Saturday, 20 October 2012

Some Natural Tips to Keep Carpets Clean

The search for methods of achieving carpet cleaning that is also eco or green cleaning reveals some surprising methods of making your domestic house cleaning routine less dependent on chemicals. For example there are various carpet freshening powders that you can assemble yourself, all containing innocuous substances that are readily available in the kitchen cupboard.  The most basic is baking soda, which can be simply sprinkled on the carpet, left to sit for an hour, and hoovered up.  Baking soda is a well-known domestic house cleaning agent, used for carpet cleaning but also commonly used for removing unpleasant odours elsewhere in the house; an opened box of baking soda left in the fridge or rubbish bin will absorb odours in an easy and cost-effective way.  If you want to do more than neutralize odours emanating from your carpet, and achieve the effect of using an air freshening spray, the baking soda can be mixed with spices, a mixture of ginger, nutmeg and cinnamon, 1 tsp of combined spices to each cup of baking soda.  Alternatively a few drops of an essential oil such as lavender can be mixed in instead of the spices. It's important not to walk on the carpet when these mixtures are in place, in case the powder gets ground in, necessitating more carpet cleaning; this technique should not be used too frequently in case it harms the carpet fibres. 

In addition to carpet cleaning and freshening, all aspects of domestic house cleaning are more pleasant when the solutions or mixtures used are derived from natural eco green cleaning products.  Cleaning windows with a liquid consisting of equal parts water and white vinegar and polished with newspaper does not result in the toxic after-effects of using many commercial window-cleaning sprays. Even recycling newspaper as a cleaning cloth contributes to your eco green cleaning efforts. Similarly furniture polish made simply from a cup of vegetable oil combined with a tsp of lemon oil, applied with an old clean cloth, gets results that are as good as or better than those achieved with purchased products.  You can scour kitchen surfaces with salt or baking soda with equally impressive results, avoiding chemical-ridden scouring powders at the same time.  Try cleaning and freshening drains with a half cup of baking soda followed by a cup of white vinegar and a kettle-full of boiling water. Even a waste disposal unit in a sink can be treated this way, with the added measure of putting in some ice cubes to sharpen the blades and some lemon peel to give a fresh smell.

Some of the worst carpet cleaning challenges come from stains caused by our beloved pets – these stains can be dealt with by washing first with warm water and dish washing liquid.  Then rinsing the area with a solution of two cups of warm water and a quarter cup of vinegar, and covering it with old towels for a few hours, should leave the carpet free of stains and odors once it has been left to dry.  Baking soda and vinegar are your biggest allies in any carpet cleaning situation, and are perfect for all the eco green cleaning you want to include in your domestic house cleaning.

Thursday, 18 October 2012

Protect Your Leather Upholstery

Leather upholstery cleaning by chemdry dublin is offered alongside its carpet cleaning dublin service; in fact chemdry dublin can clean any kind of upholstered furniture. Until quite recently the common name for a sofa in North America and elsewhere was a chesterfield. It is thought that the chesterfield was named for one of the Earls of Chesterfield, who over 300 years ago commissioned craftsmen to make a new type of sofa covered in leather. His idea was for a design that looked formal but was in fact comfortable to sit in. The characteristic style of the chesterfield had deep buttoned leather upholstery and a low back and seat base. It survives today as a timeless classic in the world of furniture, and is familiar from its traditional appearance in hotel lobbies, doctors waiting rooms, fashionable clubs and bars, and many other formal settings. The chesterfield is sometimes upholstered in fabric, but the leather version is still being produced, and like any other piece of furniture, at some point or other needs professional leather upholstery cleaning by a company such as chemdry dublin.
The carpet cleaning dublin division of chemdry dublin is undoubtedly occasionally asked to clean antique rugs; this is probably also true in the case of antique furniture upholstered in leather. The introduction of the concept that furniture could be comfortable probably originated in the 17th century, when furniture makers started to add arms and upholstery to the formerly rigid basic wooden chair which up to then had only had a simple seat and back. Eventually they were called armchairs, or easy chairs, and particularly lavish ones were produced for the wealthy, although they probably looked more comfortable than they actually were. By Victorian times fully-sprung upholstered chairs were being made, and these evolved into deep seated leather club chairs, commonly found in gentlemens clubs. Out of these developed the overstuffed chairs of the 1920s, which were extremely well padded, although even by that time they were not exactly comfortable by todays standards.
Leather is famously resilient when used for upholstery, as any expert from chemdry dublin will tell you. To some extent you can take care of your leather sofa and chairs at home, because for the most part you can just wipe off spills carefully and not too much damage will be done to the leather. In fact it is important to remember never to use products such as furniture polish, ammonia or detergents on leather; similarly the use of a coarse cloth applied too vigorously to the leather will also mar the surface. If you discover the evidence of a spill some time after it has occurred, you can use a damp sponge with a little warm clear water to gently wipe the affected area. Pat it dry with a clean dry towel and allow it to dry naturally without the application of heat from a hairdryer or any other source of artificial heat.

Wednesday, 17 October 2012

Cleaning Services For Rugs Or Upholstery

Rug and upholstery cleaning methods are similar to carpet cleaning methods, and the better cleaning services can contend with any material or fabric. Furniture upholstered in leather or vinyl is commonly regarded as a wise investment; this sort of covering is tough and durable, and does not show the dirt as much as other fabrics. And nothing is more luxurious or comfortable than an old leather sofa! In fact the use of leather to upholster furniture goes right back to the Renaissance, when it would have been embossed or painted before being held in place with decorative nails. However even high quality modern leather will eventually begin to dry out, or show disfiguring marks and scuffs careful cleaning by a company such as ChemDry will restore the actual condition of the leather. Thus your treasured furniture will last even longer than you could have hoped!

Carpet cleaning of other luxury items such as Persian rugs can also be done safely, restoring them to their original brightness, without any risk of the colors fading. A lot of Persian rugs are now machine made; although most are still made of various types of wool, many designs have been copied and produced in synthetic fibres. However whatever type or size of rug, whether the traditional hand-woven style, or the more modern commercially produced variety, all will respond to careful carpet cleaning by cleaning services qualified in rug and upholstery cleaning. Persian carpets are prized for their beauty and their longevity you may not be lucky enough to own the rarer silk carpets which are so delicate that they have to be displayed on a wall. And it is unlikely that you will ever have seen, let alone own, anything along the lines of some of the famously gigantic Persian carpets, some of which are over 4,000 square meters in size!


Once you see the magical results of thorough carpet cleaning of your rugs and carpets you will wonder why you ever hesitated! The carbonating system is a natural process well-suited to natural substances such as leather and wool. There is no lingering residual dampness after the cleaning; no dirt-trapping sticky film is left behind, and your furniture and rugs will of course be further enhanced by the protective finish applied during the cleaning process.

Thursday, 4 October 2012

Floor Cleaning With Household Items

From the ever increasing range of products and devices available for domestic house cleaning, especially with respect to floor cleaning, it is easy to forget that a lot of house cleaning jobs can be done with common household items. Home cleaning does not have to be as complicated, as expensive or as threatening to your home environment as you might fear. A simple product like vinegar can be adapted for dozens of house cleaning jobs, including floor cleaning. In the bathroom all the surfaces can be cleaned with a spray-bottle filled with equal parts of water and vinegar, and as well as cleaning it acts as a deodorizer or disinfectant. There is no lingering smell of vinegar as it disappears quickly as it dries, and it does not leave as over-powering an odour as many chemical-based cleaning sprays. Vinegar is safe to use on most tiles and grout, although it is acidic, so over-use could result in it eating away at the grout - it should not be used on marble. If in any doubt as to whether your domestic house cleaning venture with vinegar will damage your tiled floors, it is always advisable to test a small inconspicuous area first. Most modern floors have been treated with a sealant, which means that they will be impervious to damage by cleaning remedies like vinegar and water. A cup of white vinegar added to 5 litres of water should be suitable for most floor tiles, including stone and brick - they should be rinsed with clear water afterwards.
Other domestic house cleaning remedies for floors include house cleaning of vinyl and linoleum with a combination of a cup of vinegar and a few drops of baby oil dissolved in 5 litres of warm water. For more serious cleaning jobs you can include a quarter cup of borax - however this should be used with caution on linoleum floors. If it is just a question of damp-mopping a floor, you can use equal parts of vinegar with water, and add a few drops of peppermint oil for a fresh, fragrant, non-chemical smell. These domestic house cleaning solutions for floors are safe, economical, and above all leave the house smelling fresh and clean.

Saturday, 29 September 2012

Leather Cleaning with Household Products

Although there are many leather cleaning products on the market, it is just as easy, and sometimes preferable, to undertake leather upholstery cleaning, or in fact, any kind of upholstery cleaning, with ordinary household products.  However, before you do anything to your leather furniture, check on the manufacturer’s labels to make sure that the leather has been treated at source to protect its surface. If it looks as if your furniture won’t withstand cleaning with water or other liquids, be sure to contact a reputable company for advice on professional leather cleaning.

Starting with simple hoovering of your leather sofas and chairs is the first step in any leather cleaning campaign.  Somehow hoovering carpets is something we do without even thinking about it, but attempting. to clean furniture with the hoover is at another level altogether.  It helps to have a really efficient hoover, one that is light and easy to use, and one which is very simple in terms of attachments.  And the brush attachment to use for leather cleaning has to be very soft, so as not to scratch the surface of the leather, and manoeuvrable enough to get into those difficult corners.  Leather is a completely natural fabric and will usually withstand wiping with a damp cloth to remove any excess dust that remains after hoovering. If it hasn’t been cleaned for a long time, it might need more thorough leather upholstery cleaning with water that has a very small amount of mild dish-washing liquid dissolved in it. Some people go to the extreme of using distilled water for this method, but in any case it would be a good idea to test a small, inconspicuous part of the leather first to see if by any chance it is going to leave an unsightly mark.Using anything containing wax or silicone for your leather cleaning of furniture may prove not only ineffective in your upholstery cleaning efforts, but might leave a sticky residue or even a horrible blotch on your valuable sofa.



Sunday, 9 September 2012

Carpet Cleaner Dublin Use Natural Methods of Cleaning

If it’s a little known fact in the world of carpet cleaning that since 2001 UNESCO has been designating various traditions as “Masterpieces of Intangible Heritage”, it is probably even less well known that one of these masterpieces is the Azerbaijani carpet, added to the illustrious list in 2010. There is archaeological evidence that reveals that carpet-weaving was taking place in the area during the 4th millennium BC.  It began very simply among the diverse tribal cultural groups, and gradually different styles emerged, based around different carpet-making centres. Initially the carpets were without patterns or motifs, but when the palas carpets developed, they were made with horizontal stripes incorporated into the design. Next to come along were kilims, a name in carpets that is still very well known today. In fact it is very likely that carpet cleaning dublin companies such as chem dry are sometimes asked for advice about carpet cleaning of kilims. These carpets have geometrical patterned shapes resembling people, birds and animals, always in a perfectly symmetrical composition, and feature bright, contrasting colours.  Other flat-weave carpets are called shedde, some of which have a chequered pattern while others are subject-based with a dark red background. Verni carpets with their characteristic S shaped patterns are among the most prized Azerbaijani carpets – the patterns are meant to represent dragons, and as such are said to bring good luck and protection from danger to the owner. The zilli has very ornate and complex designs, making each carpet resemble a garden full of flowers and birds. Will the average carpet cleaner dublin technician be likely to come across these rare carpets?  It’s just possible!

Carpet cleaning as practised by the carpet cleaning dublin branch of chem-dry could potentially include many different types of Azerbaijani carpets, only a few of which are named above - many are still produced by four major carpet-weaving schools.  It may be that this area has become so famous for carpet art because of its location which bridges East and West as well as the Christian and Islamic cultures. Two of these schools could be singled out as being especially remarkable:  the Buku school carpets are famous for being particularly soft and having very intense colours and intricate designs incorporating medallions; the Karabakh school produces carpets which have 33 of what are called ornamental “compositions,” more than the others which usually have between 8 and 25. (There may be as many as 600 compositions in total in the region). Their carpets have a very thick fluffy pile and vivid colours. As with all the other schools, carpets vary in style from village to village.  It is not surprising that such a rich cultural heritage has been deemed worthy of recognition by UNESCO.
It is very important in carpet cleaning that the carpet cleaner dublin expert is able to recognize the use of natural dyes. In Azerbaijani carpets there are seven basic colours derived from pomegranate and onion skins, indigo, quince and mulberry leaves and madder roots, among others.  When the yarn is being dyed vinegar, alum or salt is put into the dying solution to intensify the colours and ensure that they don’t fade or run when the carpets are being cleaned.

Thursday, 30 August 2012

Proper Care Increase Life of Carpets

There are lots of ways you can keep your carpets clean yourself, including frequent vacuuming and quick response to spills and stains. You can buy or rent carpet cleaning equipment and attempt to deep clean your carpets, but it usually turns out to be a lot of trouble for only a slight improvement in the appearance and condition of your carpets. Eventually it will be time for all your carpets to have a thorough cleaning by a professional carpet cleaning service – whether as part of your normal house cleaning regime, or perhaps in preparation for a special occasion.
Find out how close an idea they can give you of within what time parameters they might arrive to start the carpet cleaning, so that you can plan for time off work or baby-sitting if necessary. If you have a big cleaning job in mind don’t hesitate to get two or three quotes, and consider them carefully – the least expensive quote should not automatically be your first choice. Point out difficult stains, such as those caused by pets, and find out if there is some special treatment available to remove any stains or disagreeable odour. Some Cleaning Companies provide cleaning services such as carpet protection and odor removal services in cleaning package.