If you want your wood furniture to last and to be a good investment for you, then you ought to know how to take care of it. We have put together a list of things for you to do to properly care for wood furniture so it can last for much longer than it would normally.
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Use The Proper Cleaning Method
There is a right way and a wrong way to clean wood furniture. You can’t treat it like you would other hard surfaces and use harsh cleaning products on it. Wood needs to be handled gently and cleaned with some warm water and a mild dish soap. Don’t use dish detergent or anything that is harsh and powerful.
If you clean your wood furniture using water, you are not going to damage it, so long as you don’t let the water soak into the wood. You will need to dry it off after cleaning the wood, and also make sure that you only use a little water at a time.
The best way to clean is with a damp cloth, dipping it into the water and soap solution and then wiping down the wood. Make sure the cloth is not dripping wet, because at that point you are using too much water, and some of it could absorb into the wood and cause damage.
Use a dry cloth or dry paper towels to wipe off the water and dry up the wood completely. If you think some water is absorbed into the wood, set up a fan on high speed to evaporate the water quickly, before it has time to penetrate too deeply.
For tougher cleaning jobs on your wood furniture, where you have stuck-on grime, you can use a toothbrush and scrub gently until the gunk is removed.
Wax The Furniture
It’s smart to use a paste wax on the furniture after you clean it. Soft paste wax that is applied in a thin coat will do the furniture a lot of good. Apply that wax and then buff it gently after it has rested for about five minutes. Then, allow the buffed wax to sit for about half an hour to an hour and buff it a second time, this time with some extra elbow grease. The waxing should give your furniture a shine that stays there for several months.
Keep Wood Away From Heat
If you are going to take good care of your wood furniture, you need to know what kinds of factors can damage your wood and keep the furniture away from them. Heat can be very damaging for wood, and you have to be careful about leaving your furniture too close to vents and heaters, especially during the wintertime.
If you hire a cleaning service to work in your home, they may move some furniture around says Penny who is a long island NY maid. You may want to turn off heating elements so they can work more freely. If you are doing the cleaning, be sure to move the furniture to areas that are still away from the heaters and vents to protect the wood.
The sun can damage your wood furniture as well, so it is best to keep it out of direct sunlight. Sunlight streaming through the windows might look beautiful, but it can be harmful to your furniture. The heat can dry out the wood and cause cracking, fading, and other damage that you will want to avoid. Your furniture may even shrink slightly, which can warp it and make it unstable. Either move the furniture out of direct sunlight, place a cover over it, or add heavier curtains on the windows to protect the wood.
Avoid Using Oils And Polishes
There are some kinds of wood furniture where wood oil and wood polishes would be helpful and would protect the furniture, but in many cases, they aren’t necessary at all. In fact, they can cause some problems if you don’t use them on the right kind of wood furniture.
If your wood has a smooth outer surface and has been properly sealed, there is no point in using wood polish ire wood oil. These are designed to nourish and protect the wood, but the glossy finish is already doing that.
These substances are designed to reduce friction on the surface of the wood, but they only work on wood that has an abrasive, slightly rough surface. If your wood is smooth and in good condition, you don’t need to use any kind of wood polish or wood oil on it.
Some polishes and oils will be advertised as nourishment for your wood furniture, but properly cared for wood that has been well sealed does not need that at all.
Some furniture will have metal parts and wood parts. You may need to polish the metal components every so often, and you should try to remove the wood parts before you do that. The metal polish can be harmful to the wooden pieces, so try to set them aside before using metal polish at all.
Do Touch Up The Wood
If you want to do a quick touch up on parts of the wood furniture that are starting to look rough or that have become scuffed, you can use shoe polish. Use a polish with the right color so it will match the wood furniture, and then apply just a touch to the affected areas. It doesn’t take much shoe polish to do the job. You can use a felt-tip marker in the right color as well for a similar solution.
Use The Right Stain Remover
How do you deal with stains on your wood furniture? You want to get rid of them properly so that you aren’t damaging your wood furniture at the same time you are removing stains.
Our recommendation is to use a mildly abrasive cleaning agent. Something like toothpaste and baking soda mixed together will work really well. Make sure you are not using a gel toothpaste, though. Apply that mixture to where you see the stain, and then rub at it gently with a cloth or a toothbrush. That should clean the stains right up.