Contents
Household Cleaning Basics
Household Cleaning Tools
Cleaners and Cleaning Solutions
How to Eliminate Household Clutter
How to Clean Ceilings
How to Clean Walls
How to Wash Windows and Glass
How to Dust
How to Clean Floors
How to Clean Your Bathroom
How to Clean Your Kitchen
How to Clean Bedrooms
How to Clean Living Areas
Learn more with these titles from Barnes & Noble
|
 |
 |
 |
|
How to Clean Floors
Cleaning floors involves cleaning rugs and carpets as well as bare flooring.
How to Clean Rugs and Carpets
These floor coverings require regular vacuuming, removing tough dirt and stains on occasion, and shampooing once or twice yearly.
How to Vacuum Rugs and Carpets
Vacuum the rugs and carpets in your home about once every two weeks, following these tips:
- Vacuum in overlapping strokes to avoid missing a spot.
- Use a crevice tool to suck up dust and grit at the edges where the carpet or rug meets the wall.
- Every six months or so, move the furniture and vacuum the space it occupied.
How to Remove Carpet Stains
The specific cleaners you should use to remove carpet stains differ based on the source of the stain. But some general guidelines apply to all carpet stains:
- Act fast: The faster you take action against a stain, the easier it will be to clean up.
- Work from outside to inside: Working from the edges of the stain toward the center will prevent it from spreading out to other parts of the carpet.
- Use less solution: Don’t allow whatever you use to clean the carpet to soak through the fibers and into the backing. Moistening the backing of a rug or carpet can ruin it.
- Blot, don’t scrub: Scrubbing damages the rug or carpet fibers and pushes stains deeper. Blotting pulls them up out of the fiber.
For help removing specific stains from carpeting, consult the Quamut guide to Stain Removal, available in Barnes & Noble bookstores and online at www.quamut.com.
How to Deep-Clean Rugs and Carpets
Deep-clean your rugs and
carpets about once a year. The best way to do this is to rent a steam cleaner, a device that looks like an
industrial vacuum cleaner and that applies and then sucks up a mixture of hot water and detergent to your carpet. The rental firm that provides the steam cleaner will also provide the detergent (though you can use white vinegar instead). You can find a company that rents steam cleaners by looking up “carpet cleaning” or “steam cleaning” in your local yellow pages.
How to Clean Bare Floors
Frequent cleaning prevents dirt from scratching or becoming ground into flooring. Vacuum your floors regularly and mop them using a bucket of water and either two tablespoons of commercial detergent or one tablespoon each of non-sudsing ammonia and liquid laundry detergent. Some floors, however, require special treatment.
- Hardwood and laminate floors: Hardwood and laminate floors are coated with either wax or polyurethane. Waxed floors should be damp-mopped with a very small amount of pure water occasionally and waxed with paste wax about every six months. Damp-mop polyurethane floors with a bit of dish soap (not automatic dishwashing detergent) and water. Never use ammonia on wood floors.
- Tile floors: Tile floors can be sealed or unsealed. Sealed ceramic tile is easy to care for and needs no special treatment. If you have unsealed ceramic tile, consult the manufacturer or a tile store for professional cleaning advice.
- “Wax” vinyl and linoleum: Use a small amount of dish soap and water to damp-mop vinyl and linoleum floors. Don’t use ammonia, as it could stain your flooring. About every six months, apply a thin coat of no-buff floor wax and let dry.
- Stone floors: If you have stone or marble floors, mop them with hot water alone—other cleaning agents can eat away at the stone. Mop these floors in sections, drying each section with a clean cloth before moving on. Letting stone floors air-dry can cause spots.
How to Damp-Mop Your Floors
Damp mopping, in which you use a flat-headed mop with a terrycloth cover and just a bit of water, is the best way to mop floors in your home. Using less water is gentler on your floors and equally effective.
Before You Start Mopping
A little preparation is necessary before you begin.
- Sweep or vacuum: Remove as much dust and dirt as you can by sweeping or vacuuming. If you choose to sweep, use a dust mop rather than a broom—a broom’s harsh bristles can scratch the floors you’re trying to clean. If you choose to vacuum, it’s best to use a canister vacuum cleaner. If you have an upright, make sure that the vacuum doesn’t have a beater bar, a piece that extends below the vacuum. The bar is helpful for vacuuming a carpet but can harm an uncarpeted floor.
- Get the edges: Even the best mops can fail to clean corners effectively. Spray corners and edges with a cleaning solution based on your floor type, and wipe them clean with a clean rag.
- Attack spots: Apply cleaning solution with a scrub pad or toothbrush to remove spots that can’t be wiped away. This is often the most time-consuming step in the mopping process, so try to recognize spots that really have to be cleaned in this way, as opposed to spots that will disappear with mopping.
Mopping
- Prepare the cleaning solution: For most floors, put a small amount of water and 2–3 tablespoons of the appropriate cleaner into a bucket or the sink.
- Dunk the cover: Dunk the terrycloth mop cover into the solution, then wring it out.
- Mop: Put the cover over your mop and begin mopping. Avoid leaving pools of water on the floor.
- Rinse and dry: After mopping with the detergent, mop again with just water and allow to air-dry.
| Acknowledgments & Disclaimer |
