Yes, Wearing Your Shoes Inside Is Damaging Your Hardwood Floors

Although hardwood flooring are a sturdy flooring possibility, they tolerate a variety of put on: day by day visitors, spills, scuffs and scratches from pets, for those who’ve bought them. Moving furnishings, carrying sneakers inside or kids enjoying with arduous toys would possibly injury your flooring. But, you too can scratch or uninteresting your hardwood flooring for those who don’t clear them correctly and repeatedly.

Carolyn Forté, government director of the Good Housekeeping Institute Cleaning Lab, shares her easy-to-follow tutorials on the best way to clear hardwood flooring like a professional — whether or not you want recommendation for on a regular basis upkeep or a down-and-dirty deep clear. Keep in thoughts: Not each hardwood flooring requires the identical stage of care, it’ll rely in your life-style and the way a lot visitors it receives.

What You’ll Need

How to repeatedly clear hardwood flooring

Regular vacuuming may help shield your hardwood flooring from scratching.

Sweeping or vacuuming your hardwood flooring repeatedly will save time in the long term, because you received’t should wet-clean as often.

For fast, on a regular basis upkeep, use a brush or microfiber mud mop to select up mud, grime and crumbs that accumulate all through the day. This will assist stop your flooring from scratching.
Depending on the visitors in your house, vacuum your hardwood flooring each few days. The greatest vacuum for hardwood flooring is a canister vacuum as a result of it has an extended, oval flooring brush hooked up to achieve tiny areas. “If you solely have an upright mannequin, remember to flip off the rotating brush to maintain the bristles from scratching your flooring,” Forté recommends.

How to deep clear hardwood flooring

If you discover grime, grime or meals spills that may’t be swept or vacuumed, it’s time for a deeper clear.

For surface-treated flooring, wet-clean with Bona Hardwood Floor Cleaner Spray. Spray a small 3-foot by 3-foot space with the cleaner and decide up any dissolved grime with a microfiber mop.
Work your method across the whole flooring, cleansing one small space at a time.
If you come throughout a spot that wants a fast touch-up, clear with a water-dampened paper towel and wipe dry.

Expert tip: “We don’t advocate cleansing wooden floors with vinegar,” says Forté. The acidic resolution can injury or uninteresting sure hardwood flooring finishes.

How to take away scuff marks

Use a humid sponge to sort out scuff marks or stains.

Dirt isn’t all the time the principle wrongdoer. When you progress furnishings or put on sneakers indoors, you could discover scuffs in your hardwood flooring. Luckily, they will simply be rubbed away with some elbow grease.

To take away mild scuffs, buff it out with a sock or a clear, fuzzy tennis ball.
To take away heavier scuffs, apply baking soda to a humid sponge and gently rub the mark till it disappears. Rinse with a humid paper towel and buff dry.

How to maintain hardwood flooring clear

As a basic rule of thumb, hardwood flooring ought to be swept or dusted each few days, vacuumed weekly and deep cleaned each one to 2 months or as wanted. Here’s the best way to keep away from cleansing your flooring as usually:

Wipe spills promptly: If you let moist spills dry on the ground, “they’ll uninteresting the end and entice extra grime,” says Forté. Blot spills instantly with an absorbent material.
Keep your flooring dry: Any liquid sitting on hardwood flooring can result in injury. “The worst factor you are able to do is let water puddle on the ground,” says Forté.
Adopt a no-shoe coverage: Dirt and grit are abrasive, which might scratch flooring over time. “I’m a agency believer in taking my sneakers off as quickly as I come within the door, as a result of this straightforward act goes an extended method to eliminating just about all the tracked-in grime that may wreak havoc on a wooden flooring’s end,” says Forté.

Amanda Garrity is a life-style author and editor with over seven years of expertise, together with 5 years on workers at Good Housekeeping, the place she lined all issues residence and vacation, together with the newest inside design traits, inspiring DIY concepts and present guides for any (and each) event. She additionally has a smooth spot for feel-good TV, so you may catch her writing about standard reveals like Virgin River, Sweet Magnolias, Hallmark Channel’s When Calls the Heart and extra. 

Associate Lifestyle Editor

Alyssa Gautieri (she/her) is the affiliate life-style editor for Good Housekeeping, the place she covers all issues residence and inside design. Prior to becoming a member of GH in 2022, she wrote for publications together with ELLE Decor, Chairish, BobVila.com, Unique Homes Magazine and LODGING Magazine, along with crafting product copy for residence manufacturers like BrylaneHome and VIGO Industries.