The floors of your home either enhance the beautiful decor around each room or detract from your home’s appearance. They also have the power to muffle sound or wake everyone in the house with squeaks and squeals.
A high-quality wooden floor should last you close to 100 years, while vinyl flooring lasts just 50 years. If you have carpet, expect to replace it every ten years. Investing in good-quality flooring is just the first step in prolonging the life of your floors. The next step is taking regular care of your flooring.
Here are seven ways you can do just that.
1. Spot Clean Messes
Don’t put off cleaning small messes and dirt. What starts as a surface mess quickly changes to deep stains and dirt if you don’t address it immediately. When dirt and stains have time to set, they will be much more difficult to clean – raising your chances of having permanent flooring damage.
Hardwood floors are easier to clean up. Use a paper towel or wet cloth and a touch of gentle soap to wipe up liquid spills. You may also want to consider a small mop for cleaning larger areas.
Carpets can be a little tougher to keep clean. If dirt and crumbs fall on the carpet, a handheld vacuum can suck them up before they work their way too deep into the carpet’s fibers. If, however, you spill liquids onto a carpet, you will want to use a carpet-safe cleaner. Sometimes a spray bottle of carpet cleaner and a paper towel will do the trick. Other times you will have to use a carpet cleaner device to work the spill out of your carpet’s fabric before a stain sets.
2. Perform Regular Cleanings
You should fully clean your floors once a week to keep them in optimal condition. Don’t wait till your floors look dirty. There is always dirt landing on your floors and tracked through your carpet. If you see the dirt, you are past the point of a gentle weekly clean and should deep clean your floors.
When you clean your hardwood floors, begin by sweeping up all the visible dirt. Follow up with a thorough mopping of your floor with a gentle soap. For carpets, run a vacuum with the proper carpet settings over your rugs and carpets. Adjust your vacuum to the length of your carpet as too strong suction on smaller carpets can cause them to fray quicker.
3. Deep Clean your Floors Annually
Once a year, you should deep clean your floors to reach dirt that your weekly cleanings miss.
Deep cleaning for hardwood floors includes buffering and waxing. If you have carpets, consider hiring a carpet cleaning service like Chem-Dry to thoroughly remove all the built-up dirt and dust accumulated in your carpets – keeping them looking and feeling like new.
4. Cover High Traffic Areas
Replacing an area rug is much cheaper than replacing your entire flooring. Cover your floor with an area rug to protect your hardwood from wear and tear if you have a high-traffic area, such as your entryway. You can also add area rugs over carpet in places like doorways or where furniture is sitting.
You can protect places like the kitchen or around trash cans by placing mats where spills often happen.
5. Take off Your Shoes
Shoes may appear clean, but they are a host for bacteria. One study showed brand new shoes accumulated over 421,000 units of bacteria in just two weeks. 96% of the shoes also showed the presence of fecal bacteria.
Many cultures around the world already practice the habit of taking off shoes before entering someone’s home. When you don’t wear shoes inside, you lessen the number of bacteria around your home and prolong the life of your floors.
6. Avoid Sun Exposure
While allowing the sun to stream into your home has positive effects on your mood, it damages your flooring. Sun damage causes your floor to age faster and colors to fade. You can prolong the life of your carpets by limiting the amount of sun exposure or covering highly exposed areas with rugs to protect them from the sun’s UV rays.
7. Rearrange the Furniture
Rearranging your furniture is fun for switching up your home’s appearance and is healthy for your carpets. By moving your sofas, chairs, and tables around, you also move where most foot traffic occurs. In addition, this simple action preserves your flooring for longer as no one area of your flooring takes all the wear.
You are never too late to start proper care and cleaning for your floors. Not sure where to begin? Schedule a deep cleaning, then move on to a regular weekly habit of vacuuming and mopping.
Adding a deep cleaning into your annual summer housekeeping schedule is a great way to remember to keep those floors looking sparkly and new!