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In-Home Cleaning After Care

In order to receive the maximum benefit from your cleaning:

    1. It’s ideal to open the windows a few inches to let a natural breeze flow through your home to aide in the drying process.
    2. While it’s tempting to crank up the heater to dry things out faster, we don’t recommend this, unless you open some windows slightly. Heat without enough ventilation creates more of a green-house effect, extending the drying time. Ceiling fans or other types of fans help circulate the air and your carpets will dry faster.
    3. Wear the booties we provide, but be sure to take them off when you go into the garage or the front door step. You want to keep as much dirt off your damp carpeting as possible.
    4. When we move furnishings to clean under them, we will put those items back in their original place, but we’ll put them up on foam blocks or protective pads. We recommend leaving these blocks/pads in place for three to four days. They are preventing interface between, say, a steel tack on the bottom of a furniture leg that may rust when it comes in contact with damp carpeting, so you don’t want to remove the chips/blocks too soon.

      (Note: IF you are unable to remove the chips/blocks, give us a call and we’ll swing by and take care of that for you.)

    5. Floor mats under desk chairs: these, too, need to stay off the floor for three or four days.
    6. Remember, if any of those pesky spots return within 30 days of our cleaning, call us back. We’ll take care of it … for free! It’s all part of our Coleman Care guarantee!

Prepping for Your In-Home Cleaning

In order to work efficiently when we arrive to your home for cleaning, we ask you to do the following:

    1. Look around to determine which furnishings you’d like us to move for you. Then remove any items from that piece of furniture that may make moving it difficult. For example, if we’re moving your coffee table, please clear off the top. Side tables? Please remove clocks, lamps, etc.
    2. Move any fragile items sitting on the carpeting: floor lamps, urns, potted plants, etc.
    3. We’ll vacuum, so you don’t need to worry about that.
    4. Once we’ve arrived, DO take us on a tour of the areas you’d like us to clean, reviewing with our cleaning team what IS and ISN’T being moved.
    5. Once we’ve started cleaning, you’re welcome to stay and watch our professionals in action, or if you need to depart, just leave us directions on how to lock up once we’re done.

Allergy Tips

Controlling Dust Mites: If you are like many of our customers, you have probably grown to accept the chronic allergies, hay fever, and asthma that plague you day in and day out. But what if we told you that there was a cure to your sniffling and sneezing apart from taking any medication whatsoever.
 
Allergy Tips Dust Mites

The fact is that this monster like creature to your left could be causing you more trouble than you think. This is a magnified picture of one of the millions of dust mites that may be roaming your comfy spots right now. Dust mites are tiny little critters that thrive in warm, humid places such as your mattresses, pillows, bedding, carpets, and furniture. But don’t worry, these little devils can’t bite or hurt you. In fact, it’s not the mite itself but their feces that trigger your allergies! It’s a bit gross…we know.

 
That’s why we suggest these 5 simple steps to help keep your house clean and critter free.

1. Reduce your home’s humidity by using air conditioning or installing a dehumidifier. They hate dry air.

2. Vacuum your carpets, furniture and mattresses as often as you can using a HEPA filter or your standard vacuum.(If you’re in need of a good vacuum, please give our friends at Bob’s Vacuum a call…they’re VERY helpful!)

3. Steam clean your carpets and upholstery every year whether they look dirty or not.

4, Use furniture polish when you dust so you don’t just spread around the dust.

5. Buy a HEPA filter-type air purifier (make sure it’s not an ion-generating filter)

 

 

Carpet Care

Vacuuming: This is no secret, but regular vacuuming is the most important thing you can do to stretch the life of your carpet. Vacuuming, even when the carpet looks clean, prevents invisible grit from sinking into the carpet and shredding its filaments which causes irreversible traffic patterns. Vacuum your carpet weekly (more often in heavy traffic areas).
Walk-Off Mats: Place small mats or rugs at entryways and areas that lead from hard surfaces to carpeting. Soils from the outdoors and grit from hard surfaces tend to stick to the soles of your feet and wipe right off onto the carpets. Walk-off mats help prevent this from happening.

Scotchgard Protector: Scotchgard protects carpet fibers against oil or water-based spills and tracked in dirt. We’ve done tests in our shop and recommend it highly. Some new carpeting has it built right in. It does wear off in time, especially in the traffic areas (where you need it most) so it should be reapplied with each professional cleaning.

Foot Traffic: Hard rubber and leather soled shoes pick up and carry far less dirt onto your beautiful carpeting than softer, waffle soled shoes. Black crepe soles are particularly bad and bare feet may be the worst. Even though you’ve showered, natural oils in your skin pick up dirt and then paint it on your carpeting. Indoor-only slippers or just clean socks worn around the house are best in my book.

Immediate Attention to Spots: Many types of spots require immediate attention and some get even worse when treated with detergents. Keep a bottle of our special Coleman general spotter on hand, and call us if you have any questions. We’re always available to offer advice, so keep our phone number handy.

Professional Cleaning: Having your carpets cleaned every 12 to 18 months helps your carpet realize its full life-span. It also keeps your carpet looking better and feeling softer.

We’ve taken care of Santa Barbara’s finest carpets since 1969. Our clear-rinse process is the most affective cleaning method in the industry. It was developed to prevent fast resoiling by eliminating the soil-attracting residue that other processes leave behind. Our expertise, friendly service and our guarantee earns us the recognition of being Santa Barbara’s best carpet cleaner year after year.

 
 

Area Rug Care

Care Tips for your Area Rugs: Imagine buying an original work of art worth thousands of dollars, then taking it home and walking all over it. That’s exactly what we do with our Oriental Rugs. By following these tips your rugs will endure for decades.

“Beating” the Rug: Your grandma might have gotten her cardiovascular exercise beating her rugs with a broomstick. Now there’s an easier way to get the dust out. Try this special trick from time to time at home.

To “beat” your rug, place face down a clean garage floor or patio. Vacuum the backside, setting the vacuum for short pile to create plenty of vibration. You’ll be amazed at how much dirt drops out to the concrete using this method. Turn the rug back over, and vacuum the topside to remove surface dust.

Fringe: High pressures of vacuuming can cause fringe to tear or come loose so avoid the fringe when vacuuming. We recommend that you lightly brush the fringe with a broom.

Moth Damage: Wool Orientals are especially susceptible to moths that lay their eggs in dark, undisturbed areas. One favorite spot is under heavy, seldom-moved furniture. Be sure to vacuum these areas at least three to four times a year.

Bleeding: Many area rugs are decorated with fugitive dyes (“bleeding” colors). Before attempting to do your own spot removal on an area rug, test to make sure there are no fugitive dyes involved. Just moisten a towel with your cleaning solution and rub a small area at the corner of the rug. If any color appears on the towel then there are fugitive dyes in the rug. Allow us to clean those spots without damaging the coloration.

Spot treatment: Immediate action always produces the best results. First, scrape off any solid material or blot up liquid with a soft terry-cloth or paper towel. Wool rugs are sensitive to strong cleaners so use a spray bottle of warm water mixed with one teaspoon of hair shampoo to wet the spot. Next, message the pile in the direction of the nap with your fingertips or a soft brush. Finally, spray and blot the area several times using a mixture of two tablespoons of white vinegar in 12oz of clean water.

Padding: We recommend that padding be placed beneath area rugs. It limits the affects of foot traffic and also prevents bunching and sliding (which can be a tripping hazard). We can help you pick the right pad, and install it for you with a perfect fit to your rug.

Professional Cleaning: Many rugs still look clean even though they haven’t been cleaned for years. Professional cleaning is important because it extracts dirt and dust that vacuuming cannot remove. The grit that settles in will eventually wear through the fibers at their base, making the rug look much older.

 
 

Upholstery Care

To Prevent Wear and Fading:

Flip Cushions regularly (every two months). Even switch a cushion’s position on the couch, if possible.
 
Sun Block: UV rays are harmful to fabric causing discoloration and fading. Use tinted windows, blinds, or (if décor permits) position the furniture to prevent your upholstery from being exposed to direct sunlight. Or, simply have us apply a UV SunBlock, which interacts with fibers at a molecular level to prevent sun damage.
 
Rotate furniture around a room or dining room table to prevent uneven ware and fading.

Vacuuming should be done regularly, about every three months.

Fabric Protection helps upholstery repel dirt, spills, and stains. Most fabric is treated before it leaves the factory, but those products wear away in time. If you want to protect your sofa from drips and dribbles, then give us a call. A good professional cleaning, including the reapplication of fabric protector, will do the trick.

Dangers of Do-it-Yourself Spotting: There’s a difference between a band-aid accident and a trip-to-the-doctor accident. Unfortunately, most accidents involving upholstery need the doctor’s care.

With so many types of fabric available, each responding differently to water and detergent, it takes a cleaning doctor to know just the right cleaning process to prescribe. Improper cleaning techniques can cause halos (white rings around a dirty spot) and watermarks (brown patterns that indicate where the fabric has been wetted). In our years of practice, we’ve learned to prevent these problems. We’ve also learned to identify the shrinkers, the bleeders, the faders-and to treat them accordingly. So if you’re considering a band-aid approach, we recommend calling the “doctor” instead. There’s a good chance we can cure it, without the side effects. And we even make house calls!

Don’t Wait Too Long: Some sofas hide dirt so well that you can go for years without even thinking about it. But just because you don’t notice the dirt, doesn’t mean it’s not there. A sofa can go from brand new to dingy and you’d hardly even notice. Our customers often tell us how surprised they are when they see the difference a professional cleaning makes. If your sofa gets as much use as mine does, I recommend cleaning it every 18 to 24 months.