How To Keep Hard Surface Floors Clean

Hardwood, Laminate, and Luxury Vinyl floors are in style now more than ever. However, the ideal look for these floors is polished and gleaming, not dull and scratched.

While you probably don’t have the time to tackle a detailed floor cleaning more than once every week or so, you should give your floors some TLC throughout the week to keep them looking their best. Additionally, wood floors are not known for being cheap. If you want to keep them around for a long time, you need to maintain them.

Below are tips to help you keep your hard surface floors looking refreshed and revitalized quick and easy.

How to Keep Hardwood, Laminate, or LVP Floors Clean

Think of all the things you bring into your home on your shoes: Dirt, pebbles, sand… the list goes on. Now think about what these things can do to the shiny surface of your floor. We are talking about scratches, scuffs, and knicks in the polyurethane coating.

To prevent these items from getting tracked into your house and damaging your floors, you’ll probably want to do a quick floor cleaning a couple of times a week. If you have pets, you may want to consider cleaning hardwood floors as often as every other day. Good news: It’s not a very time-consuming task, and it’s pretty easy, too.

Many people sweep their hardwood floors because that’s what they’ve always been taught to do. The problem with sweeping wood floors is that it just kicks dust into the air. That dust will eventually settle right back down, meaning you’re really just spreading dirt and allergens around. Because of this, sweeping wood floors can be a waste of time and energy. The best means of cleaning hard surface floors is to use a microfiber dust mop or a vacuum cleaner. The benefit of this microfiber mop is its lightweight everyday cleaning capability and removal of bacteria from floors.

What’s the Best Vacuum for Hardwood Floors?

When it comes to the best vacuum for hardwood floors, there’s no magic brand that you need to run out and purchase. However, you should be mindful of the beater bar.

The beater bar is the part of the vacuum that’s covered in bristles and spins around. While this is great for stirring dust from the nap of carpeting, it can scratch the coating on your hard surface floor or — even worse — damage the actual wood. Fortunately, there are vacuum models that come without beater bars. There are also some vacuums that allow you to disable the bar so that it doesn’t spin as you’re cleaning hardwood floors.

My favorite vacuum is The Bissel Crosswave.  Honestly, when you can vacuum and mop at the same time, why wouldn’t you? The microfiber beater bar is amazing.  I am a huge fan of our Quick Shine Multi-Surface Floor Cleaner because it is streak-free, haze-free, and contains no harsh chemicals so it is not only safe for your floors, it’s safe for your family too. I fill the clean tank with our Quick Shine Cleaner and am literally blown away at the nasty dirty water tank when I am finished. If you still prefer to mop separately, you can’t go wrong with our Quick Shine Spray Mop with Microfiber Pad. It’s lightweight and the low profile allows easy maneuvering under and around furniture.

Take Two Extra Steps to Keep Hardwood Floors Clean

There are a couple of other things you can do to maintain healthy hardwood floors:

1. Invest in a floor mat: Having a mat right inside the door can help with trapping debris before it gets to your hardwood.
2. Leave shoes at the door: Set a shoe rack by the door or take shoes off in the mudroom. If your shoes stay in the entryway, the dirt on the bottoms does, too.

That’s all there is to cleaning hard surface floors on a regular basis. It’s a quick and easy process that can keep your floors looking nice for years to come. Happy Cleaning!

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