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As a tradition, Clean Your Floors Day is celebrated on August 3 every year in the United States. It’s a reminder to take the time to show your floors a little love and make sure they’re clean. After all, your floors are the foundation of your living spaces, and they undergo a lot of wear and tear from walking, sitting, pets, crawling kids, etc. Some people can view cleaning their floors as a tedious task, but it doesn’t have to be if you follow these cleaning hacks:

Hardwood Floors
Believe it or not, when it comes to wood floors… less is more. You don’t need a ton of products to maintain cleanliness and shine. Try to implement these habits and your wood floors will maintain their glossy sparkle for years to come:

• Sweep or dust daily.
• Mop once a week (products like Pinesol work great for wood, but if you prefer a DIY mix try: one part vinegar to 10 parts water with a few drops of Castille/liquid soap).
• Clean up spills immediately.
• Instead of air-drying, use a towel or dry mop to get rid of excess moisture. Or, if it’s humid, turn on a ceiling fan/A.C. to speed up the drying process.

Carpet
Carpet is fairly easy to maintain, you simply vacuum it often. But after some time, carpet will start to trap odors and get discolored. Here are some things you can try to deal with that:

• Remove odors with a DIY mixture of baking soda and a few drops of essential oils. Sprinkle on your carpet and let sit for about an hour, then vacuum it up. You can also try a commercial version of this like the Arm & Hammer Carpet Odor Eliminator. 
• Use salt to soak up spills. Sprinkle a little salt on the spill, then vacuum it up to reduce the chances of staining.  
• Use furniture coasters to prevent carpet dents
• If you’ve decided to move some furniture around and notice dents in your carpet, simply allow a piece of ice to melt on the dented area. The moisture should revive that section of carpet. 
• Get your carpets professionally cleaned at least once a year–we can’t stress this enough. 

Tile & Grout
Tile is a popular choice for moist areas like your bathroom, kitchen, outdoor spaces and laundry room, but it can require some serious elbow grease to keep clean. For grimy bathroom tiles, try running a hot shower with the door closed to help lift off some of the surface dirt before you get to scrubbing. Some other tips for making tile cleaning easier:

• Use warm water when mopping or scrubbing.
• Clean your grout with a solution of baking soda and water. Allow this mixture to sit on your grout for a bit before you use a toothbrush to scrub it clean.
• Make sure that you’re resealing your grout once a year. Grout is extremely porous and with continuous scrubbing and moisture exposure, it will start to trap stains or develop mold/mildew.  

Keeping your floors clean is important for so many reasons that go beyond aesthetics. Removing things like dust, pollen and pet hair/fur can help reduce allergic reactions. Most importantly, clean floors will help them last longer. For the times when your floors need a little extra TLC, turn to the floor-cleaning experts at NewGen Restores. Whether hardwood floors, carpet, tile, laminate, vinyl or even concrete, we’ve got the experience and tools to clean them all! Give us a call at (980) 207-4868.