Are you looking for ways to make your home furniture last longer? Well, before we say anything else, we’d like you to know that you have landed on the right page.
We all know for a fact that our home is our most valuable asset bar none, and the furniture in our house is included in our prized asset. We also understand that finding the perfect piece of furniture to go with your home’s colour theme is extremely challenging, but once you find it – the joyful feelings are unmatched. We want those feelings not just to last longer, but to stay with you, possibly forever.
We had previously shared a guide on how to give new life to old furniture. However, this blog is focused on providing you a few tips on how to make your home furniture last longer.
Without further ado, let’s get protecting!
Simple and Easy Ways to Make Your Home Furniture Last Longer
According to real estate and interior design experts, our home speaks volumes about our personal preferences, unique personalities, and our lifestyle. Plus, our selection and care are a true reflection of our hygiene habits and practices. That said, it is probably the reason why most of us make profound efforts to put our best foot forward when it comes to showing our house to visitors and guests.
Here are some of the best ways to increase the life of your home furniture:
- Set House Rules
- Invest in Vacuum Cleaners
- Use Fabric Protector or Slipcovers
- Limit Exposure to Sunlight
- Take Help from Professional Cleaners
- Paint or Refinish
- Tighten Screws
- Remove Ugly Scratches
- Keep it Neat and Tidy
Set House Rules
This one goes for families with young kids and messy adults. Set house rules and make sure everyone sticks to them. Whether you have to limit eating to the dining table or call off a movie night, don’t hesitate to set house rules. Make sure your children are not using your valuable furniture like a trampoline or throwing cushions around as it can cause serious damage.
However, if you can’t restrict your children and family members, then keep reading for further solutions.
Invest in Vacuum Cleaners
Much of the valuable pieces of furniture are either placed in a living room or bedroom where your family members spend most of their time together or use these spaces for relaxation. Living with an average family of four to five people means dealing with several different individuals with their unique choices and habits – you certainly cannot limit everyone to eating on the dining table while some of us like something to munch on while watching movies.
So, if you are looking for tips to make your home furniture last longer and save it from food mess and crumbs – our first and foremost advice is to invest in vacuum cleaners and other such cleaning gadgets. You can easily get rid of crumbs, fallen popcorns, dust, dirt, and even dead skin cells. If you don’t conduct a deep cleaning with a vacuum now and then, these particles get embedded in the furniture and cause discoloration.
Simply put, vacuum cleaners can help you get rid of the mess that an ordinary pair of eyes can’t see.
Use Fabric Protector or Slipcovers
Despite your best efforts and protection, sometimes your dear furniture gets stained. For families with children and pets, this damage is inevitable. No matter what type of stain you have on a piece of furniture, you need to clean it immediately – the longer it sits, the harder it is to remove. Another excellent way to save your couch or sofas from getting stained is to use a fabric protector.
By using fabric protectors, you will not only save the outer part of the furniture from spills and messes, but it will also increase the life of the upholstery and protect it from wearing or tearing. You can easily get fabric protector sprays from furniture markets. On a side note, the average price of fabric protectors in Pakistan is PKR 1,000 if you’re looking forward to buying one for your furniture.
Further, you can use slipcovers to make sure that the actual fabric doesn’t wear out and doesn’t come in direct contact with spills, dirt, and stains. Spill covers work as an additional barrier and safety for your furniture, and you can throw them into the washing machine every once in a while.
Limit Exposure to Sunlight
Under and overexposed furniture to sunlight deteriorates faster than anything else. Too much sunlight can damage the furniture, while no exposure to the sunlight can get your furniture infected with house pests.
All you need to do is to avoid keeping your furniture where the sunlight enters directly into your house. For upholstered furniture, which is especially vulnerable to sunlight, you can prevent this damage by covering the fabric. Meanwhile, for wooden and metallic furniture, you can easily limit exposure to sunlight by installing window blinds.
Take Help from Professional Cleaners
Sometimes, taking proper care of your valuable furniture is time-consuming, especially for individuals who have to manage both their job and family. So, hiring a professional cleaner annually or quarterly to do the needful is a great way to give a new look to old furniture. This one goes for all the upholstered furniture in your house – it should get deeply cleaned by a professional if you have pets and kids in your family.
Paint or Refinish
Another great way to keep your furniture looking fresh is to take a DIY project and try painting or refinishing. It can prevent your furniture from looking dingy. You can even give it a new look by changing its original colour and giving it a funky or classic look – whatever goes best with your interior. Take our word for it, a little paint or varnish can give old furniture a brand new look.
Tighten Screws
In countries like Pakistan, where we value our traditions more than anything, pieces of wooden furniture can last a lifetime. It is a common occurrence for us to have a treasured heirloom in our homes, passed down to us through multiple generations.
No matter how valuable and old a piece of furniture is, wood is susceptible to abrasions while its screws can easily get rusted and loose. We’ll discuss how to get rid of scratches in the latter part of this blog. For now, let’s stick to screws.
The screws and bolts used in the furniture like bed and chairs loosen with time. So, if you are struggling with wobbly and creaky furniture, you should be alarmed. Ignore it for too long, and you will end up with permanent damage. Tighten screws and oil the joints to avoid irreparable damages.
Remove Ugly Scratches
Wooden and metallic furniture can easily get spoilt or damaged by scratches, and there’s a thing with scratches – they won’t go away on their own. As such, your furniture can last longer if you mask these scratches with paint or by following the tips given below:
- Remove wax scratches by creating a DIY wax remover at home using white vinegar and some water. Apply this mixture on the damaged area with a piece of soft cotton cloth and rub it off.
- You can also fix wood scratched by using sandpaper and scraping the surface.
- Another best way to fix scratches on your furniture is with simple wax crayons. Take a crayon and gently rub it across the scratch. Just make sure that the crayon you have selected has the same shade as your furniture.
- Rubbing nuts on dark-coloured wooden furniture and lemon on light-coloured wooden furniture also works perfectly for removing scratches and stains.
For further tips on removing stains and scratches from your furniture, you can navigate to our recently published guide and see what works best for you.
Keep it Neat and Tidy
Your old wooden furniture might not be as old as it appears. It is probably the dirt and dust that makes it look worn out or faded. One of the easiest ways to make your furniture look new and fresh is to dedicate some time to cleaning and dusting it every three days, if not regularly. Remember to use soft cotton cloth for dusting and avoid harsh chemicals or cleaners. The store-bought chemicals can do more harm than good, so stick to cleaning with damp cloth [for laminated wood] or just vacuuming.
To put everything together, furniture is an integral part of your home décor and interior, and for most of us, it is a one-time investment due to the costs associated with it. The house looks dull and incomplete without decent, clean, and fresh-looking furniture. So, we have shared some easy ways to make your furniture last longer in this blog. You can tell us how you keep your furniture maintained by sharing your tips with us at blog@zameen.com.
For more tips on home maintenance and taking care of furniture in your house, keep visiting Zameen Blog. Get the latest updates on the property market by subscribing to our newsletter by entering your email address in the box on the right side of your screen. To get the latest information on our events and projects, stay connected to us through our Facebook page.
Looking for a place to buy furniture in Pakistan? Take help from our virtual area guides. From furniture markets in PECHS, Karachi to perfect places to buy furniture near Lahore’s PIA Housing Society, we’ve got you covered!
