Our floors get a lot of wear and tear, with high traffic spots such as entryways bearing the brunt. We trudge over them, drop things on them and pets like taking a nap on them. As a result, they can start to feel pretty dirty very quickly.
While you might feel the need to reach for the mop and vacuum at the end of every day, cleaning your floors daily might be overkill, professional cleaners share.
Here, reveal why you don’t need to clean your floors every day and share their top cleaning tips for keeping these surfaces hygienic without too much effort.
Why you shouldn’t clean floors every day
From mopping floors the right way to avoiding common vacuum cleaner mistakes, there is a lot of merit to cleaning floors regularly, but daily cleaning is often a waste of time. Cutting back is a great cleaning shortcut.
Elizabeth Shields, operations manager at Super Cleaning Service Louisville begins, ‘One of those things we all feel like we have to clean constantly, but honestly, vacuuming them daily is just overkill, unless you’ve got a house full of pets, kids, or clumsy adults spilling stuff all the time.’
This begs the question, how often should you vacuum carpet?
Elizabeth continues, ‘Once a week keeps them fresh, and deep cleaning carpets can happen twice a year. Of course, spot clean stains and spills. If odors creep in, a sprinkle of carpet deodorizer [or cleaning a carpet with baking soda] can help make a rug smell nice.’
Sprinkling a light layer of baking soda over a carpet or rug and letting it sit for an hour (or overnight) will help to neutralize odors, making your home smell fresher. Remove excess powder with a brush and dustpan before vacuuming away the remaining debris to avoid damaging your vacuum filter.
The same goes for mopping and cleaning floors without streaks, adds Tim Wood, contractor and owner of Fix It Today.
He says, ‘I've seen a lot of people having the impulse to regularly mop tile and hardwood floors. I think this has to do with how sleek these materials appear. Because they look so shiny, especially plain or minimalist tiles, any dirt or grime tends to be immediately visible, so it's very tempting to mop it away.’
There are several good reasons for skipping daily cleaning, he explains, with the most important among them being to protect your flooring materials from damage over the longer term.
Tim explains, 'Although it may not cause any harm in the short term, it can gradually wear down the grout between individual tiles and cause dirt build-up in that area. For hardwood, the result is a gradual wearing down of the finish, or even some warping in some cases.
‘With these floors, sweeping would usually do the trick for regular cleaning [especially when cleaning a kitchen floor to tackle crumbs], as well as spot-cleaning for particularly messy cases. If it can be helped, only use a wet mop once a week or so.’
A good long handled dustpan and brush will make cleaning hard floors quicker and easier, mitigating the need to bend down and crouch to cover large areas.
Steam mops are great options for cleaning carpet, vinyl, and tiled floors, helping to break down grime and kill bacteria without chemicals or excessive moisture. Be cautious using them on hardwood floors, however, as the high temperatures can damage the wood.
I recently tried the regular floor Swiffer mop and was blown away by its effectiveness at getting hard set gunk off the floor without the need for scrubbing. The wood-specific mop is perfect for staying on top of hardwood floors without introducing too much moisture.
Avoiding cleaning floors daily is one of the simplest ways to make your to-do list less overwhelming and streamline your closing shift routine.
Good news! There are several other things you do not need to clean regularly that can help you save time, too.
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