My home has gone through major changes in past 2 months; most important change was the floor. I had always planned to have hardwood floors and finally I have installed it. Although I like the new look of my house but, I hadn’t realized earlier that cleaning wood floors would be so tough. I have struggled with my wood floors for so long; I think I have tried almost every natural cleaning methods and tools known to me to get the best way to clean wood floors. Now I am completely happy with the results and it looks like all the hard work finally paid off.

Let me start from the beginning.

When I moved to hardwood floors, I knew that all methods I used on previous floor for cleaning were not valid anymore. It was new to me so I had to be careful with my floor also.

Let me tell you what was going wrong back then.

First thing that I was doing wrong was using the same vacuum cleaner I used to clean previous floor. I know… I know I should have known this, but I realized it later that it was damaging the floor. Then I searched for the best vacuum for wood floors, which are designed especially for hardwood floors. Fortunately I realized my mistake soon and bought Shark Navigator Lift-Away Professional Upright (NV356E) vacuum cleaner. It made a huge difference in my cleaning effort and results.

Since i am a fan of Natural/Green cleaning, I tried various natural and sort of natural cleaners for the wood floor to get the perfect result. I have always tried to avoid commercial cleaners as much as possible; I am just worried about the harmful effects of the chemicals present in it which causes indoor environmental quality problems. Whatever I used at first, I always felt like there was something remaining on the floor, some type of residue. I finally decided to try the old-fashioned way of cleaning “get on my hands and knees and wash the floor with white vinegar and warm water”. At first I didn’t like the smell of vinegar after cleaning, but the results were amazing. Just because of the smell I kept on trying other things but nothing gave me the result like the water vinegar solution. And finally I have decided to go with water vinegar solution, because it make the floor cleaner and keep it clean for longer. It doesn’t leave any residue that attracts the dust, thus keeps the floors cleaner for longer.

So, finally here is what I do to clean my hardwood floor.

• Vacuum the wood floor thrice or twice a week, sometimes daily if needed.
• Mop the floor once a week with warm water and vinegar solution. Key to it is the proper ratio of the water and vinegar. I mix ½ cup of vinegar (white vinegar) in 1 gallon of warm water, if you don’t take care of the ratio it may damage your floor.
• I always use lightly damped microfiber cloth for mopping so that no excess water stays on the wood floor and it dries off quickly.

You can use a microfiber mopping pad or just a mop and bucket whatever you like.

I have really enjoyed keeping my wood floors cleans this way.

So, now tell me what your way of cleaning hardwood floors is?

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