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Cedar Chests - Their Beauty Can be Timeless With a Little Maintenance

Cedar chests are very popular family heirlooms. They not only are beautiful and smell wonderful, but they are a protective holder for many of the family's fine linens and other keepsakes, as the bugs that would eat them will stay away.

While you may think since cedar chests are bug resistant you can just put them away and let them take care of things on their own. If you want to give your cedar chests as long of a life as possible, you need to offer it a little bit of periodic maintenance.

For the most part, cedar chests are pretty easy to clean. If you give them a periodic dusting, they will keep looking almost as good as new. This may be part of the reason they were so popular as an heirloom piece, they are relatively easy to maintain. Now, if you are too lazy to dust, you are going to notice that the dust buildup will couple with the waxy surface of your cedar chests and can cause a mess. Thus the reason it's easier to just dust, than have to fix the problem later.

For a newer cedar chest, you may notice it has a little bit of a waxy coating. This buildup is natural for cedar chests. As you notice a solid film on the chest that you want to get off, you can use an oil-soap cleaner and remove it.

Many people like to see their cedar chests shining once they have cleaned them, so they may be tempted to spray on a polish or wax. There are certain waxes that are ok, and others that are not. So before you spray, read the bottle and know which ones to use. You need to know that cedar and silicone do not mix. Read the wax or polish bottle carefully. If the concoction has silicone in it, it's time to get a different polish or wax.

Once you find a silicone-free wax, the task of making your cedar chest shine again is pretty simple. Even if your chest is aging and cracking, the wax can fill the cracks in and make it look new again.

You want to find as soft of a cloth as you can for this job to offer a smooth, shiny polish. The instructions on use for waxes differ by the brand, so make sure to read the packaging carefully before you start.

As you apply the wax to the wood surface, you need to wax along the grain of the wood. You want to enhance its natural strengths and beauty with the wax, not work against them. Once you've waxed, you will also want to buff it, to keep the shine, and get rid of the streaks.

Note: If the cedar chest you have is an antique, you may want to take it into a furniture expert to have them take a look at it before you start your own cleaning schedule. Depending on their past, they may be sensitive to the cleaning items you were planning on using.