Your Oriental Rugs - How to care for them

Regular Care for Your Oriental Rugs
To best maintain & protect your investment in a beautiful Oriental Rug, always do the following:

Vacuuming – Oriental rugs, like most carpeting, should be vacuumed on a regular basis to remove dirt and restore life to the fibers. Be sure not to vacuum the fringe with your beater bar! Use the end of a vacuum hose from a canister vacuum.
Rotation – To insure even wear, your rug should be rotated once a year. Depending on the traffic, the rotation may vary from six months to two years.
Padding – A quality pad under your rug protects it from dirt, wear and slippage.
Regular Professional Cleaning - Annual professional cleaning in a rug spa facility will remove deeply embedded soils by doing dusting and cleaning procedures that cannot be performed in your home.

Spot and Spill Procedures - Safely and immediately clean up spots and spills before they set.

- First, soak up the excess liquid by blotting with a clean absorbent material. Do not brush or rub the stain
- Then spot-clean with a mild detergent white vinegar-water solution. Do-not over wet.
- Rinse area thoroughly with water and a small amount of vinegar. Avoid wetting the rug’s backing.
- Blot dry until most of the moisture has been absorbed. Allow to air dry. A fan or cool hair dryer can be used to hasten the drying process.

For stains that do not come out using these methods, ask our Lakewood Ranch Oriental rug cleaning specialists.



(941) 301-9555
Overturf’s Cleaning
www.CleaningManatee.com

What to Look For in a Vacuum

As you've often heard from us, one of the best steps you can take to preserve your valuable floors and fabrics is regular vacuuming. Does it matter which vacuum you buy? When prices range from $50 to $500 we sometimes wonder what features to look for in a quality vacuum for home use. This article will hopefully clear up some of the confusion.

What to Look For in a Vacuum from http://www.consumersearch.com Consumersearch.com reviewers say to consider the following when buying an upright vacuum: Look for a filter. High-efficiency particulate air (HEPA) filters have excellent filtration properties, but other types of filters can be equally effective. Reviews say that most vacuums control emissions fairly well; unless you have severe allergies, most filters will be adequate. Choose between bagging and bagless. Bagless models eliminate the ongoing expense of buying new bags, but emptying the dirt cup can be messy. Bagging vacuums generally hold more dirt and may be preferable if you have allergies, because emptying a dirt bin can expose you to a cloud of dust. Either type will do a decent job of cleaning. Look for a brushroll shut-off feature if you plan to vacuum bare floors. Uprights generally have a tougher time cleaning bare floors because the revolving brush, which digs dirt out of carpets, often spits dirt from hard surfaces back out of the machine before it can be sucked up. Many vacuums have this feature, but some less expensive models do not. Also, be cautious using the beater bar on Oriental rugs, especially avoid those fringes with the beater bar! Skip the dirt-sensor feature. Sometimes you'll see vacuum manufacturers advertising this feature, which is supposed to sense when dirt pickup slows, presumably meaning that the area is clean. However, reviewers say dirt sensors have nothing to do with performance. Check the cord and hose length. A longer hose (7 feet or more) makes it easier to clean high places with an attachment, and it's less likely that the unit will tip over when doing so. A longer cord (30 feet or more) allows you to clean a bigger area without having to plug the machine into a different outlet. Retractable cords, which don't need to be wound up by hand after use, are also handy. Think about the weight. Most upright vacuums weigh between 9 and 22 pounds. If you'll need to carry the vacuum up and down stairs, you might be happier with a lighter vacuum. These usually have fewer accessories but might be worth the trade-off. In user reviews, weight is a big complaint. Consider the size. Generally, uprights are more cumbersome for cleaning under chairs and tables, although some smaller uprights have a low profile that's more conducive to hard-to-reach places.

Setting Goals in 2013

As another year begins with new opportunities, we hope you've had a phenomenal 2012 and reached many of the milestones you've set for yourself.

 

A valuable tool we've learned from Zig Ziglar is what he calls "The Wheel of Life". Using this wheel, it helps you reach for balance in all areas of life. We encourage you to set attainable goals in 2013 for your family, mental, physical, social, career, financial, and spiritual life.

Here's a simple but very effective tool that can get you started...

 

Print out the wheel below, then circle on the wheel the number from 1 to 10 where you are at currently with that aspect of your life. Next, draw a line connecting the circles you just made on each spoke of the wheel.

If this were a real wheel on your car or bicycle, would you be in for a bumpy ride? Or is your wheel nice and smooth, but small, all 3's and 4's? If so, wouldn't it take you a lot longer to get anywhere? 

Do you see any areas where you could use a higher number? What goals could you set that, when you reach them, could raise your number on the wheel of life? 

 

Interestingly, they say Zig used to take this test daily, to make sure he was leading a balanced life. I like to take it every so often to see where I'm at, and I encourage you to keep it and do a self evaluation now and then too, and never stop improving!