When furniture polish goes bad, do you use more? Or do you remove the build-up from the last use? Should you use furniture polish at all?
There are so many furniture polish uses and only a few furniture polish problems. These uses are a big reason why many DIY housecleaners use furniture polish, but some still don’t.
It just depends on the type of job whether or not you’ll use furniture polish.
Listen: When Furniture Polish Goes Bad
Watch: When Furniture Polish Goes Bad
Hey there, I’m Angela Brown, and this is Ask a House Cleaner. This is a show where you get to ask a house cleaning question, and I get to help you find an answer. You can find this and 400 other answered questions in this series on our YouTube channel.
What do you do when furniture polish goes bad? By going bad, it means the sun hits the furniture a certain way. It discolors a little bit. There are fingerprints and smudges after you’ve used it.
Furniture Polish
Furniture polish is used to revive older pieces of furniture. One of these types of polish is Pledge, but there are tons of others.
Most brands have no-wax buildup, so they should not leave fingerprints and smudges. But, there are different types of surfaces that react differently to different polishes.
Newer Furniture Has Coatings
In recent years, the companies that manufacture furniture have created these amazing coatings. They go on the tops of wood so that you don’t need as much to clean them.
There are so many different kinds of chemicals on the market now. It’s to the point that if you use the wrong kind of chemical on the wrong kind of surface, it can have an adverse effect.
Make Sure You Test the Furniture Polish
When you’re using the polish you test it on an inconspicuous part of the wood. This would be like a leg or an arm of a chair instead of on the tabletop.
Then you may want to leave it for a couple of days. Then when you come back, you and the customer can check to see how it held up.
Did it leave any smudges or pick up extra dust? What happened to this particular area of furniture?
You want to know that before you just go painting it all over the customer’s house.
You Don’t Need Furniture Polish on New Furniture
When you clean wood furniture you don’t always need polish. Sometimes the furniture is new. And if that’s the case then it most likely already has a finish on the top of it.
That needs nothing more than just a damp microfiber cloth. This is the beauty of new furniture and wood has been around forever. Wood is wood, but the new furniture has coatings on them that will have it last for years.
Furniture Polish on Antiques
If you have an old antique table or chair, then furniture polish is going to do an amazing job. And there are lots of other surfaces that will do an amazing job for.
But some only need a damp microfiber cloth, not wet, but just damp. So that there’s no excess water.
When you wipe it down, it’s going to pick up all the dust. It’s going to pick up all the lint. And it’s going to pick up all the fingerprints, all the smudges, and it’s going to look again like a brand new table. So you don’t need any cleaning solutions at all.
Save Furniture Polish for What Really Needs it
Clean it with a damp microfiber cloth and just kind of watch and see how it goes. Save the polishes for the wood pieces that actually need them.
There are sometimes a lot of antiques in your customers’ homes. Some of them have been around 30 plus years.
It will brighten them up and give them a whole new life when you use the polish on it.
Furniture Polish Can Be Used on Wood
Use polishes for some pieces of wood, don’t for other pieces of wood.
Just wipe it off and then check it. Just use it on an inconspicuous area first and test it out.
But have a conversation with the customer, so the customer knows what you’re doing. Because the last thing you want your customers to be is disappointed in your work.
Look on the Back to see When Furniture Polish Goes Bad
On the back of any jar, any container, any cleaning supply, the manufacturer’s number is on the back. And so if at any time you have questions like, “What do I do, it left smudges.” You’re welcome to call that number.
This is a, “Please call us with your questions” number. There is somebody trained for the company that can answer your specific questions.
*** Good Karma Resources From This Show ***
These good karma links connect you to Amazon.com and affiliated sites that offer products or services that relate to today’s show.
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Endust Multi-Surface Dusting and Cleaning Spray, Lemon Zest – https://amzn.to/2tTX2md
Howard Feed-N-Wax – https://amzn.to/2XUGsjU
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