It’s a seller’s market, are you ready to cash in?
America’s experiencing the most amount of home sales since 2006, and the median home price has gone up nearly 16%! While this is great news for sellers, it also means you’ll have to deal with fierce competition. If you want to stand out from the competition, you’ll need to WOW potential buyers.
One of the best ways to impress buyers is by having an immaculately clean yard and home. However, it can be difficult figuring out how to keep floors clean with the increased foot traffic that home tours bring. To help you out, we’ve created this simple floor cleaning guide.
Are you ready to learn how to keep the dirt out and the clean in? Read on to learn how to maintain your floors, the right way.
1. Create a Dirt Barrier
Creating a dirt barrier should be your very first step if you want to keep floors clean. For instance, having a sturdy welcome mat placed at the front of your door will help keep all sorts of debris at bay. Of course, you’ll want the mat to be something visually attractive. However, the appearance of the mat shouldn’t be your main buying point.
Instead, you’ll want to focus on looking for sturdy, well-designed mats that are especially good at trapping dirt. For instance, coir doormats usually have a simple design, however, they’re excellent for scraping off dirt before entering the house. Coir doormats are made using husks of coconut shells.
The result is a durable, easy to clean mat, and you can find them in all sorts of colors. Rope is another great material for doormats. Rope mats have a chic farmhouse look, and the coarse material is perfect for taking off the dirt.
2. Take Away Dirt Hiding Spots
Moving on, you’ll want to take a moment to get rid of hiding places for dirt that are inside your home. After stepping through your front door, take a moment to look at the floor around you.
Look for anything on the floor that doesn’t have to be there. Clutter is a dirt magnet. However, if you have open floor spaces, you’ll be able to easily see dirt the moment it arrives.
3. How to Keep Hardwood Floors Clean
After you’ve created your dirt barrier, and removed clutter from the floors, the next step is to clean them! If you have hardwood floors, you’ll have to be particularly careful to not scratch or scuff them during the cleaning process.
For instance, if you’re going to use a vacuum on wood floors, you’ll want to use a vacuum that doesn’t have a beater bar. Covered in bristles, the beater bar spins around to help the vacuum pick up dirt and debris.
While beater bars are perfect for stirring up debris in carpets, they can easily damage wood floors. It’s easy to find vacuum models that don’t use beater bars, as long as you’re willing to look for them.
Use a Microfiber Dust Mop
Before you start vacuuming, you’ll get the best results if you dust mops your wood floors first. Using a microfiber dust mop, be sure to get under every piece of furniture. Once you’re all done dust mopping, you’re ready to start wet mopping the floors.
You can easily make your own wood floor cleaning solution, and all you’ll need is ½ cup of distilled white vinegar and 1-gallon water. You can also add a few drops of your favorite essential oil to create a fun fragrance for guests.
Next, dampen a rag with the cleaning solution, and begin applying it to the floor. Since white vinegar’s acidic, you won’t want to let it sit on the wood for too long. Instead, use 2 rags, 1 damp with the solution, and 1 dry. After wiping the floor with the solution, and scrubbing out any stains, immediately wipe it dry.
4. How to Keep Carpet Clean
Does your house have a lot of carpeting? Nylon fibers are the easiest carpet to keep clean. However, even if you have long shaggy carpets, you can still keep them fresh if you’re willing to use the right tools.
For starters, you’ll want to invest in a scented deodorizer. Deodorizers do more than make your carpet smell great, they also help the vacuum pick up extra dirt and grime. After sprinkling the deodorizer over every carpet, you’ll want to let it sit for about 20 minutes.
Next, do an initial vacuuming to pick up the deodorizer, along with the top layer of carpet filth. If you have any stains, now would be a good time to pretreat them. Finally, vacuum once again, however, this time you won’t need to use the deodorizer.
To get a truly deep rug cleaning, you should consider hiring a carpet cleaning company. Using equipment such as water filtration vacuums, a company will be able to make your carpets look new again.
5. How to Keep Tile Floors Clean
Last but not least, let’s talk about how to keep tile floors clean. Similar to wood floors, you’ll need to be careful to not scratch the surface of your tile. To avoid creating scratches, you’ll want to vacuum the tile twice before you try mopping it. If you start mopping the tile before all of the dirt’s removed, the abrasiveness of the dirt and sand can cause scratches.
You can use the same white vinegar and water cleaning solution on your tile floors as you do on the wood ones. However, to deep clean the tile’s grout, you’ll want to use create a paste using baking soda and water. Finally, using a toothbrush, vigorously brush the grout with the paste and rinse it clean.
Keep Floors Clean for Every Tour
Now you know how to keep floors clean so that every house tour can be a success! Take a moment right now to see if you’re front door’s dirt barrier is doing a good job.
Is your doormat made of coarse material, that’s great at catching dirt? Or is it a flimsy mat that’s merely decorating your front stoop? If your current mat’s not up to par, go ahead and purchase a mat today that’s designed to keep dirt out.
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