After a devastating event like a fire or flood, many of your personal items may be damaged. That doesn’t mean they can’t be salvaged, however. A process called content cleaning can help to restore those items, and sometimes leave them in better shape than they were before the incident.

The first step in content cleaning is to assess the damage. That means investigating the area affected by the disaster and creating a list of items that there is hope of saving. Taking photos along the way and storing the items in a specialized container where they won’t suffer further damage or stress is important. These items must be handled carefully by trained professionals who understand how to be delicate through the entire collection process.

From there, the experts form a plan for how to clean each specific piece. There are special methods and distinct chemicals that are most effective on different types of damage. Soft materials and hard ones receive different treatments since dirt, debris, odor, soot, mold, and more is absorbed differently. Much of the work is done by hand to ensure your property is handled with the utmost care. New, highly advanced equipment is a tremendous help, making items more recoverable now than ever before.

In a fire, the smell of smoke can soak into not only fabrics and walls but even things like dishes and wooden tables. The smell is extremely challenging to get out; tossing clothing with a smoky stench in the washer won’t be enough to remove the smell, for instance. Professional equipment like ozone generators can destroy the molecules left behind by the smoke in a way DIY methods simply cannot achieve.