Protect your carpets before you put your party pants on!
The holiday season is in full swing and we are joyful and spirited and somewhat careless as we entertain, attend parties and celebrate with mid-winter festivities. While it is important to have your carpets cleaned before and after your feasts, it is equally important...
Saying Goodbye to the Light – Why Professional Cleaners Struggle in the Winter
Many people are affected by seasonal depression - this author included! The shorter days of winter mean we have only about nine hours of (weaker) sunlight to get everything done before the darkness comes and we step into the artificial light. Studies indicate that...
What to do with Outdoor Cushions in Winter
It’s that time of year again. Fall is upon us and we are getting ready to hunker down and cozy up for the winter. As we turn towards the indoors, it’s important to remember to prepare our outdoor spaces for the winter. Our outdoor furniture can take quite a beating in...
Tales from the Carpet Cleaning Crypt
It’s every carpet cleaner's nightmare and it happened to Juan just in time for Halloween. Brace yourself for this gory story. The technician arrives at a customer’s home. He rings the doorbell and starts to feel unsettled as the chime wails and dies off. Glowing eyes...
The Environmental Impact of Your Leather
Leather furniture is intimidating. It has a reputation of luxury and it is desired for its durability and long lastingness as well as sublime comfort while at the same time has somewhat of an environmental and humanitarian affront. There are so many “types “of leather...
Don’t Trust a Carpet Cleaner who Cleans Area Rugs in Your Home.
Many (if not most) carpet cleaners will happily clean an area rug for you in your home with no stipulations or objections. In fact - many will insist! "Just let me take a quick pass on that rug while I am here!" When we were first starting out, we did the same. it...
Yes, We Will Clean Area Rugs in Your Home!
There is a company in Marin that holds the seat of popularity for in home area rug cleaning because they claim to do an excellent job of cleaning an area rug in your home. It’s popularity comes from the low price tag. The caveat is that they don’t clean rugs any other...
Reappearing stains – stop them forever!
Why do some carpet stains reappear after a cleaning? Learn why here, and how to prevent them from coming back forever!
The rundown on Tencel and Alcantara – what are these fibers?
As high end upholstery cleaners specializing in complicated fibers (things so delicate that we sometimes need to clean in our own shop rather than in our clients homes) we come across a lot of fibers that are new or experimental, or just ones that we’ve not heard of...
Let’s Talk Leather
I’m going to shame myself in this post, and hope you all learn from my mistakes! About 8 years ago I bought a sofa set on Craigslist that had seen better days but wasn’t beyond help. I had my team restore it as a training exercise and it took us FOREVER, but it turned...
Furniture depression(s) in your carpeting
This week Gustavo was assisting our client Sarah for her move out cleaning. She had some deep depressions in her carpeting from a table that had been sitting in the same place for a number of years. She removed that piece of furniture and it left some pretty...
Why You Need a Rug Pad for Your Cowhide Leather Rug
Last week, Javier was in the home of one of our clients. It’s a beautiful contemporary farmhouse and he was there to clean the carpeting upstairs. When he walked in the front door, he noticed a beautiful cowhide rug sitting in the entrance. It looked to be in great...
How to Identify and Eliminate Moths from Rugs and Upholstery
WIth warm weather comes all of the creepy crawlies. As you prepare for summer and begin spring cleaning, remember to check your closets, rugs and wool upholstery for signs of moths. There are all sorts of moths that enjoy the warm, damp climate of late spring and...
Upholstery Cleaning Codes and What They Mean
I recently read a number of articles explaining to consumers that knowing cleaning codes can help them to clean most upholstery spills and stains themselves. Having a couple of decades of experience under my belt, I would have to disagree with that claim. However,...
Spot and Stain Removers for Carpets and Upholstery from a Cleaners Perspective
This week in carpet cleaning chronicles, I want to highlight a conversation my technician had with his client, and is a conversation we repeat at least three times a week. Client: “I have this stain from [insert any substance here] and I tried to get rid of it myself...
Will removing cat urine and smell stop my cat from peeing?
Last week we returned a set of sofa cushions to a customer very clean and smelling fresh. She had called us because her cat had peed pretty extensively on the cushions on her living room couch. Selfishly, we really love pets and their accidents because it usually...
Five Tips for Maintaining Velvet Upholstery
It’s been a few decades since we have seen velvet in abundance, but it is making a comeback. This trending material is becoming a centerpiece of today’s living rooms. Read on to find out what to do, and what not to do, to keep your velvet furniture looking its absolute best.
Cleaning Sheepskins, Flokatis and Other Animal Hides
Have you ever wondered how we clean a sheepskin rug or other animal hide product? This is not entry level carpet cleaning stuff - Mother Nature’s Cleaning has been cleaning sheepskin rugs, cowhide rugs, leather rugs, flokati rugs and all sorts of animal products in...
Mold – Another Four Letter Word
We see mold on outdoor cushions, Persian rugs, commodity tufted area rugs, on indoor furniture that has been in storage, as well as on carpeting that has been over-wet during a cleaning or flooded. We see our fair share of it so it only makes sense that we are always...
Cleaning old Carpet and the Lifespan of Carpeting
Learn why older carpeting doesn’t look as clean after a cleaning as new carpeting and understand the lifespan of different types of carpeting.
The Importance of Maintaining your Leather
I have been studying, practicing and teaching leather care and restoration for seven years. Today I spent some time on a presentation that I did a couple years ago for our technicians. I was updating some pictures and I was scouring the internet for comparable images....
Painful day of Discrimination and Cancellations
Tuesday was a rough day for the team. I feel compelled to post about it because we all felt the pain. When you work in the service industry, you gain a very high respect for the time of others, and you honor your commitments with other providers. When people flake on...
Not Clean Enough – We made a mistake!
Sometimes we make mistakes, and this spot resurfacing was one of them. See what we did to correct it and save face!
The Sticky Truth about Glued Down Carpeting
Today was one we don’t see every day, but we see it occasionally - mostly in commercial jobs, but those are usually a little different. Our Senior tech went to what he expected to be a standard cleaning. Six rooms and a set of stairs. The hidden gem was the carpeted...