Name one flooring that never runs out of style. I can already hear a lot of people screaming hardwood floors. However, when you imagine a home with hardwood floorings, there’s surely a polished and gleaming look. Not something that involves a boring appearance with trodden parts and scratches here and there.
So, if you are a proud owner of hardwood floors at your home, one of the most important duties of yours has to be keeping it clean. Especially if you truly want to keep it glowing and going for a long time.
Today we will be talking about the best way to sweep hardwood floors and things to do for keeping it clean.
The Best Way to Sweep & Clean Hardwood Floors
Maybe spending every day on a detailed cleaning is not possible, and that’s understandable. But there’s no excuse for you to not give time to clean it at least once every week. Whether you are here for knowing how to deep clean hardwood floors or simply the easiest method, a few things need your attention to understand both.
Apparently, The Best Way to Clean
Because hardwood floors are prone to harms if you handle them improperly, there’s a need to maintain less friction with it. If you chose a method that is aggressive with abrasiveness like a scrubber, things will soon end up the wrong way. While too weak cleaning contact might also not be enough for a proper session. And so, going for a middle route is what seems to work best.
People have seen marvelous results by sweeping hardwood floors. The wiping motion is good enough to get rid of the surface dust and any debris out easily. Unless the dirt and grime have build-up above it.
Then cleaning hardwood floors is not actually what you should be worrying about. Instead, the matter becomes even serious since integrity and quality of hardwood will start falling apart if you don’t do something about it quickly. Eventually, with consistent cleaning and maintenance, you can avoid those consequences.
However, the best method is not quite enough to know about. If you don’t ponder enough about using the right tool for making sweep cleanup work, then it has zero value. What tools can help you with the sweeping, we’re about to know.
Proper Tools to Sweep Hardwood Floors
There are so many tools and appliances available today for you to sweep your hardwood floor with ease. But probably the most common three tools are mops, brooms, and vacuums. The variants, then again, are quite a lot with each of these categories. Taking some general factors into considerations will help you understand what sounds best for your hardwood floor though.
Soft Bristle Broom
Well as a primitive tool, brooms with softer bristle can really help you get the most out of regular hardwood floor cleaning needs. With so many variations available with these, you should be picking the ones that are meant to help in getting rid of debris, not casually pushing them around. You have to sweep all the surface dust and gather them in one place. And then you can dispose it into your trash. It’s easy to use however you need to put effort more than other tools available.
Microfiber Dust Mop
These are not your regular mops. It comes with a special synthetic material making that helps to attract and trap debris on hardwood floor easily. Compared to brooms, these can be go-to plus effectively less effort demanding. Also, these are relatively light in weight, so your body won’t go through much strain for using it. Most of the variations are wash friendly too. So, you can use them as many as times required with proper washing habits and it is quite money-saving this way.
Vacuum Cleaner
There are more than a few options that can be nominated as the best vacuum for hardwood floors right now. These are not just a multi-use appliance but also effectively less time-consuming as a cleaning tool. It’s not the traditional sweeping required option that needs you to manually put effort in wiping motion for eliminating dust and debris.
Some argue that vacuums can be a bit too much for hardwood floorings. However, if you have the bare floor setting in it, then there’s no danger related to using these. With a proper vacuum, you can use various attachments to reach places that would be hard to access with other tools.
Here’s How to Do the Cleaning or Sweeping
Now that you have your decided best thing to use to clean wood floors, let’s talk about the proper method to avoid damage and keep things as it should be. More than a few times, you will require to experiment with the cleaning methods for hardwood floors to actually discover what works best in your case.
Make sure you first get rid of any dirt or dust from the ceiling if that is included in your cleaning session. As if you go for the ceiling later after cleaning your hardwood floor, then it will get dirty once again. So, bring all the dust from higher spots before moving onto floors.
Now, wherever your door or entrance is, you need to start farthest from It. This usually means going completely opposite of the entrance. The doors are high traffic areas and so, it will cover most of dirt of that space.
Break the whole room into multiple sections in your mind. This will help in being productive and saving time later on. Since you’ll be able to have a track of your work. Also, while cleaning you should be gradual, not in a rush. Take your time to clean with deliberate movements on each of the divided sections.
Bring all the dust and dirt gathered in the entrance area. Now you can collect all of it in a disposable trash bag or simply put them in a dustbin to later get rid of it. If the floors are unsealed, then there’s a good chance of faster water absorption. So, if you sweep it with a damp microfiber cloth, make sure to instantly dry the area. Or else avoiding water damage will be quite hard.
For the most effective cleaning, you can utilize more than a few tools if available. Start with sweeping using a broom or mop. And then you can use a vacuum to get rid of every residue left. Apparently, the best technique is what you discover to be perfect for your convenience.
You Must Also Keep in Mind
If you want to buy a hardwood floor cleaner, make sure it comes without any ammonia, alkaline, or similar harsh ingredients. These are super dangerous and can cause dullness and even scratch the finish.
Make sure there’s no such element in it that can void the floor’s warranty.
If you use any DIY cleaner that includes lemon juice or vinegar in large quantities, then there’s a good chance of damaging the floor’s seal. So, make sure the amount in usage is moderate.
Wrap Up
And now you have a clear conception about the best way to sweep hardwood floors. The actual glow point of a hardwood floor is shininess and premium outlook along with its capability to long last. And none of those abilities can stay intact on its own if you don’t put much effort into maintenance.
Giving it a good sweep to get rid of all dust, cleaning spills timely, and leaving less room for any complaint in terms of taking care are some of the easiest as well as most neglected things homeowners do. Be sure you give these things serious ponderation, only then you’ll be able to fight any premature negative issues happening to your hardwood floors.
This is Autem Decker. Main Author of ‘TheHomeDigs‘. You may not find her on the list of top 10 contemporary Canadian interior designers, but everyone who knows her says she was born to be an interior designer.
She makes her plan in her head and draws them in her years-old diary with a note in the corner. The way she plays with color and shape amazes us.
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