How to clean hardwood floors

I get tons of questions on how I clean hardwood floors.  With horror stories of warping, staining, and just all around ruining of hardwood flooring, it’s no surprise. However, cleaning your hardwood floors isn’t as difficult as people make it sound. Intimidating at first, sure. But once you know how to clean hardwood floors you’ll be set and ready to go. There are also cleaners that you can make at home to keep your floor nice and clean and shiny!

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Basic tips to clean hardwood floors

You should routinely sweep and dust your hardwood floor. You can use a dry mop with a dusting agent or you can pick up a floor duster from any grocery store. Dusting your floor picks up any dirt, dust, and pet hair that may scratch the finish when you try to clean it. You can use a vacuum with a floor brush attachment or if your vacuum has the option to turn off the spinning brush you can just use that. The brush may scratch up your floor so you definitely want to be cautious with that! My Dyson does a great job on ours, but you need to be aware of how your model handles hardwood floors.

How to deep clean hardwood floors

After a while dust, oils, and grime can build up on the floor. A simple dusting won’t normally handle this so it’s time to get cleaning. A regular mop with a hardwood cleaning agent from your grocery store will work fine if you follow directions. Be sure to wring out as much water as you can from the mop to avoid standing water. I like to use a Spin Mop, because it is the best thing I’ve found to help keep the mop from being too wet. Standing water can damage your flooring!

A great homemade cleaner for hardwood floors is easy to make. There are so many on the internet that a quick search can bring you probably dozens of different recipes. I’ll share my favorite one with you, one that I use every time I clean my floor:

• 1 Cup of Vinegar
• 3 Cups of Water
• 10 Drops of Tea Tree Oil
• 10 Drops of Lemon Essential Oil

This makes a decent amount of cleaner, I can usually clean up the kitchen with this amount. If you need more, just inflate the ingredients accordingly and keep the same ratio. It’s easy to use, just mop like usual, making sure to avoid any standing water.

Now you’re ready for just about every mess that can happen on your hardwood floor! Having new hardwood flooring shouldn’t be stressful and you shouldn’t be scared by what people say about cleaning it! As long as you keep it dusted, swept, and mopped regularly and avoid standing water your floor will look great for years! Do you have any questions about how to clean your hardwood floor? Is there a special homemade cleaner that you’d like to include? Feel free to add them down in the comments!