Given how fast life moves these days, who has time to clean? Between work, family and other obligations, there aren’t enough hours in the day, especially for chores. The key is to establish a sustainable routine to stay on top of cleaning, especially when it comes to hard surface floors. If your floors are clean, your home will appear clean, even if you just corralled clutter into a closet seconds before company popped in. Read on for tips to maintain your floors when you’re too busy.

Sweeping, dry mopping or vacuuming daily or every other day is the first step in maintaining floors. You can spot sweep, targeting areas that have collected crumbs or fur from pets. Ideally, you would be able to sweep up dry messes when they happen, but let’s be realistic. When things get busy, crumbs are a low priority. If you schedule in sweeping, it’s more likely to happen on a regular basis.

There is no way around having to wash your floors. If you sweep daily, and spot clean spills, a weekly wash should not be an impossible chore. Follow your manufacturer’s instructions, but generally you can mop tile , stone or vinyl with an approved cleaning product. Be careful not to let water puddle, which can leave water marks.

For other hard surfaces such as laminate and hardwood flooring , where water is not advisable, spot clean with a wood-friendly cleaner. You can mop these floors with a damp mop to remove surface dirt without damaging the flooring, but absolutely avoid the mop and bucket.

If you maintain the daily and weekly routines of sweeping and mopping, you may not need a monthly deep clean but it’s at least good practice to assess the condition of your floors every month. There are steam mops you can purchase to deep clean hard floors like tile, vinyl or stone or waterproof laminates, which will do a good job sanitizing flooring. Alternatively, a bucket and scrub brush with hot water and an approved cleaner will also go a long way.

If your tile grout has gotten dingy, use a grout brush and a grout cleaner, or try this DIY recipe from Bob Vila: ½ cup baking soda, ¼ cup hydrogen peroxide and 1 teaspoon of dish soap. Shake it all up in a squirt bottle, apply to dirty grout and allow to sit. The peroxide and baking soda will sanitize and loosen the stains. After a few minutes, wipe away and rinse with clean water, or repeat if necessary.

For hardwoods, follow the manufacturer’s instructions to safely deep clean. If you keep up with the other cleaning routines, you may be able to just get away with just a polish that will keep hardwoods shiny and looking new, but once every 3 months is sufficient.

If your existing floors are beyond the help of an ordinary cleaning routine and it’s time to upgrade, visit the helpful professionals at Carpet Advantage Company Inc. They can assist you with low-maintenance flooring options that will fit your lifestyle and budget so you can simplify your cleaning routine and your life.

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