If there’s one gadget we might want for Christmas, it’s probably one of those vacuuming robots. Cause cleaning the floors isn’t hard but it does get tiring! It’s also one of the foundational tasks that make your home or office look and feel clean. Whether you have carpets, hardwood or tiles, we have the solutions to make your life easier and your home cleaner. Read on to learn our top solutions for clean floors!
Hardwood floors
If you’re lucky enough to have beautiful hardwood floors or even their look-a-like laminate, you’ve realized by now that while these floors are aesthetically pleasing and MUCH more hygienic than carpets, they’re also a lot of work to keep clean. That’s because while the dirt and dust on carpets and rugs fall deep into the pile, effectively disappearing from sight (and mind), hardwood floors allow every speck of dirt to stay on the surfaces or skate to the corners of the room, with nowhere to hide. That’s why consistent and frequent vacuuming, dust mopping or sweeping is essential with hardwood or laminate floors. If you start with vacuuming, make sure not to use the beater bar of your vacuum which could scratch or otherwise damage your floors. After vacuuming, move on to mopping to eradicate the grime that builds up. Be careful to use a cleaner that won’t leave a film on the floor surfaces, leading to stickiness or quickly attracting even more dirt. Vinegar mixed with water is the one of the cheapest, simplest and most effective combinations for cutting through grease and grime and leaving the floor spotless. Make sure you don’t use too much water, the mop should be damp but not wet so that no standing water remains after you’ve finished wiping the surface.
Tile floors
Hard, long-lasting, and beautiful, tile floors are one of the most loved flooring surfaces. They require regular vacuuming or sweeping to keep away dirt and debris that could scratch them over time. After vacuuming, mop with a soft cloth or rag rather than a sponge. We’ve found that sponge mops can push dirty water into the grout, potentially staining it. Make sure to change your cleaning water regularly to avoid leaving a film on the surface of your tile, and, as with hardwood floors, be sure to use an appropriate cleaner such as vinegar water. Cleaning the grout is the most difficult aspect of dealing with ceramic tile flooring. Since grout is porous, it easily absorbs materials. Stained grout will require a heavier duty commercial cleaner or bleach solution. Spraying the cleaner on and allowing it to sit for five to ten minutes will help it break through the surface of the grout to work on the staining. A small scrub brush or toothbrush can help with scrubbing the solution into the grout and working the dirt out. Really deep stains can be effectively removed with an overnight baking soda mixture.
Carpets and rugs
While these floor coverings are soft and comfortable and can maintain a clean look and feel for longer than hard floors, they’re also the biggest culprit when it comes to harboring dirt. Like every other flooring surface, frequent vacuuming is your greatest tool to keep carpets and rugs clean. Unlike hard flooring surfaces though, carpets and rugs require some careful vacuuming tricks to become really clean.
- Dust first! While this isn’t strictly vacuuming advice, it will help save long-term wear and tear on your carpet by making sure that you aren’t adding new dirt back into your carpet right after vacuuming it. The general rule of cleaning is to start from the top and work your way to the bottom. Since floors are the very lowest thing in the house, they are usually cleaned last by professional cleaners. Never vacuum before you dust!
- Vacuum in both directions. Think of it as vacuuming north to south and east to west. You’ll do a far better job of picking up hidden dirt particles if you vacuum against the carpet fibers in both directions.
- Vacuum slowly! While most of us are just trying to get the vacuuming done in a hurry, and may aggressively work our way through the entire room, slow vacuuming allows the suction of the vacuuming to work in concert with the vacuum’s beater bar to remove as much dirt as possible.
- Use your crevice tool to get into the edges of the room’s carpet. One month’s worth of accumulated dust and dirt can come out fairly easily with some crevice cleaning, but a one or two or five year’s worth will probably never come out. Maintain the health of your carpet by addressing the edges regularly but not necessarily weekly.