How to clean your valuables after a storm

9/29/2021 (Permalink)

Strategies You Can Try To Salvage Your Belongings

When you return to your home after a flood in Gainesville, GA, whether caused by nature or a broken pipe, the cleanup task can feel overwhelming. When there is water in the home, the amount of water and how long it was there will factor into your decisions about what you can salvage and what you'll need to discard. Fortunately, there are strategies that you can try to salvage your belongings, especially your valuable photos and documents.

Photos and Documents
The level of water damage will determine how you can dry your important photos and documents. The first attempt can always be to air dry them if the damage seems minimal. For more severely damaged documents, you can freeze your photos and documents in sealed plastic in a freezer free from frost until you can get a professional to help you with them.

Furniture
Depending on what the furniture is made of you may be able to salvage it. You can often save metal, plastic, and real wood even if there was a lot of water in the home. A method called dry cleaning is often a first step taken by water damage restoration specialists to remove light reside from surfaces and determine additional cleaning needs.

Food
Any food that was in your refrigerator or that was submerged in water needs to be thrown away. Canned goods that are commercially sealed may be salvaged if the label is removed, the can is sanitized, and it is relabeled.

Clothes
Clothing can be salvaged, but it will be an involved process. All clothing that has been in water needs to be pretreated before putting it in the washing machine. Once in the machine, use a heavy-duty detergent for a small load of laundry with a lot of water. Check for dirt and stains and wash again.

It is possible to save some of your belongings after damage from water in the home, but it's important to do so carefully and with the help of a professional to ensure that your belongings are safe and clean.