Tricks for Shiny Floors

Floors are absolutely a part of home decor. If you can manage to keep them spotless, you’ll end up with a visually appealing home without any having to make any big changes or investments. To keep floors shiny, you have to know your floors: wood, granite, ceramic tiles, etc. How you should maintain your floors depends on the floor material.

The goal is to make spaces not only look clean, but clear as well. Why? Doing so invites us to relax and rest; an invitation that we’ll surely be happy to accept after a long day at work.

Shiny wood floors

If you want to keep your wood floors nice and shiny, the first thing you should do is to use a sticker-pad on all of the bottoms of all your furniture (chairs, tables, beds, etc). Using these pads will prevent scratching when you move furniture around. They’ll be extremely helpful for dining chairs and heavier pieces of furniture that you use frequently.

Wood is a material that needs polishing from time to time because it tends to darken and wear out easily. This is especially true with in the cases of dust accumulation, humidity, contact and impact with other surfaces.

To keep them shiny, you should be sure to never use cleaning materials that could scratch the wood. For beautiful floors that last longer, take a mental note of our easy to find and completely natural products.

When mopping, we shouldn’t use too much water nor cleaning product because the moisture can hurt the wood. So, be sure to avoid excess quantities. Afterwards, when floors have completely dried, apply a coat of wax or varnish to re-hydrate your wood floors. Doing so will minimize the damages that they’ve already suffered and, at the same time, prevent future ones.

Materials

• Water (3 liters).
• Water bucket.
• Vinegar (10 mL).
• Lemon juice (5 mL).
• Mop.
• Olive oil (30 mL) *Optional*.
• Broom (however, we recommend that you use a vacuum).

Instructions

• First, remove all the dust from the floors. In order to do so, the best idea is using a vacuum cleaner. However, you can choose to sweep with a broom.
• Pour the 3 liters of water into the bucket along with the vinegar. Stir to mix the liquids together.
• Add the lemon juice and olive oil to the bucket.
• Dunk the mop into the bucket, ensuring that’s it’s completely wet. After, squeeze out excess water.  
• Mop floors and leave to dry.

Ceramic tile flooring

Ceramic tiles are the more popular choices for flooring these days. They have plenty of advantages, which include the fact that they’re easy to clean. They’re perfect for any setting and they’re the best for kitchens and bathrooms. Tiles also come in many shapes, colors and textures.

If you use our trick, you’ll be able to keep your floors beautiful simply and on a budget. It calls for two elements that you’ll probably already have at home and, if you don’t, you can get them easily. The first is apple cider vinegar, which helps naturally perfume and disinfect floors; the second is baking soda. Baking soda is a wonderful natural bleacher and it’ll help your floors stay shinier for longer.

Materials

• Broom.
• 1 cloth.
• Bucket.
• Squeegee.
• Clean water (3 liters).
• Apple cider vinegar (3 mL).
• Baking soda (1 g).

Instructions

• First, sweep the entire floor to remove any trace of dust.
• Pour the 3 liters of water into the bucket.
• Add the baking soda and mix to dissolve. Then, add the vinegar to the mixture.
• Dip the cloth in the mixture and clean the floors.
• Again, dip the cloth in the mixture and make sure to squeeze out the excess water. Wash the entire floor.
• Leave the floor to dry.

Shiny porcelain tiles

Porcelain tiles naturally shine on their own. So, don’t stress too much over cleaning them. They’re very resistant and come in large sizing. As a result, they’re simpler to keep clean because there is less space in between each tile. To keep them in impeccable condition, try out our trick for porcelain tiles:

Materials

• Bucket.
• Clean water (3 liters).
• Mop.
• Broom or vacuum.
• Detergent or neutral liquid soap (3 mL).

Instructions

• Remove all traces of dirt with the broom or vacuum.
• Mix the water with the detergent in the bucket. Wait until all the soap has dissolved evenly.
• Dunk the mop in the water and squeeze out excess water.
• Mop the entire floor and leave to dry.
• Repeat as many times as needed.

Cement flooring

Originally, cement flooring only had industrial uses. However, these days, they’re frequent in minimalist home decor. Though these floors can’t exactly shine, you can still give them a special treatment. Be careful not to use scratchy or acidic cleaning products on cement floors. Just by using water and a neutral soap, you can get perfect floors.

Materials

• Broom.
• Mop.
• Clean water.
• Bucket.
• Neutral soap (3 ml). *Optional*

Instructions

• Sweep away all dust with broom.
• Mix the water and soap together in the bucket.
• Dunk the mop in the liquid and remove excess water. Mop the entire area. 
• Leave floors dry.