Maintaining our home means that you need to clean every part of your house and make sure that everything is sanitary for you and for your loved ones. When we think about cleaning the floors, we usually think that it needs to be just so they look nice when we walk into the house, but that needs to be done for a lot of different reasons. When you disinfect your floors, you are expanding their life, you are making sure that there are no bacteria on them, and you are making the whole space safer for you.
If you have small children or pets, that’s even more important, because they can easily pick something from the ground, and they can pretty much just put it in their mouth. One of the most common types of floors are the tile ones, and they can be installed anywhere starting from the kitchen, up to the hallways, and the bathroom. If you don’t know what you should do to properly maintain them, you’ve come to the right place. In this article, we are going to give you some tips on how to clean your tiles, and how to make sure they won’t lose their color, stain, or crack for decades.
Always start by vacuuming
The first step of the whole process is vacuuming. When you do this, you will make sure that there aren’t bigger pieces of garbage or debris. This is an extremely important step because no matter what you do later if there is something that will get in your way, you won’t be able to get the job done.
Know that you can also use a broom if you don’t want to turn the vacuum cleaner on, just make sure that you remove anything that might get stuck in the mop or something that will make the whole process slower.
According to Dreame, you should always make sure you use a good vacuum cleaner that will help you remove most of the debris and dust, and know that when you use the right machine, you will be able to cut the whole process in half. In addition, with a good device, you won’t have to worry if the surface is fully dry, if it is wet, or if it has some pieces of food left that may leave a sticky residue.
Clean visible stains and residue
After you are done with the vacuuming, you will be able to see which parts of the tiles are sticky and if there is any residue. Know that when you use the vacuum or the broom, you will be also removing any dust, so you will notice if it sticks to something.
Experts suggest that you should take a putty knife and remove any residue on your floors. This may take a while, but make sure you do this so you don’t end up with stained floors, or parts that gather dust no matter what you do.
The reason why you should use a putty knife is that you don’t want to damage or scrape the tiles, you want them to stay in the perfect condition, and you don’t want to use anything that’s too sharp.
In case there are stubborn stains, and if you cannot get them out with ease, one of the things you can do is take a piece of cloth, run it under hot water and leave the cloth on the residue for about five minutes. This will help you remove it with ease.
Mop the whole space
The next step in this process is that you should mop the floors with water. Know that if you want to clean them the right way, you should fill a bucket with cold or lukewarm water, and you should add some dish soap and no more than half a cup of vinegar.
You need these two ingredients so that you can make sure all the bacteria is removed with the vinegar, and that everything is sanitized by the soap. Don’t make the mistake of adding too much of the products, because then you risk ending up with floors that are too matte, or too difficult to rinse out. Always make sure your mop is clean and run it through cold water so you can clean any residue left from the last time you’ve used it.
For the next part you don’t need to do anything differently, just put the mop in the water, make sure all the excess water is drained, and mop away. You need to drain the water as much as you can because you don’t want your home to look like it has been flooded.
Once you are done cleaning with the soap and vinegar, you should clean the bucket, fill it with hot water, and mop the tiles once again so that you remove all the excess soap. Know that you may want to do this twice so that there won’t be any soap residue left that will get dry and possibly sticky by the end of the day.
Final tips
That’s it! That’s the easiest way to clean your tile floors. This whole process won’t take more than an hour for your whole space, and you will know you’ve protected yourself, your family, and your tiles when you finished this.
When it comes to drying the tiles, you are free to leave them to air dry. If you choose to do it, make sure you don’t walk in that area until they are fully dry. Try to keep the windows and doors closed so that there won’t be any dust particles flying in and getting stuck on the ground. You can also choose to dry them by hand, by using a clean cloth. This process may take longer, but you will at least know that everything has been dried out, and you will also be able to recheck and make sure there are no parts you’ve missed.
If you want, you can also use special cleaning supplies instead of vinegar and soap, but that is a personal preference. If you choose to go with store-bought items, you should choose something that is made for tiles and that you won’t damage them or make them greasy. Do this process at least once a week so that your home always looks amazing and every resident is safe and protected.