Hardwood floors exude elegance and warmth, adding a touch of timeless beauty to any home. To preserve their lustrous shine and ensure their longevity, it is essential to understand how to properly clean your hardwood floors. Hardwood floors experience a lot of wear and tear and can accumulate dirt quickly, but you can help extend the life of your floor by cleaning regularly and using effective cleaning techniques.

Here are a few tips for cleaning your hardwood floors:

 

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Clean Often

Cleaning your hardwood floors often will help keep their natural shine. Ideally, you should clean your floors a few times a week. When it comes to deep cleaning your floors, you should try to do it once every several weeks.

Use The Right Tools

Melissa Witulski, the business operations manager for Merry Maids, shared some professional tips and tools with Real Simple that homeowners should use for their hardwood floors. “The best way to clean hardwood floors is to use a microfiber dust mop to remove dust, dirt, and whatever other particles were brought into your home. The microfiber dust mop will not scratch your floors as some vacuums might.”

Ensure Your Floors Are Sealed

Knowing the type of floor seal is important as well. Test your floors to see whether it is sealed or not. First, add a little water to your floor. If the water just sits on the floor, then you have sealed floors. However, if the water quickly disappears into your floors, then they are not sealed. If the latter is the case, you want to use less water when cleaning them.

Buy a Quality Vacuum Made for Your Floors

After you determine whether your floors are sealed or not, you can buy the right type of vacuum for your floors. Here are a few additional tips to ensure the safest vacuuming experience for your hardwood floors:

• Opt for vacuums with rubber wheels to prevent any accidental scratches.
• Regularly check and clean the vacuum’s brush roll to remove any hair or debris that may get tangled.
• Avoid using vacuums with rotating brush bars meant for carpets, as they can potentially scratch or dent the wood.

Also consider the needs you have, such as pets, and the amount of hardwood flooring your home has.

Use Less Chemicals

Here are some chemical-free options that you can use to clean different areas in your home:

• White Vinegar
• Lemon juice
• Rubbing alcohol
• Dishwashing liquid

You can use these ingredients to effectively and gently clean your hardwood flooring without causing irreversible damage to them. Just remember to dilute with water.