When the air turns crisp and pumpkin spice insanity sets in, it’s time to start preparing your home for the holidays. With fabric Protection, you can be ready for the worst.
No matter what holidays you celebrate this time of year, chances are they will involve three things. There will be festive food and beverages. You’ll host crowds of friends and family. And your furniture will be subject to that occasional slosh or spew. It’s a timeless truth. Every time people gather to celebrate, “Life” tends to happen. Not sure you’re ready for those seasonal accidents? Want to enjoy a more relaxing and happy home for the holidays?
Opt for fabric protection! There are plenty of reasons to add this home helper to your holiday wishlist. We’ll tell you why.
“Let Nothing You Dismay…”
We tend to do more eating, drinking and merry-making between November and January than during the other nine months of the year, combined. It’s also more common to host guests in our homes, for the holidays.
Could be your household does not include kids or pets. However, that’s no guarantee you won’t end up hosting one of those hot-mess-makers as the winter sets in. And let’s be honest. some of the worst holiday spills – red wine and coffee, for example – are courtesy of adult guests. Yup we’re talking those “kids from (twenty) 1 to 92.”
Visitors feel terrible when they (or their children) drop greasy gravy or cranberry sauce on your furnishings. But you don’t have to let the occasional splatter turn you into a Scrooge. By applying fabric protection to your seating, carpet and rugs, you give yourself time to clean up the usual spots or spills. Be careful when addressing messes. Blot don’t scrub. And if you are unsure how to deal with a particular holiday horror, there are great online resources that walk you through the best removal strategies. But the best strategy of all is prevention. When your favorite furnishings are protected, you can salvage holiday spirit.
“Tis the Season” to be Busy!
A common complication that arises during this time of year is that it is very easy to miss a spill or spot in all the chaos. When you are mixing and mingling, protection can buy you peace of mind at the busiest time of year. After all, the accidents you may have to deal with are not always food and drinks. Take for example the upshot of a toddler’s tummy ache or a furbaby’s anxiety. Even adults overdo. So if you want a do-over, you need the help of effective protection.
Even in the worst case scenario, for spills or accidents that remain on a textile for several hours, you’re still going to get the best possible results from a gentle cleaning if the surface has been protected. Cleaning will be a little different when caring for rugs than when addressing carpet and upholstery.
When you are unsure of the best way to deal with a spot or spill, ask the pros! They can help lay out your options for responding to the specific uh-oh. When left untended, protection cannot keep liquids from penetrating textiles. But as any professional cleaner will tell you, that protective layer will give them a fighting chance to minimize the damage. And sometimes that’s the difference between living with a less-than-perfect furnishing and having to replace it altogether.
It’s not always “a Winter Wonderland” out there.
Most folks love being home for the holidays but all that coming and going can be stressful. Even if you manage to keep the normal spots off your sofa, wintry weather creates a completely different household hazard. Take, for example, the possibility that people (and pets) wil track street run-off, mud or yucky slush in through your door and across your rugs and carpet. While there are good pointers for removing those pesky footprints, the key is to anticipate the problem so you can focus on prevention.
Protection can help you prevent the worst of your traffic path problems. What’s a traffic path? It’s the area on your carpet or rug that feet most often walk across. Traffic tends to be most damaging at the entrances into rooms, starting with the main doorways into a home. It leaves behind a dulled corridor where soil and friction alters the carpet fibers in a way that cannot be completely removed, even by a professional cleaner.
A protective layer not only prevents soil from migrating down into the fibers of your flooring, causing structural damage and discoloration that can be hard to clean away. It also provides a coating that gives those fibers resilience against wear and tear. By cutting down on everyday friction, you can help your rugs and carpets stand up to the abrasion that dulls the traffic zones across your floors. And that is a great gift for the holiday and year round.
“Baby, It’s Colds Outside!”
No one likes a holiday head-cold. Unfortunately, when we all gather together, especially in close quarters, viruses and flus love to leap from person to person. Some colds are airborn but plenty are from infection left behind on high-touch surfaces. That includes the arms of your chairs and sofa or sectional. When you protect in the fall, you help seal out allergens and you cut down on the seasonal spread of bacteria and germs.
Some textile protections are actually bacteriostatic. They don’t kill bacteria, but they keep it from propagating. So if you have a crawling baby whose face is often planted in the carpet, or an older family member who uses the arms and backs of upholstery to help navigate a room, you can feel confident that the protected surfaces of your floors and furnishings are not harboring a colony of streptococcus or coronavirus.
What’s more, by encapsuling the fibers on your furnishings, protection can also help you keep those allergens corralled with regular vacuuming and wipe downs.
When family and friends bring their sniffles and sneezes through the door, don’t let them infect your home for the holidays. Begin with professionally applied protectant then keep your household items clean with regular vacuuming. Yes, even that sectional benefits from periodic suction!
“Green in Wintertime…”
When you choose fabric protection, your festive tree doesn’t have to be the only “Green” choice in your holiday home. The best applied protection not only keeps your furnishings safe, but your family safe too. When you shop for the right pros to do your treatment application, make sure they give you information about the product they use.
Experts agree that fluoro-chemicals are particularly dangerous for indoor air quality. And just because ‘water’ is listed as an ingredient in the product, that does not make it safe. On the flip side, “chemical” is not always a bad word. Even soap has a chemical profile. The key is to know which chemicals are used by the manufacturer. We are a big fan of Fiber ProTector, out of Norway. They have developed an environmentally friendly line of protectants.
Maybe you don’t have a lot of green in your pocket, this time of year. Prioritize the most vulnerable areas and furnishings first. You can always get to that guest bedroom or study when the household budget allows. The most green (and budget-friendly) choice you can make is to keep your furnishings as long as possible. When you protect, you lengthen the life of your upholstery, rugs, carpets and other textiles. That keeps your decor out of the landfill and preserves those investments for years of holidays to come.
“And a Happy New Year!”
There’s no place like home for the holidays.
Maybe you are already planning gatherings with family and friends. Chances are that food and beverages will be part of the holiday cheer. Worried about spots and spills? Let a protective layer give you that extra minute. You’ll have time to grab a clean rag or paper towel and blot up the mess. Busier than usual this time of year? You might just miss some accidents. With protection, at least you give pros a fighting chance to restore that upholstery or rug.
Whether you have kids, dogs, bad weather or a sensitivity to seasonal allergies and sniffles, your holiday home can benefit from fabric protection.
When you protect before the festivities, you get better cleaning results after. You also get longer life out of your furniture and flooring. Why not make a New Year’s Resolution a little early this year? Prepare your home for the holidays but enjoy it year around. Schedule a fabric protection appointment today.