Saturday, January 7, 2012

Top Tips for Taking Care of a Cowhide or Other Animal Skin Rug

!±8± Top Tips for Taking Care of a Cowhide or Other Animal Skin Rug

Caring for a cow hide or other animal skin rug and accessories

Cow hide and other animal skins rugs such as zebra or reindeer have made a dramatic comeback in interior decoration in recent years and so has the need to keep them clean and in perfect condition. Taking care of a cow hide or other animal skin rug requires careful cleaning and periodic spot cleaning. Using tools and products that you can easily find to hand at home and a simple cleaning process you can keep a cow rug looking fresh and perfect for a very long time.

What You Will Need

A vacuum cleaner with a suitable brush attachment Hard-bristled brush (an old fashioned scrubbing brush is ideal) A soft cleaning soap A normal household sponge Scotch Guard or a similar fabric protector A steam cleaner (such as a Vaporetto) will help to get deep inside the fur and clean the rug to the maximum effect.

Step One

Having bought your rug and installed it in your home you must ensure you vacuum it regularly to prevent your cowhide rug becoming heavily soiled and so avoid unnecessary deep cleaning. Make use of your vacuum's brush attachment to clean the fur in the direction of its natural 'grain'.You need to do this while gently drawing out dust and other grime contaminants. By doing this every week you will ensure that gritty pieces of dirt will not start to cut the fur from the hide. A good old-fashioned beating of the rug outdoors will also shake out embedded contaminants.

Step Two

Don't soak the rug when cleaning, however, you can gently steam clean it with no negative after effects. The fur within the hide is of course made up of tanned (to preserve the protein of the skin) animal material. Fur hides repel water and damp and so keep the animal relatively dry. If when cleaning the hide it gets too moist, then go outdoors and naturally dry the hide under the sun. This also has the effect of killing any bacteria or germs that may be in the hair.

Step Three

Remove dirt spots with a non-alkaline cleansing soap. Leather soaps will work with stains on a smooth fur-free hide, but when fur is involved then baby shampoo or mild detergent gently scrubbed into foam when cleaning is much better for hides with hair. Apply the soapy froth to a sponge and then gently wipe the hide in direction of the grain. Finally thoroughly rinse with a moist sponge to get rid of any shampoo residue left in the fur.

Step Four

Use Scotch Guard or a similar fabric protector well before your rug becomes stained and after you have just cleaned it as this will help the fur to repel further stains and so keep your valuable and beautiful cow hide rug in a pristine condition.


Top Tips for Taking Care of a Cowhide or Other Animal Skin Rug

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Wednesday, December 7, 2011

Cleaning Cat Urine Off Your Floor - 3 Best Cat Urine Removers

!±8± Cleaning Cat Urine Off Your Floor - 3 Best Cat Urine Removers

Our cats may be the most loveable creatures in the world, but cleaning cat urine off the floor is still a major chore. You not only need to remove the cat urine, you also need to remove the odor. Otherwise, your cats will smell the remnants of the urine and pee there again. To effectively remove cat urine odor, you need to kill the bacteria, which is the main cause of the smell.

One of the best cat urine removers is Natures Miracle. This is an enzyme cleaner - you can buy it from places like Target, WalMart or Petsmart. It is a concentrated liquid, and comes in a white bottle with a red cap. The instructions on the bottle are pretty easy to follow. Not only does it clean cat urine from your floors, it can even remove them from carpets and fabrics. This stuff can be a bit expensive, so you might want to get a blacklight to use with it. Turn on the blacklight in the dark, and it will make the spots with cat pee shine yellow or green. Then you can just use the Natures Miracle on those spots, without washing the entire floor or carpet.

Any commercial enzymatic cleaner will probably work as a cat urine remover - it does not have to be Natures Miracle. The only thing is, enzymatic cleaners can be a bit finicky. Not all of them work on all types of stains. You have to make sure to get a brand which works for cat urine removal. So the best place to buy some is probably your local pet shop. Look at where they sell the litter for cats. Better yet, ask the sales staff where they keep the enzyme cleaners for cleaning cat urine.

Another good way of cleaning cat urine and its odor is to use a steam cleaner. Friends have gotten good results with the Polti Vaporetto which uses steam to disinfect and remove dirt. This steam is also very effective at killing the bacteria in the cat pee, and works on both your floor and carpets. The Polti is on the expensive side, though. Something cheaper like the Light and Easy steam mop works almost as well, for a fraction of the price.

If you are on a tight budget, you can soak the spot where your cat peed with strong disinfectants like Dettol or Listerine. You may need to repeat this a few times to remove all the smell. Pouring boiling water over the spot can also work - you just need to be careful. Some types of bleach can kill bacteria, and should also do the trick. But you want to check the ingredients list before you use it. Make sure it does not contain ammonia, otherwise it will just attract your cats to pee there again.

So, here are the three best ways for cleaning cat urine off your floor:
1) enzymatic cleaners like Natures Miracle;
2) Steam cleaners;
3) Any strong disinfectant (like what they use in hospitals).


Cleaning Cat Urine Off Your Floor - 3 Best Cat Urine Removers

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