The condition of your floors can make or break the overall appearance of your home. Making those tile floors shine isn’t as easy as just pushing around a mop, though.
Choose your mop
A mop is not just a mop. In fact, the one you choose has a lot to do with how clean your floors will turn out. Your mop needs to be tough enough to remove both wet and dry stains but gentle enough to leave your floor without scratches.
Look for a mop with a removable, washable head, or one that can be replaced. Mopping your floor with a dirty mop doesn’t do much but move the dirt around.
Save yourself the hassle of wringing out and cleaning mop heads by trying out the Swiffer WetJet. The cleaning solution is specially formulated to break up and dissolve tough messes. Plus, the dual-nozzle sprayer is built right in to the pole, so there’s no bucket and no bending, and the disposable Extra Power pads work just as hard as your mop, but guarantee you’re always cleaning your floor with a clean tool.
The cleaning solution
The type of cleaning solution you should use depends largely on the type of tile you have in your home.
- Vinyl — Vinyl tile is pretty durable and can usually be cleaned with a simple vinegar and water mixture. Add a cup of vinegar to a gallon of hot water and you’re ready to go. For tough stains, try mixing Borax with water.
- Ceramic — Ceramic tile doesn’t usually need much more than a damp mop to come clean, but for tough jobs, try a vinegar-and-water mixture. Use a towel to dry the floor after you mop, as air drying will take away some of the shine.
- Stone — Vinegar might be a miracle cleaner, but keep it away from your stone-tile floors. The acids in vinegar can eventually do a lot of damage to the tile. Instead, mix a couple drops of dish washing liquid into a gallon of hot water, mop and then rinse.
Mop often
The more often you clean your tile floor, the easier it will be to mop, says Corina Wilson of Mrs. Clean in Seattle. “Tile floors need to be routinely cleaned, but many people wait until the floor is so dirty they can’t stand it any longer,” she said. “Maintenance cleaning is done on a more frequent basis, before things get out-right disgusting. Keeping on top of cleaning your dirty floors will save you some serious hands-and-knees scrubbing too!”
While we totally believe the Swiffer WetJet has awesome cleaning power, they did sponsor this post.
More on cleaning
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Daily quick-cleaning checklist
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