Floor Cleaning Tips for COVID-19 | How To Keep Your Floors Clean During a Pandemic
While being cooped up at home is hardly an ideal situation, it does present a golden opportunity to get that cleaning done that you’ve been putting off. Be honest now, when’s the last time you actually deep cleaned your floors? If you’re like most of us it’s been months (possibly…never?). With the dangers of COVID-19 lurking, cleaning your floors the right way can keep them sanitized and also make you feel a little more productive and comfortable in your own home.
If someone in your home is ill, it’s even more important to keep your floors clean. We don’t often think of the floor as a “high-touch surface,” but everything you track in on your shoes from the grocery store ends up on the same floor you sit on, drop things on, and that your pets and small children are in constant contact with. So use our best cleaning and disinfecting tips for how to keep your floors clean during a pandemic to help you keep your floor clean, safe, and looking good!
What’s the Difference Between Cleaning and Disinfecting My Floors?
It’s important to realize that there actually is a pretty big difference between cleaning and disinfecting when it comes to your floors. Cleaning can help remove germs, but it doesn’t kill them. While cleaning does lower your risks of spreading any infection in your home, it takes special chemicals to actually eliminate germs completely.
Disinfecting uses anti-bacterial chemicals to kill germs on the surfaces of your home. However, this doesn’t clean the dirt or remove the dead germs. Your best bet is actually to combine cleaning and disinfecting if you’re worried about how to keep your floors clean during a pandemic – especially if someone is already sick in your home. Clean first to remove dirt and dust and anything that may cause germs to “stick,” and then disinfect to kill any stubborn germs left behind. If no one in your home is sick, you’ll likely be fine just cleaning.
Cleaning Tips for Hard Flooring
Hardwood, laminate, tile, and vinyl flooring will require different deep cleaning methods than carpeting. We recommend the daily use of a Swiffer, microfiber mop, or broom to keep dust, dirt, and debris from building up on your floors. This keeps them clean and also prevents scratching and discoloration that can occur over time as a result of grime being ground into the floor.
To get even more dirt, debris, and dust, you can vacuum with a soft-bristled brush attachment. We recommend this at least once or twice a week – daily is even better as long as your vacuum doesn’t scratch the floors.
You should be careful with mopping if you have laminate or hardwood floors. Both types of flooring are easily damaged by moisture, so go with damp mopping rather than wet mopping. If your flooring is vinyl, make sure that you use a cleaner that is specifically formulated for vinyl – or you can use apple cider vinegar in warm water.
To disinfect hard floors, choose an anti-bacterial solution – but make sure that it’s formulated for safe use on your flooring! Most surface disinfectants have bleach in them which can cause serious damage and discoloration to your flooring. Instead, you can try a solution of one gallon of warm water and one cup of white vinegar to disinfect vinyl, laminate, and tile.
For hardwood floors, use a special cleaner – you don’t want to risk damaging or warping your floors by wet mopping them. After you damp mop, dry the floor with a clean, dry towel to remove any lingering moisture.
Cleaning Tips for Carpeting
How often you should vacuum your carpet depends on the amount of foot traffic in that area. Daily for high-traffic areas and weekly for low-traffic. Make sure that you vacuum slowly to ensure you’re getting all the debris and dust out of the carpet fibers. A lot of dust and debris tends to gather under furniture and behind it, so go ahead and move or lift it if you can to get those hard to reach places.
The CDC says there is little evidence that carpet fibers hold COVID-19 germs the way hard surfaces do, but if you want – or need – to disinfect, just make sure that you are using a special cleaning solution that will not bleach or fade your carpet unevenly. A steam cleaner is the best way to disinfect carpeting because it uses hot water and cleaner to dive deep into the carpet’s fibers. If you don’t like the idea of harsh chemicals, you can use vinegar to clean your carpets as well. Just change the ratio to equal parts of both warm water and white vinegar.
If you have any questions about how to keep your floors clean during a pandemic, contact The Carpet Center. We’re happy to help you!