular care, plus coasters or placemats, before you put your glass or dinner plate or serving pieces down on your glass dining or coffee table.

7. LIFT!!! please don't push & pull your furniture! Anything with legs or panel supports will break. I repeat... WILL break. Every time you pull or push an item one leg or panel wants to stay behind (that old science word: inertia). You weaken the joint where the leg attaches to the rest of the piece. This does not mean your furniture is not well made... it just means you have to move it properly. If someone tried to push or pull YOU, your legs would resist too!

8. Vacuum and dust the parts you DON'T see. Get between the seat cushions and under the chairs and UNDER the area rug (yep) and inside the shade of the lamps and on the top of the bookcase and behind the dresser and inside the tv cabinet. Embarrassing revelation: our dvd player stopped working a few years ago. When our personal Mr. Fix-it (my dad) took it apart, he found whirls of cat hair inside the unit. Turns out our cat had been climbing up onto the shelf and sleeping behind the dvd player. Gross? yes. Now we have glass doors and I dust out the shelves regularly.

9. Never lean back in your dining chair. Your mom told you not to. The teacher told you not to. Now I'm telling you not to. That leg thing mentioned in #7 applies to this, too. Your chair is meant to support you with all 4 legs on the ground. When you use only the back 2, they get stressed out and angry, the front 2 get jealous or start to taunt the back 2 because they have to do all the work. Seriously... you are damaging the physical integrity and joint structure of the chair... and you could fall and land on your noggin'! (p.s. those little protective floor caps at the ends of the legs will also be compromised, and fall out more often when chairs are pushed, pulled, and pressed inappropriately.)

10. Use cleaning products that are meant for the item you are cleaning. Do not use harsh abrasives on metal, marble, or wood surfaces. When in doubt, ask your design consultant, the retailer, or the vendor. Using the wrong cleaner on your leather sofa could discolor the leather or, worse, remove the color! Be sure to clean your wood with the right kind of oil or wax or paste. Most cleaners recommend approaching the entire product, not just the spot or stain, to prevent mismatched results. We've heard all kinds of horror stories about 'wrong product' applications: the wet-wipe used to remove gum off the newly delivered brown chenille sofa has to be the winner... that alcohol laden wet-wipe removed the gum all right, and all of the brown in the fabric too!

Basically, caring for your furniture simply means paying attention to what your furniture is telling you. You listen to the noises in your car and you look for the warning lights. You watch for loose buttons and frayed hems on your clothing. Your furniture doesn't have lights and bells, but it can give you other signs. Is a drawer pulling out slowly? Do you need to adjust the runners or is something 'stuck' in the back? Does a table surface look a bit dry? Is your leather starting to crack? These are all things that can be cared for easily if maintained regularly.

Good furniture should and can last a long, long time - if cared for properly. When you buy new furniture, TALK to your design consultant about the best way to care for your purchase. Manufacturer warranties generally cover the 'nuts and bolts', moving parts, and obvious defects, but they will never cover general use or general wear & tear. That's your job... take it seriously, and you'll enjoy your new furniture for many many years.