Tips To Maintain Your Mattress

A good quality mattress can be really expensive. Therefore, you should maintain it properly so that it lasts for years. Quality of sleep depends upon how well our mattress functions. We keep on maintaining other items and furniture but often forget to give attention to our mattress. It should be given proper treatment regularly. Here are some tips that will help you to maintain your mattress.

• Use upholstery shampoo to clean the mattress- look for the stains and spots on the mattress and remove it by using good upholstery cleaner or a diluted mild soap. If you haven’t cleaned it for a long time then some stains might have become hard and stubborn. Make it a habit of cleaning mattress after every six months. Some stubborn spots can also be removed by a mixture of baking soda and vinegar. Wipe the mixture with a sponge and avoid using hard brush and scrub as they can ruin the fabric of the mattress. After washing, let the mattress get dry and then use it on the bed again.
• Flip and rotate your mattress every season- if you feel like sinking when you lie down, then turn or rotate your mattress. Turn the foot to make it head and flip it in the next season. Keep rotating it every season. Change the areas of pressure to prevent sagging of the mattress. By rotating and flipping, you prevent the accumulation of dust in one area. Some mattresses can’t be flipped, so you can only rotate them. This is an effortless task that can be done on regular basis.
• Place it in the sun- you can disinfect your mattress by placing it in the sun. If you have babies or pets at home, then your mattress tend to have foul smells like urine. This smell can be removed by keeping the smelly mattress in the sun for hours. This step should be done before you flip over the mattress.
• Cover the mattress- buy a mattress cover that doesn’t catch dust. Covering the mattress will give you extra comfort and will prevent it from wear and tear. Mattress covers also protect you from allergies and dust. Choose a fabric that can be easily removed and washed. If you spill your drink on the mattress, then mattress cover will not allow it to penetrate in the mattress. This is possible only if you remove the cover immediately after spillage and wash it.
• Use vacuum cleaner- even if you have covered your mattress, it is good to clean it with vacuum cleaner regularly. This will make your mattress free from stubborn dust particles. Do it at least once in a month. This habit will keep you healthy and prevent you from allergies caused by dust. It also removes bed bugs that reside in your mattress.
• Change your bed sheets regularly- keep changing your bed sheets once a week as this prevents accumulation of dirt on your mattress.

Whenever you clean your mattress, make sure that you have removed the excess moisture on your mattress. Let it dry completely before you place it on the bed. Moisture can cause it to have bad smell and breed bacteria. Try to avoid drinking and eating on the bed and avoid standing and jumping on it.

Cleaning Outdoor Furniture

Outdoor furniture has come a long way from the cold and harsh wrought iron material with boring designs to the modern materials that provide more comfort and look equally great. If you are also looking for good quality outdoor furniture, then you would find many options like metal, hardwood, plastic, vinyl, wicker, cane and more. Buying furniture for your patio or garden is still easy, but maintain them is very difficult task. This is so because outdoor furniture is more prone to weathering which may depreciate both its looks and its value within a very short span of time. Hence, you need to be extremely careful in cleaning and caring for your outdoor furniture. We are sharing ideas to clean 4 different kinds of outdoor furniture so that they last long and look as good as new.

• Hardwood- the outdoor conditions are generally too harsh for the natural wood to bear. Therefore, most of the varieties, no matter how strong, are not able to withstand the environment for long. Your best choice for outdoor wood would be teak. This oily wood does not need maintenance and lasts longer than others. If you have used anything other than redwood for your outdoor furniture then you should depend upon oxygen bleach. Simply dilute it with water and apply on the furniture with a soft brush. Once the furniture is dry, do some light sanding and reseal the furniture.
• Plastic- plastic furniture is one of the best options for outdoor furniture as it comes in different designs and colors at a very cheap cost. However, you must always be very careful while cleaning outdoor plastic furniture. You cannot use bleach to clean this furniture. In fact, if anything has harsh chemicals or detergents, it must be kept at a distance from the plastic furniture. Simply use a very mild detergent diluted in water and scrub the surface gently with a soft brush. You can also use a sponge instead of a brush in order to avoid harming the surface. There are chances where mildew grows on the furniture. In such a case, dab a cotton ball in ammonia and use it at the affected place.
• Metal- the process of cleaning metal outdoor furniture is simple, but a little longer than the others. First, wash the furniture with clean water. You can use a garden hose for this purpose. Mix detergent with water and use a soft brush to lightly scrub off any dirt on the outdoor furniture. Rinse with clean lukewarm water and let it dry. If your furniture is made of iron, you might want to apply some car wax or a topcoat in order to make it look perfect after cleaning.
• Wicker- if the furniture is made of wicker, you must always use a vacuum cleaner or a plain dry brush to remove the dirt off the furniture. Then use a very mild liquid detergent and mix it with water. Scrub the furniture with a sponge. Now, wash the soap off with another sponge dipped in clean water. Use a towel to absorb the excess water.