Cleaning Wood Floors

I think it's always a plus to find a home where there are wood floors. Wood floors look polished, sophisticated, and upscale. They just seem to add a bit of classy punch to the look of your house. Wood floors can definitely be the crowning touch on a great looking home, but if those floors aren't kept clean, then they can actually make your home look not so good, which is something that nobody wants. If you want the wood floors in your home to look the best they possibly can, then here are a few ways to get those wood floors clean, and your house looking great!

Before you start the actual cleaning part of the process, you need to do a bit of prep work. While this may not be the most exciting part—it actually is the most tedious part in my opinion—it is essential if you want a truly clean wood floor. This may seem just like common sense, but it should be said just to cover all of the basics of wood floor cleaning: you need to first remove all the furniture from the room. Remove the chairs, tables, and rugs. Especially with the chairs and tables, you need to pick them up when you move them; dragging the chairs and tables on the floors could really damage the wood, resulting in scratching and discoloration.

Once you've removed all the furniture from the room, then take the time to thoroughly sweep the area. Sweep in the corners and everywhere, to get the looser fragments of dust and dirt from off the floor. After the sweeping, take a few more minutes to vacuum the entire area. This will pick up the harder-to-get grit from the floor that the broom didn't or couldn't grab. Use a canister vacuum to get into the corners of the room.

After the sweeping and vacuuming, take a bucket of hot water mixed with a special wood floor cleaner (these can be found at any store like Target or Wal-Mart, or any grocery store), with a rag. Get down on your hands and knees and proceed to wipe down all the baseboards on the floor. A mop or dry Swiffer isn't going to get into those hard to reach corners, and so you need to hand wash all the corners in the room.

Once all of this preliminary work is finished, you can use a mop or Swiffer (if this is really your preference). If you use a mop, then use a sponge one that allows you to wring out the excess water. You don't want pools of water on your wood floors because the standing water may cause your wood floor to warp and then the floor won't be any good anymore. A sponge mop will allow you to effectively clean the floor with the minimum amount of fluid. A Swiffer mop will achieve the same effect; with both the mop and Swiffer use a solution of hot water and a specialized wood floor cleaner.