Tips on Cleaning Your Furniture

The holidays are coming to a close, and your guests are finally on their way back home. It is time to get rid of all of the dirt, food, and germs that have been left around your house and get it back to normal! When we think of cleaning, most of us forget about the furniture. Furniture is a great place for dirt and bacteria to hide. Follow these tips to keep your furniture clean and looking nice after the holiday season.

How to Start

If the cushions on your couch are removable, take them off. Using the hose of your vacuum to remove any leftover debris is a great way to start cleaning your furniture. It is also important that you read the label on your furniture or the booklet that came with it. These will give you specifics on how your furniture can be cleaned.

Spot Clean or Steam Clean your Furniture

The correct way to clean your furniture depends on the fabric. Always test a small discrete area before jumping in with any cleaning regimen. If your furniture can be cleaned with water, a small amount of soap and water and the brush on your vacuum can do the trick. Leather can be cleaned with soap and water, and buffed with a dry cloth. For stubborn stains, check out these tips for stain removal on leather. If you do not feel comfortable cleaning your own furniture, you can always call a professional. Many of them will offer suggestions and make sure your furniture is not harmed in the cleaning process.

Let it Dry

After cleaning your furniture, it is important to give it enough time to dry before replacing cushions and going back to regular use. If you do not let your furniture dry completely, leftover wetness can get trapped and create mold. Sitting on your furniture before it is dry can also leave you feeling damp, which is not comfortable!

If this holiday season left giant cranberry stains or wine spills on your furniture, Hennen’s is here for you! Stop by any of our locations (or check out our website) and see the area’s largest furniture and flooring selection.

Preparing Your Home For A Holiday Celebration

The holiday season is a time to be thankful and gather with friends and family. When trying to make time to spend with all of your loved ones, your home can become crowded with decorations and guests. With the season right around the corner, it is important to plan ahead for your celebrations and make sure you make the most of your space.

Add Additional Seating

There are many ways to add seating to your home without spending a ton of money. By adding cushions to the floor, your younger guest will be able to find a seat anywhere in the room, without sitting directly on the ground. Keeping folding chairs in a closet is a great way to add seating when you need it. You can take out one chair at a time, or set all of them out for your guests. Sneaking seating can also be added and pulled out when needed!

Set Up A Buffet Table

Food is an important part of any gathering. It is common to place all of the food on the dining room table and pass each dish around. To create more seating and avoid clutter on the the table, set up your food buffet style and allow guests to create their own plate before taking their seat. By having a buffet table, you avoid having to reach over other people for food and no longer risk spilling food or breaking dishes. For more styles of tables, check out the selection at Hennen!

Always Have Extras

As a host, you will never know when someone is going to invite their significant other or bring a friend from out of town. Always plan ahead when it comes to the amount of food you will provide. It is also nice to have small gifts on hand so there isn’t anyone left without a gift to open. Gift cards or a bottle of wine are always good options. If there are no additional guests, they can always be used later on or for personal use. You can also purchase e-giftcards and print them out from home!

By following these tips, you will be prepared for the holiday chaos and be able to spend more of your time with your family and friends, enjoying your celebration!

Do you have any other rituals you do to prepare for the holidays? If so, share with us with a comment below!

Keys to a Relaxing Widow's Weekend

When your significant other is a hunter, it is common for them to spend a weekend away with their friends during hunting opener. While they are gone, make sure you make the most of your time alone by following our tips to a relaxing weekend!

Curl up on your couch

Your living room is normally a place for watching television and sometimes even your dinner table. With your counterpart gone, take some time to relax on the couch. Pick a show that you never get to watch, read a book, or take a nap. The choice is yours!

Check out our living room set ups that would be great for relaxing!

Surround yourself with calming colors

Warm colors are often associated with stimulation. Step out of your red kitchen and move into a room with cooler colors.

Blue is the color of both the sky and the ocean and has proven to be a calming hue. Green is also said to lessen depression and is both a soothing and refreshing color. It reminds people of a walk through the park or other calm activities. Click here to read more about color associations.

Photo from Flickr.com

By adding an accent pillow or throw blanket in blue or green to your living room, you can increase your relaxation!

Light a scented candle

Along with color, scent also plays a key role in relaxation. Scents like chamomile, lavender, and vanilla, are among those said to play a role in relaxation. There are many other smells that can also help you relax. Scents are now used as a remedy for sleep and stress reduction.

Photo from Flickr.com

Use these tips to make the most of your time as a hunter’s widow.  Frankly, you can’t go wrong combining your couch, relaxing colors, and some delicious scents. Visit a Hennen’s near you to see what we can do to help make your home a comfortable and relaxing one!

Three Things that will Enhance your Football Experience

As the summer months come to an end, the short, Minnesota fall season makes it’s way into our homes. When we think of fall, most of us think of leaves changing colors, everything pumpkin, and FOOTBALL. Football allows viewers to share pride, be competitive, and bond through tradition. No matter what your tradition is, we have come up with three things that will enhance your viewing experience.

1. Your Seat

Whether you prefer watching your football relaxing at home or celebrating with friends in a bar, your seat can make or break your experience. 

Having friends over for game day can require a lot of seating. Adding a sectional or accent chairs to your home can help house your guests comfortably and prevent the crowding of temporary seating.

If you are going to a bar or restaurant, or viewing at a friend’s make sure your chair has a back support. Sitting for a long period of time without any support can cause back pain and soreness that will not make for a happy Monday!

2. Your Snacks

What you use to fuel your game day excitement can differ from week to week. If it is your turn to host the party, or you just want a snack to feed your family, here is one we love with four simple ingredients that is guaranteed to please!

You will need: your favorite crackers, cheddar cheese, summer sausage, and ranch dressing.

Using a rinsed aluminum can or a circular cookie cutter cut the edges of your cheese and meat to create a football shape. Place your football cutouts on top of a cracker, and draw laces with ranch dressing.

For full instructions and step-by-step photos click here: http://bit.ly/1sJrwD5

    

3. Your Company

The key ingredient to your ultimate football experience is the people your surround yourself with. Football is a time to share your traditions, to create new memories, and to enjoy the time you get to spend with friends and family. It is a perfect excuse to host a party or plan a place to meet your friends.

If watching football is in your plans in the coming weeks, try out these three things to help create your ultimate viewing experience and let us know how it goes! Visit Hennen's Furniture to find a seat that is a perfect fit to enhance your tradition.

The Dangers of Humidity in Your Home

Humidity is constant during Minnesota summers - 83% on average! Besides making the outdoors a little unpleasant, humidity actually has dangerous implications for your home. In fact, the Smithsonian Institute cites changes in relative humidity as the number one cause of furniture damage! So what does humidity actually do that is so bad?

Wood Furniture: Unfortunately, your beautiful wood furniture likes to absorb and desorb water from the air when humidity fluctuates. This absorption causes problems because the wood expands and contracts with the fluctuations. Depending on the direction of the wood grain, the furniture will expand and contract differently, leaving things like drawers and doors warped.

Walls: Humidity is not a wall’s friend. Moisture in the air can be dangerous for walls because it can condense on the wall’s surface and cause stains, paint bubbling and mold - Yuck! Mold can be very dangerous causing problems from itching eyes, allergic reactions, coughing, sneezing and even be as serious as causing permanent lung damage.

Wallpapered walls are especially at risk for this kind of damage. Many wallpapers are made of vinyl which creates what is called a vapor layer that makes it basically impermeable to water. Because of this, water gets trapped between the wallpaper and the wall allowing mold to grow and the paper to bubble and peel.

Floors: Like all wood, wood floors can warp with changes in humidity, but carpet is also affected by excess moisture. Have you ever walked into a house and been hit with that damp musty smell? As with walls, the moisture in the air gets into your carpet and other fabrics and allows a great environment for mold to grow. Damp carpet is also perfect for humidity-loving dust mites.

While you can’t avoid humidity, you can protect your home from damage. One of the best ways to avoid this issue is simply limiting the fluctuation in relative humidity inside. When the temperature is lower, humidity is generally lower so using an air conditioner is the first defense against humidity damage.

If you have an air conditioner and the air in your home still feels damp, you can use a simple dehumidifier during the most humid months. A more high-tech option is using a humidistat which actually adjusts temperature to maintain a consistent relative humidity. After dehumidifying, if there is still that damp musty smell, consider sprinkling baking soda over the carpets and vacuuming it up. Baking soda is a deodorizer and can help eliminate the musty funk.

Good luck battling the humidity this summer and if you have an idea about protecting your home from humidity, leave us a comment!

Dad’s Chair, A Family Tradition from Generation to Generation

Childhood Memories: Picture this, you run into the living room, on a mission. You know exactly where you are going, it’s Father’s Day and there is someone special sitting there - the same spot as always. He’s reading the newspaper in that old recliner, worn down from use over the years. It is dad’s chair.

Many of our fathers, grandfathers, uncles and mentors have their special spot. As children we can remember climbing up to the seat of that old chair to spend time with him. Whether it’s reading, talking or just watching TV, that chair was the site of many memories. We can remember him coming home from a long day at work and sliding into that seat to wind down for the first time that day.

Continued Traditions: Perhaps our fathers remember their own dad’s chair. The tradition of that special sanctuary has been handed down for generations. Was it a beat up old armchair or a cozy recliner? One thing is for sure, the chair itself may change, but the concept of his special spot has always remained the same.

So now it is time to continue the tradition of dad’s chair with our Father’s Day Recliner Giveaway! It’s time to give that special man who mentored us, stood by us and cared for us a place that he can come home to. The Giveaway contest runs from Thursday, June 5th, through Thursday, June 12th. Enter the contest on Facebook and you will have a chance to win a FREE Flexsteel Recliner worth up to $699 from Hennen’s Furniture! The contest will end June 12th at 4pm. The winner will be contacted via email and announced shortly after. 

Now is the chance to continue this wonderful tradition and give that great guy the special recliner of his own.

Five Major Signs it's Time to Replace Your Furniture

Years go by, and we use the same furniture every day for an amount of time that we can’t even recall because it’s just a routine. Even though it can be a hassle, there comes a time when we have to say goodbye to our beloved furniture and replace it.

Here are the five major signs that show when it’s time to replace your furniture:

1. If it’s showing major signs of wear and tear 

2. If it doesn’t sit level and it’s not because of a broken leg

3. If there are holes that just aren’t fixable




4. If you do remember how long you’ve had it, and it’s been over ten years (depending on the type of furniture)

5. If the cushions are flattening



This goes for all kinds of furniture, not just sofas and chairs. Before you decide to replace it, first, double-check to make sure it absolutely can’t be fixed. Replacing furniture can seem like an expensive solution, but in the long-run, it will save you physical comfort and money; and, let’s face it: it has to happen eventually.