Tips for Cleaning Personal Belongings After Water Damage

1/27/2022 (Permalink)

When you find water damage in your home, be sure to call the trained experts at SERVPRO for cleanup and restoration services.

Cleaning Your Personal Effects After Water Damage

Following water in a home in Lake Balboa, CA, your affected belongings should be properly cleaned to prevent issues from making the situation worse. It is also important that you know when items are not able to be saved. Executing the cleaning process quickly following a broken pipe or another situation that caused water problems can ensure that you are able to preserve as many of your possessions as possible and get them adequately cleaned.

Items To Throw Away

Not all items can be saved after water in a home causes damage. Knowing what you should throw away can make this process a bit easier, saving you valuable time by not wasting energy trying to clean what cannot be saved. These are items that are usually good to toss:

• Medicines and supplements
  
• Food items touched by the water
  
• Wood that has become completely soaked
  
• Personal hygiene items touched by the water
  
• Anything with mold growth

Bedding and Clothing

Dry cleaning is a common method used to clean bedding and clothing items after they experienced water damage. It is typically best to take the items to a professional dry cleaner and let them know why they are being cleaned. They can then use the most effective products and methods for the job.

Solid Items

Items made of materials such as plastic, glass and metal can often be cleaned using a low-suds detergent. Then once you scrub them completely, simply use a sanitizer to help make sure that they are safe to use and touch. For solid materials such as wood, if water did not penetrate it, you can use this cleaning method, but if penetration did occur, you may not be able to save it.

You can surely see that following water in a home, there is a lot of work to be done. Use this information as a guideline to save as many of your personal belongings as possible while also ensuring that you get them completely clean.