Sofa Cleaning Can Save Your Life

Sofa Cleaning Can Save Your Life – Literally

Your sofa is making you sick. On average, people spend at least 20 hours per week watching TV. This amounts to over 7 years of a person’s life spent glued to the screen. All that time they’ll be seated on the sofa. It’s like a part-time job, only that it may be jeopardising your health. It’s not the TV’s fault, it all comes down to the grime within the sofa’s fibres. When you add reading, eating, playing game consoles, and the occasional naps, the average person clocks a whopping 49 hours on the sofa. Around 30 are during the week, as you slump on the sofa to relax after a long day at work. The remaining 19 hours are on the weekend, while you watch the league games, Saturday night TV, and lounge back on the lazy Sunday afternoons. This comes to over 2 days a week, and more than a quarter of the year being spent on your favourite sofa. You may also be a couch-potato, spending every waking day on the sofa. Sofa cleaning can save your life from the contaminants in your furniture. You just need to call in the professionals to ensure a thorough clean is achieved. That’s where we come in. Sofa Cleaning Can Save Your Life

A similar situation is witnessed in commercial environments. The sofa is the go-to set of furniture that people choose when they want to relax. It’s in offices, waiting rooms, reception areas and even employee lounges. Sofa cleaning can save your life by getting rid of the dirt and grime particles building up in its structure. Just what exactly are they? Here’s a look at the agents in the sofa that are putting your health, and that of other people in the establishment, at risk. Sofa Cleaning Can Save Your Life

What Lurks Within Your Sofa?

1. Colonies of mites

Dust mites thrive in sofas in droves. They have all they need to build colossal colonies in the fibres. The warmth from the sofa makes a conducive environment, and the people using the sofa are constantly shedding skin flakes. Did you know that a single person sheds enough skin flakes in a day to keep nearly one million dust mites satisfied? How many people are in your household? How much human traffic does your business premises witness? How many employees spend their coffee and lunch breaks relaxing and chatting with their colleagues on the sofa in the employee lounge? It’s a feast for the dust mites. They grow and thrive, putting the health of the people using the sofa at risk. This is because, as they feed on the skin flakes they leave behind faecal material and cast skin. It can affect you in two ways. When the waste matter gets onto the skin, it causes skin irritation. It worsens conditions such as eczema and hives. The faecal residue is also light and microscopic, and can easily get raised into the air when the sofa is agitated, from people sitting on it, your children jumping up and down on the cushions, or even your pet curling up to you as a sign of affection. The airborne residue gets into the respiratory system, irritating the airways and triggering allergic reactions. Sofa Cleaning Can Save Your Life

The droppings of the dust mites are composed of protein compounds. When these protein substances are breathed in, or when they come into contact with people’s skin, the body tries to protect the individuals by producing antibodies. In turn, the antibodies start releasing histamine which is a chemical that causes the typical swelling and skin reddening that’s associated with allergies. Symptoms of the allergies triggered by dust mites include itchiness, inflamed eczema, hay fever, watery eyes, runny nose, clogged lungs, coughing and sneezing, and also breathing problems. Persons who are very sensitive will get red, itchy bumps on their skin after spending some time on a dust-mite infested sofa or bed. Hence, the cleaning is vital to eliminate the mites. Sofa Cleaning Can Save Your Life

2. Allergens

Indoor allergens are constantly building up on the sofa. These range from the dust in the air, to the pet dander getting deposited on the cushions. They cause symptoms similar to pollen allergy symptoms, such as coughing, sneezing and watery eyes. In fact, some of the pollen itself may have sifted in from the outside after you opened the windows. Some the potions of the sofa may be so concentrated with the pet dander, that you can have a more severe reaction resting on them than if you buried your face in the animal’s fur. You don’t need to have a pet in your establishment for there to be dander on the sofa. Guests to your home and customers in your business premises can have brought it in from the environment or places they were previously in. People carry the dander from one place to the next in their clothing. Sofa Cleaning Can Save Your Life

3. Mould and mildew

Your sofa can also have fungi. This is usually of because of letting a spill stay on the surface and keep it moist for long. It is also result of DIY and rookie sofa cleaning techniques, which lead to over-wetting of the sofa and increase its dry time. The spores from which the fungi develop can also be carried in on your clothing, pets and body. Mould and mildew grows in the material of the sofa. They cause brown, black, yellow, pink or green spots, plus smelly and fuzzy growths. There can over 1000 types of common indoor types of moulds on your furniture. The most common types of household mould that are found on sofas include Penicillium, Cladosporium, Dreschslera, Epicoccum, Aspergillus and Alternaria, Stachybotrys chartarum (usually referred to as Stachybotrys atra and sometimes simply called “black mould”), which is the greenish-black mould that is found indoors, although its occurrence is less frequent than the other types of mould found in homes and business premises. Sofa Cleaning Can Save Your Life

The unsightly stains formed are just a fraction of the problem caused. The fungi release spores into the interior air space. These end up being inhaled, and causing numerous health problems. Symptoms range from fatigue and irritability, to all-out allergic reactions. Exposure to the fungi in the sofa can cause nasal stuffiness, irritation of the throat or eyes, coughing or wheezing or, in some cases, skin irritation. Persons with compromised immunity, plus those with chronic lung conditions such as obstructive lung disease, can develop serious infections in their lungs when they are exposed to the mould and mildew. Mould is also linked to hypersensitivity pneumonitis in individuals who are susceptible to this immunologic condition. It’s similar to pneumonia and it can develop in susceptible persons after a brief or prolonged exposure to the mould. Some of the fungi release harmful substances known as mycotoxins. The mycotoxins may cause cancer, liver damage and also nervous system damage. They can even suppress immune system activity. Common fungal infections caused due to the exposure to indoor fungi include pulmonary haemorrhage (bleeding in the lungs), and bronchopulmonary aspergillosis which is reported more in persons suffering from asthma, cystic fibrosis, or immune deficiency. Sofa Cleaning Can Save Your Life

4. Pet fur and dander

You love your pet. Your pet loves the furniture. Piles of fur ending up on the sofa is inevitable. The fur left behind on the sofa by your furry friend can also trigger allergic reactions- although the initial complaint will be that is has grossed you out. Pet owners are vividly aware of how frustrating pet fur can be. With your cat or dog sleeping on the cushion, and rubbing its head and body parts into the sofa for a greater part of the day, your sofa will be left all grimy and sickening. You do your best to vacuum them away, but there are still those strands left adhered to the fibres. You can work through an entire lint roller and still have fur stuck in the crevices of the sofa. Sometimes it gets so exasperating that you grab a pair of tweezers. Let our professionals take the load off your back. Sofa cleaning can save your life by both preventing the allergies and saving you from the arduous tasks of getting rid of each and every strand of fur on the sofa. Sofa Cleaning Can Save Your Life

5. Bacteria

There are all kinds of bacteria crawling around in the sofa. The sofa arm alone have over 12 more times bacteria per square inch than the typical toilet seat. The bacteria feed on the organic matter being dropped onto the sofa, such as food crumbs, smudges from ketchup and mustard, and drink spills, from coffee, tea and wine, to juice and sodas. The sofas are warm, providing a conducive atmosphere for bacteria to thrive. You can end up inhaling them the next time you rest your head on the sofa. They’ll get into your system, causing infection. Your kids enjoy hopping on the sofa, and your cat and dog takes some time to groom itself when it’s on the cushions. They can pick up the germs, which end up wreaking all sorts of havoc on their health. Sofa cleaning can save your life from the microbes, by killing and eliminating them from the fibres of the material. Sofa Cleaning Can Save Your Life

More Common Sources Of Bacteria On The Sofa

All kinds of items are dropped onto the sofa increasing the amount of bacteria thriving in its fibres. These range from the remote that’s a nuisance at getting into the crevices and under the cushions, to game controllers and your kids’ favourite toys and dolls. Typical toys are 1.5 times dirtier than the lavatory. A games controller on average has a bacterial count of over 7800 per 15 square inches. This is nearly five times higher than that of the typical toilet. The remote is in a league of its own. In fact, it is quite rightly the single dirtiest item in most typical homes. It’s handled by everyone in the house, gets dropped onto the floor, spilled on, coughed and sneezed on, and frequently covered in sticky messes from peanut butter to juice spills. The grime gets into the nooks and crannies of the remote, allowing the germs to thrive. Active germs can live on remotes for at least 24 hours. Many are the times when the remote gets lost in the sofa- where it deposits some of the bacteria on it. The chain of transference of the microbes from the different items to the sofa and into your body systems and leave you battling with a wide range of illnesses. Sofa Cleaning Can Save Your Life

There are also the germs from handbags. You throw your handbag on the sofa each day you come home from work. It’s almost a guarantee that customers on your business premises will come with their handbags slinging on their shoulders, and will lay them on the sofas the wait to be served. The bags themselves are germ-traffickers. They can have 10 times more microbial activity than a toilet seat. Very few women wash their handbags on a monthly basis, and most have never emptied it for a good clean-up. They’ve been to all sorts of surfaces- bus seats, office desks, all through to restrooms, where people put them on germ-covered surfaces when they go to refresh themselves. People walk into bathrooms and hang the bags on the door and others put them on the floor. Make up, phones, residue from snacks, and loose change transform the bags into germy breeding grounds. The soft texture of the handbags’ material enables them to pick up the pathogens easily, and provides an optima environment for the microbes to thrive. There are also the contaminants from the environment that were picked up by the bags, from cigarette smoke to the chemical compounds from air sprays, paint jobs, and car exhaust. All these wind up in the sofa. There are over 10,000 different bacteria in just a few square centimetres of most handbags. In fact, one in every five handbag handles is home to sufficient bacteria to pose a risk to human health. These get transferred to the sofa’s fibres, and end up being inhaled by the persons relaxing on the furniture, or getting onto their skin and causing irritation.

The Stench On Your Sofa

Then there are the odours emanating from the sofa. You put your legs up on the sofa after you come home from a tour in the park, the morning jog, or in the evening from work. Just a few hours later you can barely rest your head on the same spot on the sofa due to the feet-smell coming from it. The odours are distressing, going as far as affecting your psychological state. They ruin your mood in your own home, making your uncomfortable and unable to enjoy your favourite TV show, the prime time news, spend quality time with your family.

How Sofa Cleaning Can Save Your Life

1. Eliminate dirt and contaminants

The equipment and cleaning solutions remove the food spills, pet fur and dander that is adhered to the sofa materials’ fibres and the crevices. Deep cleaning procedures are employed, getting rid of even the dirt that’s ingrained to the fabric. The solutions cut through the grime and emulsify the greasy residue. The stains are broken down with ease, and the gunk causing all the trouble in the sofa is removed from the fibres. The processes gets rid of everything- from the allergens like pollen that would have ended up being inhaled, droppings from the insets and pests that had visited the sofa, spills and dirt spots that provide breeding grounds for pathogens, to the organic matter that is nourishing the microorganisms in the sofa. This enables you to use the sofa comfortably, rest assured that it is safe for you household members and the persons in your business premises.

2. Disinfect the sofa

Sofa cleaning can save your life by preventing you from getting contaminated and falling ill as you lounge back to relax over the weekends or with your buddies. We come with solutions and processes that sanitise your sofa. The chemical formulations kill the germs in the sofa and destroy their colonies. Bactericidal products are used, that have superior efficacy when it comes to eradicating the microbes thriving in the sofa. These include those from the decaying food crumbs, insect and pest droppings plus other organic matter, and the pathogens that were coughed or sneezed onto the sofa by persons who were ill. The processes get rid of the existing germs, and prevents more from growing in the fibres of the sofa. This will protect you from inhaling them, and shield the kids playing on the sofa who keep touching their faces and mouths. Sofa Cleaning Can Save Your Life

3. Safe cleaning procedures

You also want to reduce your green footprint. The sofa cleaning can save your life and preserve the environment at the same time. Our sofa cleaning personnel come with natural and eco-friendly cleaning products, and employ systems that pose no risk to the ecosystem in your home or office space. There are no harmful chemicals used or toxic chemicals generated, thus preserving the indoor air space. There is no residue left on the sofa and the solutions are safe to use around children and pets. This has the welcome bonus of preventing premature resoiling. Sofa Cleaning Can Save Your Life

4. Remove mites from the fabrics

On average, a person sheds 5-10 grams of skin cells per week, which comes to around 3 pounds per year. That’s enough to sustain countless dust mites in your sofa. They end up spreading to your sofa, upholstery and even to the bedroom. Have you ever looked at a sun beam getting into the building? You’ll see particles floating around. Nearly 80% of them are human skin flakes, which are the nourishment sustaining the organisms. The sofa cleaning team removes the dust mites together with their droppings from the fabric of the sofa, leaving it clean and fresh. No more scratching yourself, and you won’t have to worry about persons using the sofa getting allergic reactions. By getting rid of their food source, it also prevents them from thriving in the sofa. The sofa cleaning processes also enable you to sleep better. The bed and dust mites, coupled with the dirt in the fibres, can cause discomfort as one is sleeping. You want to be able to enjoy your afternoon naps on the sofa, and sleep comfortably in your bed at night. The sofa cleaning prevents the mites from growing and spreading to other sections of your home. Sofa Cleaning Can Save Your Life

5. Prevent growth of mould and mildew

Mould spores are quite literally everywhere. The key to preventing their growth is effectively controlling moisture levels in the sofa. You don’t want your family members to keep sneezing, coughing or develop a rash. If customers on your business premises suddenly start having watery, itchy or red eyes, a runny nose, or coughs and sneezes, after spending a couple of minutes on the sofa they will walk right out of your establishment. Losing the profits will only be the start of your problems. You may end up facing lawsuits for the poor hygiene standards in your commercial environment. Professional sofa cleaning can save your life and that of the people around you from the fungi. We have invested in high quality sofa cleaning equipment and tough acting solutions, which get rid of the fungal growths, and prevent them from recurring in the sofa. High powered suction is used to remove the bulk of the moisture content from the sofa material, and the little that remains dries in under 1 hour. This eliminates the window of opportunity that the fungi could have used to establish itself. Thus, your sofa remains free of mould and mildew. Sofa Cleaning Can Save Your Life

6. Enhance the indoor air space

Each time someone sits back on the sofa, the loose soiling and dust on its surface is raised into the surrounding air. The soiling includes the food particles that have been broken down by bacteria in the sofa, body fragments from insects, and even the droppings from mites and pests. As you binge watch the latest season of the TV show everyone has been taking about, or catch up with the new release from the author you’ve been avidly following, you’ll be inhaling the particulate matter. You don’t want to get health problems, or for your family members staff and customers to be affected. You want to enjoy the refreshing air in your home and office space. No one likes the odours being released from the sofa. The decaying organic matter plus urine stains can stink up the entire establishment. The sofa cleaning equipment and solutions we use get rid of the problem at the source, and neutralise the malodours coming from the sofa. The deep cleaning also removes the resultant products of bacteria and mould breaking down, such as the proteins, glucans (cell-wall particles) and the volatile organic compounds that are responsible for the musty odour that’s associated with mould. You’ll see, feel and smell the difference in your newly cleaned sofa. The risks to the respiratory systems of the persons using the establishment will have been averted, creating a more hygienic ambience. Sofa Cleaning Can Save Your Life

Extra Benefits Of Sofa Cleaning

1. Get more out of your sofa

Sofa cleaning can save your life’s investment in your furniture. The sofa sticks around for long. You move with it from one house to the next, as you switch between apartments, work areas, or even relationships. Your favourite sofa is a companion which will not leave you- but only if it’s taken care of properly. You invested in a beautiful set, which blends the décor of your home or office space, and accentuates the interior ambience. You want to enjoy watching the TV, not to keep shrugging away fluffy balls of fur off your clothes in the middle of the show. Our sofa cleaning services enable it to retain its beauty and glam. By getting rid of the dirt and stains that dull it and make everything else in the premises look old, you’ll be able to always enjoy the sofa. Sofa Cleaning Can Save Your Life

2. Protect your sofa

Sofa cleaning can save your life and that of the sofa too. The grime is gritty. The loose debris get grinded into the fibres of the sofa each time people relax on it. Considering that it’s the most used set of furniture- you host visitors on it, relax over the weekends, let your buddy crash on it on those late nights, and curl up to read a novel- the constant abrasion causes the fibres to wear down. This damages the furniture’s structural integrity. Actively-growing fungi damages the material it lives on (the mould and mildew literally feed on your fabric and leather sofas) which causes further degradation. There are also those food crumbs that get trapped in the crevices of the sofa. These attract insects like cockroaches and pests like mice. They come out under the cover of darkness to fill their bellies with the sumptuous meals that got spilled onto the sofa. They leave behind droppings that are acidic, and corrode the fabric and leather sofas. Sofa Cleaning Can Save Your Life

Some like the mice have sharp claws and teeth, which they use to dig up the food residue from the hard-to-reach spots in the sofa. You don’t want to wake up one morning to find your favourite sofa with gaping holes. The high quality sofa sets that you installed in your restaurant or office suite can get shredded up by the bugs and rodents. A couple of the brazen creatures will go as far as to build their homes within the sofa. This comes with its own set of risks. First, there’s the genuine fright- guests and customers in your premises will run around screaming at the sight of the mice. Secondly, the rodents are harbingers of disease themselves, exposing the persons in your premises to a wide range of illnesses. Sofa cleaning can save your life and that of the people using the sofa from the ailments brought by the pests, which is a welcome bonus to lengthening the life of the sofa. Sofa Cleaning Can Save Your Life

3. Prevent money drain

Sofa cleaning can save your life savings and retirement benefits. How? By cutting down on the repair and replacement costs. You don’t want to be forced to get a new sofa later on in life, simply because the one you currently have got degraded by dirt and grime. Our professional sofa cleaning services prevent this from happening. Since they are also affordable, you get a sparkling sofa without constraining your budget. You won’t need to divert your resources to fix avoidable sofa problems, and you can spend them as you had earlier planned- spoil your significant other with gifts, go on a trip, or give yourself a nice treat. Since the sofa’s elegance and structural integrity is maintained, it will fetch a higher price in case you decide to sell it. In case you are a relator looking to seal a deal on a furnished apartment or office suite, the sofa cleaning services also come in handy. The clean sofa will portray an image of a property that is well-taken care of, enabling you to attract buyers and generate leads, plus rake in more profits when you sell or rent out the property. Sofa Cleaning Can Save Your Life

4. Avoid awkward situations and enhance the ambience of the premises

In addition, sofa cleaning can save your life from the embarrassment brought about by having dirty and stained furniture. Guests asking you whether your sofa is safe to sit on is humiliating. Your visitors will have a low perception about your hygiene standards, and the chances of you scoring a second dinner with your dashing date will dwindle. You don’t want to find tumbleweeds of fur rolling across the sofa, or pieces of cat fur firmly attached to your suit just as you are about to head out to dinner. A similar situation is witnessed in commercial premises. How do you explain to your customers about the sorry state of your sofa? The immediate judgement they’ll make is that if your hygiene standards are low, then it reflects in the rest of the service delivery. You don’t want clients who have come to buy a product, hire your services, or make a consultation, to start fidgeting warily on the sofa. They fear the stains getting transferred to their clothes, or catching a bug. It’s a justified concern, and you don’t want them being uncomfortable in your premises. They’ll walk out, with the chances of them coming back to your premises falling drastically. That’s bad for business, since it reduces your market share, and prevents you from growing. Professional sofa cleaning will get rid of the source of your visitor’s and customers concerns, thus benefiting your enterprise.

Sofa Cleaning Can Save Your Life!