When it comes to your everyday quality of life, having a clean floor is just as important as having a durable floor. But keeping floors spotless can be a chore, and for most people, floor cleaning isn’t always the most fun activity.
That being said, keeping a kitchen or bathroom looking great and sparkling clean can be easier than you think, especially if you’re using the right tools and doing the job regularly so it never gets too out of hand.
It may not be something you think about as one of life’s simple pleasures, but for me, nothing beats the feeling of walking into a pristine kitchen or bathroom on a Sunday morning. Whether you’re brushing your teeth or flipping pancakes, living in a clean environment just feels better!
Tile flooring is important to keep clean for a variety of reasons, the most important of which is “location, location, location.” Tile is most commonly installed in kitchens, where cleanliness is an absolute must, and in bathrooms, where germs tend to lurk and multiply the fastest if you don’t stop them in their tracks.
The first thing to remember about floor cleaning is that it should be the last thing you do when cleaning a room. Whether you’re wiping down the kitchen counters or scrubbing the toilet, cleaning tends to lead to messes on the floor; and it will make your life easier if you remember to do the floor last.
If your mother ever told you to clean your room “from top to bottom,” then you know that this wisdom has been around for a long time, and for good reason.
When you’re ready to start cleaning your tile flooring, it’s important to realize that you really need to clean it twice. First, you’ll want to do a “dry” cleaning. This will help to pick up dirt, dust, hair, and any other miscellaneous items that might be lying about.
You can always use a broom and dustpan, but a better approach is to vacuum with a hose attachment (or any vacuum without a beater bar). Follow that with a Swiffer-type dust catcher and you’ll be well on your way to a clean floor.
Now you’re ready for a “wet” clean. Again, you have some old school and new school options here. If you want to go old school, you can always use a rag or a mop.
Mops with removable heads are easy to clean, and tend to do a good job. If your tile can stand up to a cleaning with a citric acid solution (1-cup citric acid to 1.5 gallons of water), go for it.
Citric acid makes a good and affordable floor cleaner, but not all tile flooring can handle it, so be sure to check with your manufacturer. If you’re in doubt, you can use a cleaning product such as Dupont’s Stonetech. If you decide you’d rather skip the mopping altogether in favor of a more contemporary solution, you can choose from products such as
Swiffer’s Wet Jet, or one of the various steam-based cleaning tools out there. A professional steam cleaning every few years (or whenever your tile flooring starts to look really dingy) can also do wonders. You may have to reseal your tile after a professional streaming, but having a truly clean floor is worth a bit of effort.
