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If buying furniture was the only headache, then life would have been without any worries. Alas! It is not so and therefore we have come to your rescue armed with furniture maintenance tips. The guidelines for furniture maintenance are really simple. If the furniture is used sensibly and handled cautiously, it does not need much of maintenance.
For most furniture, maintaining simply means keeping it clean. Wood furniture usually needs to be cleaned only when there is an accumulation of wax or dirt. Only unfinished wood, painted wood, or wood with a sturdy finish should be cleaned. The finish on gilt wood is often applied with a water-soluble size, or adhesive. Therefore, giltwood should only be dusted and never washed. Before cleaning the furniture, evaluate the surface and make sure that the surface or coating is stable and will not be spoiled by the contact required in cleaning and polishing.
After you have made sure that your furniture is sound and loose joints will not come out easily find out what the dirt is and what the surface is. If you can't determine these exactly, find out what removes the dirt without affecting the surface underneath it. Often, dust can be removed simply by a damp cloth. Oily dirt or waxy residue can be removed with a mild detergent and water solution.
However, you must positively ascertain that the cleaning solution is not harmful for the article. Sometimes a particular cleaning method might remove the dirt properly with the only exception that it does not even spare your furniture's polish. Cotton cloth work best for even furniture where as uneven furniture can be cleaned with an artist's brush. Alternately, you can clean your furniture with a vacuum cleaner. For finished wood, dampen a cotton cloth with the solvent or cleaning solution, and gently rub over a small area at a time.
Avoid using too much liquid, as they can cause damage. Then, wipe the cleaned surface with a clean dampened cloth to remove any cleanser residues, followed by a dry soft cloth. After cleaning, further protection can be made through the application of a stable, hard furniture polish, such as a hard paste wax. Waxing should be used occasionally as it sticks to the surface and it does not degrade chemically. If you wax too often, your furniture will have a thick ugly coat somewhat like your earwax (now you surely do not want that!). Similarly, polishes and sprays also entrap surface dirt beneath their surface causing your furniture o look dirty and greasy.
One of the most persistent problems in furniture management is keeping metal hardware spick and span. This includes handles, brackets, hinges and escutcheons attached, usually with nails, to the outer surface of furniture. The metal could either be brass, silver, gold-plated bronze. Contemporary hardware attachments sometimes have a clear lacquer finish giving them a shiny surface Furniture hardware may become sullied and tarnished with constant use and exposure to the atmosphere. In such cases, polishing it can be justified.
Sometimes we polish gilded bronze thinking that it is brass that we are improving. If you seriously feel like polishing your furniture's metal hardware, unscrew the hardware from the furniture after observing the exact placement of each screw and nut. Do not polish the hardware while still attached to the furniture as this can spill the polish to surrounding areas. Hardware can be cleaned by using an equal mix of acetone and alcohol. The article can be polished after it dries down.
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