New Floor With A Little Cleaning

When I moved in my new apartment a few years back, I instantly noticed the floor. To be more precise the bad condition it was in. Apparently, the previous owners hadn’t put much effort into taking care of the home. Don’t get me wrong, I liked the apartment as a whole. There were just these little drawbacks here and there. So I rented the place despite the defects that bothered me. Even though I had a lot of work to do, I was ready to put the house in order. To fulfil this task, however, I needed to clean the floor surface properly. And I have to tell you, it wasn’t such an easy activity. As the floor was made from hardwood material, it required special care which I definitely intended to apply. Here’s how I cleaned the most important part of every house and turned the old floor into a new one with a little cleaning.

Of course, you can easily guess that I started off by sweeping the floor. But as hard it is to believe; even just an ordinary sweeping could cause damage. Taking precautions, I used a soft-bristled broom. This way I prevented any scratches which might have appeared. Since the wooden surface was dirty when I first arrived, I didn’t want to take any chances. There was sand and some other particles. And I wanted to remove them without leaving scratches. This step was complete.

Unfortunately, this was only the beginning of a several-hour cleaning. To move forward, I had to know what kind exactly was the wooden material. My question led me to the landlord who told me that the floor was repaired soon and therefore it had a modern surface seal. This was actually good news for me. I was happy to hear those words because older floors are more difficult to clean.

Next step was to choose the correct cleaning agent. There are many chemicals and among them I chose the simplest solution to my problems – baking soda. Yes, that’s right. I avoided buying expensive chemicals as baking soda does the same job. It’s also much less dangerous. In result I dissolved a little bit in a bucket full of water. I didn’t use tap water, though. Instead, distilled water was a better choice. Then I mopped the wood.

I was close to the end but I still had a few more things to do. Such as several tough areas which couldn’t be cleaned with the mop. I had to spot-clean them by hand with an old cloth soaked in the solution. While I was doing that I saw there was some excess liquid so I saturated it. The final touch was to rinse the floor with a clean mop to remove any water traces.

Then the  floor had a completely new appearance. It was sparkling (I guess like never before).