Welcome to this weeks installment of 52 Weeks to a Cleaner House!
Today we're focusing on hardwood and laminate flooring...ya know, how to keep it looking great without spending 23 hours a day sweeping, vacuuming and mopping.
Some of the best ways to keep your floors in top condition aren't in the cleaning....but in reducing the need to clean.
* Keep tracked-in dirt to a minimum by placing high quality mats inside and outside every exterior door.
By forest71
* Be sure to attach floor protectors under the feet of any piece of furniture that could scratch or leave marks your floor's surface. (Wish I'd done this years ago, but I naively thought that things like floor protectors were just for fussy clean freak people, who needed to get a life. WRONG!!! I've got terrible scratches on my living room floor from where our couch has scraped across it too many times.)
For Daily Maintenance:
I can't live without my Swiffer dust mop. It's perfect for sweeping up pet hair, dust and dry spills that happy throughout the day.
For a quicker clean up, my Bissell Featherweight Vacuum is an all time favorite. It picks up extremely well and is inexpensive.
For Deeper Cleaning:
After sweeping the floors thoroughly, I mix a tablespoon of Murphy's Oil Soap into a bucket of hot water. I'm pretty old school with my mop. Still using the stringy kind my mom always relied on. I've tried others and prefer this trusted favorite. The key to mopping hardwood is to squeeze your mop out as much as humanly possible. Wood floors don't like being saturated with water. So, the less wetter is better. (Please, don't tell my high school English teacher about that last sentence.)
After damp mopping, I go over the floor again with a dry mop to catch any stray droplets, etc.
The result is a sparkling shiny floor that feels so good to walk across barefoot.
By Elenathewise
To clean trouble spots on hardwood floors, such as scuffs, pet and water stains, check out this great article from Better Homes and Gardens.
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