Homekeeping Help: 7 Tips For Maintaining Your Mattress

A mattress is a big investment and rightly so: the quality of your sleep has a profound effect on the quality of your life and how well you function. Since we spend about a third of our lives sleeping, it's worth it to take a few moments to keep it functioning at its best. Try out these tips every few months to keep your mattress in tip-top shape!

• Strip your mattress down: Inspect the mattress for surface soil and stains. Spot clean using an upholstery shampoo or a tiny bit of diluted mild soap and let dry before you make up the bed again. Let dry thoroughly.
• Flip or rotate it every season: Turn the foot of the mattress so it becomes the head. Next season, flip it over. Rotate it the following season and flip it the season after that. If your mattress is a pillowtop, you won't be able to flip it over so just keep rotating it head to foot and foot to head. The result of these mattress acrobatics is that your mattress will wear evenly, free of the sags that come from constantly sleeping in the same spot. Even doing this every six months helps.
• Place it in the sun: We're not suggesting you drag it outside, but placing it in direct sunlight can naturally disinfect your mattress. If you've spot cleaned your mattress, do this step before you flip it over.
• Vacuum it: Even if you keep it covered with a mattress covere, it's a good idea to vacuum it to keep the dust mites at bay. After you've flipped and stripped your mattress, sprinkle it with a few handfuls of lavender (If you live near a Trader Joe's, try their lavender drying bags) before you place it in the sun. Not only will the lavender keep it fresh smelling but the scent is said to enhance sleep. No lavender? Try baking soda. Vacuum up the lavender or the baking soda.
• Now cover it with a mattress cover: A mattress cover protects your mattress and it's easier to wash a mattress cover if you spill something in bed (your morning coffee perhaps?) than a whole mattress. Try one that's made to keep dust mites at bay.
• Change your sheets regularly: Simply changing your sheets on a regular basis (once a week in most cases), can help keep dirt from collecting on your mattress and becoming a breeding ground for dust mites.
• Final trick: I like to tuck a used dryer sheet or sachet (all natural, of course) under our sheets when we make up our bed. They absorb odors and impart a pleasant scent.

Source: http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/homekeeping-tips-to-keep-your-125606

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Tips to Keep your Fabric Sofa in Top Condition

One of the biggest decisions in selecting a sofa is the choice of sofa covering. While leather and fabric both have their benefits for the winter months, for fabric devotees, fabric's cosy feel, versatility and degree of customisation make it an appealing choice.

King Furniture's resident trends expert, Triana Odone, says fabric choice will come down to personal preference and lifestyle. Almost as important as choosing the fabric for your sofa is learning how to care for it.

1. Vacuum fabric sofas regularly with an upholstery attachment using low suction.

2. Clean spills/marks immediately, as stains are harder to remove when they are left unattended.

3. Use suitable Cleaner on spills and marks, as general household cleaners can damage fibres and discolour fabrics. Always refer to your fabric care label.

4. Prevent velcro and sharp objects such as rings or buckles from coming into contact with your furniture, as they may cause pulling or tearing of fabric.

5. Prevent pilling with regular vacuuming and cleaning to remove dirt and any loose fibres. Should pilling occur, a Fabric Pill Remover (available at department stores) is safe to use.

6. Protect fabrics from direct sunlight as this can result in fading, and weaken fibres.

7. Protect fabric at production stage. This extends fabric's life by allowing liquid spills to 'bead' on the surface, becoming easier to soak up.

8. Organise an annual professional clean by an upholstery cleaner to maintain your sofa's condition.

Source: https://www.lifestyle.com.au/diy/tips-to-keep-your-fabric-sofa-in-top-condition.aspx

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Do I Really Need to Wax My Car?

Do I really need to wax my car?

The answer is: Probably. Waxing has always made cars extra shiny. That's still the case today, but both modern paint jobs and wax formulations have improved a lot in recent years. Paint used to be just thatpaint. A new car got a layer of primer and a few coats of colored lacquer, and that was it. Wax not only gave the paint a good gloss, it was also the only line of defense against scratches.

Beginning in the 1980s, manufacturers started adding a layer of clear coat, which seals the paint and adds to the shine of the car. The clear coat also takes the environmental abuse. Things like ultraviolet light, ozone, exhaust, salt, dirt, rain, bug guts, and bird poop build up tiny scratches and oxidation on the clear coat's surface. As the paint ages, that damage causes the surface to get hazy and the shine to subside, but there's generally no damage to the color layer below. Not waxing will leave the car looking dull and the clear coat vulnerable to accelerated wear. If you don't particularly care how the car looks, you can be lazy and never wax itjust keeping the car washed will leave it looking reasonably nice (use a gentle soap made for carsno detergents). Waxing provides a sacrificial layer on top of the clear coat so that when you remove dirt and such you're not directly rubbing the paint.

Things have changed substantially since dads spent Sunday afternoons rubbing carnauba wax onto lacquer car paint. Now even that classic formulation has additives that make it easier to wax on and wax off. New synthetic formulas are even simpler to apply and offer longer-lasting protection, and spray-on waxes can be applied with almost no effort at all. Plus, you don't need to wax that often. Even if you obsess over your paint, four coats of wax a year are plenty, and you can use spray-on wax to maintain the shine. We like to wax the car at least twice a year, once before winter and once in the spring.

Source: http://www.popularmechanics.com/cars/how-to/a3255/do-i-really-need-to-wax-my-car-15829917/

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