How Necessary Washing the Floor Is

Cleaning is always an important subject because it’s not only good for your health but also your mood. But in order to clean something well, we often lack power or time. This is why we usually have to deal with a dilemma: whether to wash the floor or just vacuum it.

With 5-Minute Crafts, you will find out if you have to use the mop every time you do the cleaning.

How necessary it is to wash the floor

It’s believed that washing the floor is the best way to clean it. Experts say that you need a wet cloth to remove dust effectively. So, if you just rub something with a dry cloth, you won’t remove all the dirt from it. A dry cloth will only spread the dust, while a wet one will take the dirt with it. Additionally, by cleaning the floor, you disinfect the space and make the environment cleaner.

It’s recommended to wash the floor once a week, but it doesn’t mean you can just ignore it the rest of the time. In between washings, you can use a sweeper or a vacuum to keep the place clean. It might be necessary to wash the floor in the kitchen more than once a week.

You can wash vinyl flooring and tiles. But you should be more careful with wooden floors. Laminate, wooden, cork, and bamboo flooring can be washed only if the manufacturer says to do so. And the cloth should be moist, not wet.

What washing does

• Cleaning — aside from the dirt you can see, there are a lot of bacteria living on the floor. The floor is covered in shoe prints, dirt from grocery bags, and pets. The germs reproduce very quickly, especially when it’s hot or when it’s flu season. Washing the floor often can help.
• It reduces allergy symptoms. Pet hair, dust, and other allergens build up on different surfaces, including the floor. When we wash the surface, we remove all this stuff and make the air clearer.
• It also protects the floor from scratches, as the dirt can scuff it up.
• Cleaning makes the place look fresh. If you don’t wash the floor, you might forget what it looks like when it’s clean.

How to wash the floor correctly

• Clear the space. Prepare as much of the floor as possible for cleaning. Move or lift light furniture. You should also wash the floor under heavy objects but not as often.
• Get rid of any superficial dirt. You can use a vacuum cleaner or a sweeper. Very dirt floors should be swept and then vacuum-cleaned.
• Prepare your supplies. Get a bucket, a mop, and a cloth. Add some detergent to the bucket and pour in some warm water.
• Use 2 buckets. One of them should have the water with the detergent and the other one, regular water.
• Wash the floor in sections. First, wash one room and then another.
• Don’t use too much water. The cloth shouldn’t have dripping water.
• Don’t forget about skirting boards — they need cleaning too.
• Wipe things down. After you wash the floor with a detergent, wash the cloth in clean water and wipe the floor again.
• Change the water. When the water gets dirty, replace it.
• Move backward. Start washing the floor from the farthest corner and move back to the door. Keep the bucket on the unwashed part.
• Let the floor dry. Don’t walk on the floor until it’s dry.

Mop or hands

Lots of people wonder whether it’s best to clean the floor with your hands or with a mop. It’s believed that hand cleaning is more effective and it’s easier to reach certain spots with your hands.

Of course, washing the floor with a mop is much easier, but it can’t fit everywhere. Even if you are using a mop, you might have to do some hand cleaning from time to time, like with the following:

• Under furniture and devices
• Skirting boards
• Corners — you should use your hands to wash the corners and other spots that are hard to reach with a mop.

Non-obvious perks of cleaning

Everyone knows that a sweeper and a mop help us make the space around us cleaner. But there are other advantages to cleaning that are not as obvious.

• It burns calories. Intensive cleaning can replace a gym workout.
• It helps keep you in shape. When people aren’t busy, they start eating more. A lazy weekend can make you attack the fridge more often than you need. And cleaning is a great way to keep busy. Besides, we might burn belly fat if we wash the floors squatting.
• It reduces stress. When we wash the floor, we feel less tense, and a clean environment helps us relax.
• It keeps us positive. By the way, when people feel angry, they clean especially well.
• It protects us from allergies and infections. Dust and dirt contain harmful elements, bacteria, and viruses. By disinfecting the floor, you can get rid of them.