Nothing in a home screams elite class louder than a shiny, spotless, hardwood floor finishing. Its stylish and all-natural, easy going color is both friendly to the eyes and blends perfectly with most home decor ideas. Some would even argue that it is a key addition to achieving good Feng Shui. This would mean greater energy flow accompanied by a positive attitude, happiness, and success at the brink of every dawn for both you and your family. However, accomplishing all these enticing wonders would mean getting your cleaning game in serious check.
So, pull out those pens and notebooks, ladies and gentlemen. Because we’re about to give you a full-on strategy for ensuring your ‘how to clean hardwood flooring’ conundrum is a thing of the past. The durations we describe here are highly recommended for high traffic areas. Less busy sections of the house may require less frequent maintenance. Those floors will never look the same once you try this.
The Daily Plan: Sweeping
This is one job that is best done first thing in the morning before you head off to work. This will get rid of all the dirt and hair/cloth fibers that accumulate on a daily basis in high-traffic areas of the house. Now, while a broom and dustpan may suffice in this scenario, it may scratch your floors a bit. So, you may want to be careful with this one. Microfiber cloths or mops are therefore your best bet here. Using static, these bad boys trap all the dirt and fibers with no harm to your floors. If you don’t have one, don’t fret. An ordinary mop treated with a dusting agent also does the trick.
The Weekly Defence: Vacuuming and Mopping
Being relatively more engaging than sweeping, this activity best fits into your weekends. A decent cordless vacuum that is specifically made for cleaning hardwood flooring is your best bet. You want to start with a good old vacuuming first before you get to mopping. The idea here is to nab all that dirt stuck in between wooden flooring pieces that sweeping just couldn’t get rid of. A vacuum cleaner can also easily access not-so-reachable corners for a good cleaning. Be conscious of protecting the floor finishing from nasty scratches though. The vacuum beater bar and wheels have been known to do this. So, you will want to use the floor brush instead and be careful when dragging it by the wheels.
Once you’re done with the vacuuming, it’s now time to pull out the bucket and mop. Mopping will help you get rid of sticky dirt that had accumulated on the floor over the week and give you that final glossy glow. You will need to get a wood product cleaning agent for this one. Just dilute the agent in a bucket as indicated on the instructions label, apply it to the floor, rinse, dry and you’re good to go. Proceed with caution though as water and wood are usually a bad mix. So you will want to make sure the mop is damp – not wet – when it hits the floor. You can use a dry cloth or towel for drying and do not leave any water puddles lying around.
Monthly Course of Action: Polishing
Now, this one will require a good 24 hours to dry before you can subject the floor to huge traffic again. So, you will need to plan appropriately for it. Nonetheless, it is an easy and simple DIY project you can do at home by yourself. All you need to do, first, is to move all the furniture out of the way, give the floor a thorough cleaning, and let it dry. Then just apply the polish on a small portion and spread it with either a high-density foam roller or an applicator pad. Remember to work small sections at a time and have a good exit strategy. You wouldn’t want to back yourself up into a corner here.
Polishing will get rid of all the shallow scratches and even out the sheen for a uniform glare. With all the traffic and abuse hardwood flooring goes through on a daily basis, it tends to fade and look and downright depressing. But it restores its former glowing glory as soon as you’re done polishing it. To maintain this as it is for as long as you can, make sure you use a nice rug in high traffic areas. Having doormats at entrances will also help reduce the amount of dirt that enters the room which could end up scratching your floor.
Well, there it is, the ultimate guide on keeping your hardwood flooring clean laid down in a nutshell. Now, you’re probably thinking about how enduring and taxing the actual cleaning process is at this point. I know, I felt the same way myself at first. But I will tell you this: the joy of seeing your floors sparkle at the end of the day far outweighs any pains and struggles you will go through. So, what are you waiting for? Get started with your hardwood floor cleaning today!
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Author Bio:
My Name is Sammy Dolan and I run the blog at Home Clean Expert. I am currently in the process of juggling parenting, working and coming up with new ways of making life exciting for my family.
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