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Christmas is all about celebrating at home with family and friends – this year more than ever before.

It’s also quite possibly the only time you get to relax throughout the year too. You don’t want to worry about where Gran just spilled her red wine, or what the children have brought in on their feet.

You do, however, want to make sure that your natural stone remains beautiful throughout the festive season.

Athena Stonecare is here to share 5 great tips to help you prep your home for Christmas and protect your natural stone ready for the big day!

1. Check your cleaning cupboard

You should ensure that all cleaning products you have in your home are stone safe.

Guests in your home might want to be helpful and clean up after themselves. If they are unaware of the effect acidic cleaning products can have on natural stone, they are probably going to pick up the first thing they see that looks like a multi-surface or bleach based cleaner.

You can avoid this problem by replacing all the cleaning products in your home with pH neutral stone safe alternatives.

Bonus tip: for windows and mirrors, you can use rubbing alcohol to clean these surfaces. This is just as effective as glass specific cleaning solutions and completely stone safe.

2. Glass or coasters on worktops and tables

The best way to protect your natural stone is to create a physical barrier between your stone and anything that could come into contact with it. For natural stone worktops, tables, and vanities, this is really easy!

One option is to invest in a bespoke cut piece of glass to cover the stone during the festive season. This is a really effective way of creating a barrier but not covering up the beauty of your natural stone – a great option for a marble worktop.

A second option is to place coasters and trays on your natural stone surfaces and trust that guests will use them. If you prep your home for Christmas a little bit later this may be a better option. To make this more fun (and catch out the coaster-avoiding culprits!), you could buy each guest a personalised coaster with their initials on it.

3. Top up sealants and waxes

Creating a physical barrier is not so easy with natural stone floors (unless you place down a rug, but then you cover up your beautiful natural stone!).

You can still protect these surfaces using sealants and waxes. Most natural stone surfaces, including floors, walls, and worktops, will need to be periodically topped up with sealant.

You can determine whether your stone needs resealing by dropping a small amount of water on the surface and then blotting it back up. If there is a residual dark mark left where the water was, this indicates that your stone requires more sealant – water was able to penetrate the capillaries of the stone.

Applying a sealant will fill these capillaries and prevent any accidental spillages from permeating the surface of your stone. This can really help prevent staining from coloured liquids, like red wine, and cooking oils.

Some natural stones, like slate and travertine, may also require an occasional reapplication of surface wax. This adds an extra protective layer by creating a physical barrier between any spilt liquid and your natural stone surface.

If you think your stone could do with a sealant top up or a reapplication of wax, make sure you add this to your ‘prep for Christmas’ to do list and apply before your guests arrive for an added layer of protection.

4. Kitchen roll at the ready!

Even if you are really careful, accidents can happen during the excitement of Christmas. If a spillage does occur, you must ensure you blot the liquid off the surface of your stone.

If the liquid spilt is acidic this will cause etch marks. These marks will be anywhere that the liquid meets. Blotting ensures that you do not worsen the problem by spreading the acidic substance further.

We recommend having plenty of kitchen roll on hand. This is an easy and effective way to deal with spillages quickly. If, like us, you are conscious of sustainability, using a cloth or reusable kitchen towels can be just as effective. Just don’t be tempted to wipe!

5. Ask guests to remove their shoes

To prevent your stone floor from scratches due to grit and sand brought in from outdoors, you should ask guests to remove their shoes. If you have good quality matting at all entranceways, this can help to prevent some damage, but not wearing outdoor shoes in the house is most effective.

Alternatively if you don’t feel comfortable asking people to go bare foot in your home, you could always get matching slippers for all your guests! Not only does this make the experience more enjoyable, but it also protects your stone from avoidable damage.

And that’s it. These 5 simple tips should help you prep your home for Christmas and to protect your natural stone surfaces from damage throughout the festive season. If you need any specific advice, we are always happy to help.

Our office will be closed from Friday 24th December, and we will re-open on Tuesday 4th January 2022.

From all of us at Athena Stonecare, we hope you have a very merry Christmas.

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