Gun's E-Z Own and Upholsetry Cleaning Codes

When you are out and about shopping for furniture, have you ever wondered how easy a sofa or love seat is to clean?

You can ask the sales representative how to clean or look for the cleaning code on one of the many tags that is on the furniture. But what do those cleaning codes mean? Today, I will answer that question for you.

There are four common cleaning codes in the industry. They are W, S, WS or X. Below are what each letter means.

W - Clean only with water based shampoo or foam upholstery cleaner. Do not over wet. Do not use solvents to spot clean. Pile fabrics may require brushing to restore appearance. Cushion covers should not be removed and laundered.

S - Clean only with dry cleaning solvent. Do not saturate. Do not use water. Pile fabric may require brushing to restore appearance. Cushion covers should not be removed and dry cleaned.

WS - Clean with shampoo, foam or dry cleaning solvents as desired. Do not saturate with liquid. Pile fabrics may require brushing to restore appearance.

X - Do not clean with either water or solvent based cleaner. use vacuuming or light brushing only.

What happens if you clean your fabric upholstery the wrong way? Your fabric can begin to fall apart or unravel. Or you can make the dirty area worse. So you will want to read the cleaning code on the upholstery and then the ingredients of your cleaning products.

For those who prefer a professional to do the cleaning, any prominent cleaning company can clean the products for you.

We have used cleaning services before on really tough items. We had a white sofa & love seat with a cleaning code of S. Well we didn't have the proper equipment for proper cleaning and hired out to do this. Cost us over $200 back then.  That was like 16 years ago.

More recently, we had a five piece sectional that the structure was in really good shape but the fabric was filthy. We hand washed and then used a steam cleaner to pick up the dirt. This usually works, but this time around it seemed like all we did was move the dirt around. We tried three times but just couldn't get the dirt picked up. We hired the cleaners from across the road and they did all five pieces for only $189.00. They did an excellent job. After the cleaning, we sold the sectional within two weeks.

What about leather? Any good leather cleaner will work. You can go to the automotive department of your local store and find a leather seat cleaner. That will work just fine to get the body oils and dirt off of the leather.

Around here we do like the microfiber fabrics because they all have a WS code and makes it much easier for cleaning. And if you get a little line of ink from you pen accidentally on the arm of that sofa of yours, just get some warm soapy water and use a fingernail brush to clean it. Use small circular strokes and, tah dah, you will get that ink mark out. I know it works because I've done it.

I hope you found this information helpful. To the right is a sample of wear you can find the cleaning code on the model number tag. In this example you can see "W".

Remember you can follow us on Facebook and visit our website at gunsezown.com.

Thank you for reading. Have a safe and blessed day.

Gun's E-Z Own Delivery Stories

I was going to blog about Lamps, but wasn't a bright idea. (ugh) It seemed like it might have been shady, (Stop) So I tabled it. (STOP!!!)

Ok, so I got you to roll your eyes. I'm one who enjoys a good pun. (Those are nothing like a good pun.)

I had mentioned in my last blog about some delivery war stories. Today I will elaborate on a couple of those stories.

I had mentioned that I had gone through a second story window. How was it that I got to that point. This was an upstairs apartment in an older house. The sofa was a long sofa with big arms. Which does not make for a good combination for easy deliveries.

The door was on the side, so you go in the door, go immediately right then up a couple of stairs then immediately to the left and then up the stairs. We got into the door without much of a problem. There was a wall that forced us to stand the sofa up on end. Then we tipped the sofa slightly to try to get it around the corner. Well we got it started around the corner and there we sat, The ceiling was too low, the hallway was too narrow and it was not going through. (By the way, why the heck did the builders of some of these homes build a stupid low ceiling in a stairway that you can bump your head on? I guess people were shorter long ago.)

So I begin thinking how this might work. I had gone through a first story window before but never a 2nd story window. Across from the house was a retaining wall. I went upstairs and measured the window, then measured the sofa height. We had a 1/4 of an inch on each side to get it in.

We took the sofa on end and used the retaining wall to get it as high as we could to the window. My assistant then ran upstairs and grabbed onto the sofa. I was military pressing the sofa over my head until he was able to get a good hold on the sofa. We got the sofa to the window. I left my spot and ran upstairs to help my assistant. We pulled the sofa through the window with little problems. Delivery done.

One more delivery story. I like to call this the delivery from hell.

It was in August. How do I remember what month? It was your typical August day. 95 degrees and the humidity was like 90%. It took us almost three hours to finish up that day because the heat was getting to us. We were delivering a short term rental for an Xcel (NSP) contractor. This was like 15 years ago. And it was a full house of stuff. The downstairs was not a problem. But once again going upstairs was a problem.

We got the bed room furniture upstairs with little issues except things were getting really heavy. Now for the mattresses. A little tight but yes, they went upstairs. Now for the foundations. The stairwell was an up some stairs, to the left and to the left for a complete u-turn. We tried to get a queen foundation upstairs. It wouldn't fit. So back down the stairs. Then we tried a Full size (double) foundation up the stairs and it wouldn't fit.

Not to be out down by a stupid foundation I pushed a little too much and BAM, there is a hole in the the drywall. &$&$&*#*!!. So I called it a day for that foundation and back down the stairs.

I told the customer about the wall and what I had to do for a beds for them. That afternoon I ran up to the cities and got two queen split foundations. Red Wing to the distributor in St. Paul was an hour one way. Hurried  on up then hurried on back and delivered the split foundations with no problem.

What about the hole in the wall? Me and construction don't get along to well. My forte is electronic stuff. I sent Marcia, my Office manager, who had done drywall repair before, over to the house and repaired the hole.

What was my point of this blog? Just to point out that when you purchase something from Gun's E-Z Own and want it delivered, we do our best to get the job done. We DO NOT drive to your house and drop it off on the curb and tell you you, "Here you go." We place that item where you want it. Upstairs, downstairs. Ahh, but the less the steps the better. (insert a smiley face here)

Some time I will tell you a couple of Repossession stories. Although they are not as exciting as what to see on TV.

Now that I have enlightened you, (I see what you did there) Thank you for reading. Have a safe and blessed day.

Shopping for Furniture at Gun's E-Z Own

Have you ever stopped in a furniture store and the sales rep asks you some questions that you hadn't thought about.


Well in this blog, I will be going over a few questions for you to think about while shopping for furniture. 

1) How much room do I have? 
When you visit a store, everything looks like it will fit perfect, then when you get it, there is now room for walking around the furniture.

We have seen this often enough that we can give some insight. The reason items look so small in the store is because the store is big. We have 3,500 square feet of show room floor. You most likely have less then 200 square feet for your living room.

Remember when Lily Tomlin sat in that huge chair. Yup, It's like that.

One tip you can use is once you have been to the store and get measurements of furniture would like to purchase, take some cardboard and cut it into those dimensions, lay it on the floor and see how everything would fit. Don't have card board? Ask us if we have some to spare.

2) How big is my doorway?
With most furniture we need at least a 32" wide door for deliveries. Some Sofas & Love Seats have larger arms which require a slightly larger doorway, but in general, if the doorway is 32" wide, the delivery should go well. .

Now I can tell you that I have delivered items with many different obstacles and I remember of only two times in almost 20 years I couldn't complete the deliver. 

Been through a second story window, put it on a second story terrace, taking doors off, taken windows out, walked on roofs. So Gun's E-Z Own does it's best to complete the delivery. But hey, I'm getting older and it's getting tougher for me to crawl through a second story window.

3) Do I want stationary or reclining furniture?
Just something to think about. If you like to lay across your furniture for that much desired afternoon nap, I would not suggest a reclining set.

If you usually nap sitting upright and you like that fact to can recline to read or watch TV, a reclining set would be for you. 

It's kinda of like the right tool for the right job. Those naps are important you know.

4) Do I want a Sofa & Love Seat or do I want a sectional?

Why think about this? Because some people like to rearrange their living rooms regularly. With a sectional there is not much of a choice for rearranging.

If you are one who likes to rearrange, I would not suggest a sectional. A Sofa & Love set is much easier rearrange.

The advantage of a sectional is that with some sectionals you can add seats. So if you think five seats is good, and once it is delivered and you wished you had 6 seats, we can order one more. This of course depends if the model allows additional seating.


5) What kind of "Look" am I Going for?
Modern, country, urban, Victorian. Big arms, small arms, straight arms. This will help you select a frame model. 

We realize that some people don't know what they want until they see it. Many times customers have come in the store shopping and when they see it, they know it and that is what they want.

6) What color scheme do I want?
With Ashley what you see is what you get. With Klaussner, if you find a look that you like there are many different fabrics to choose from.

Most people go with earth tome colors because color scheme goes with just about anything.

7) How soon do I want my new furniture?
It depends on who the distributor is that you picked out your furniture from. With Ashley it takes about a month. With Klaussner it takes 6-8 weeks.

However, if you find something you like in the store, That is what you would get and in this latter case, it would take 1-3 days depending one our delivery schedule.

We have had some people browse the store and want to order something and get it the next day. 
Sorry to say it, but when we order something, that won't happen until transporters are invented. And I can't wait for that to happen. No more second story windows or roof tops. Score!!

I hope you found this helpful. If you have any other question you can contact us at gunsezown@gmail.com. To see what furniture we sell check out Gun's E-Z Own's website and select products.

Until next time be safe and be thankful for the day.