Your tile floors need to sparkle to make your home look great. That’s why regularly cleaning tile is so important. However, it can be easy to get confused about the best ways to clean tiles or to make mistakes that disrupt the effectiveness of your cleaning methods.
Thankfully, we’ve got you covered. The following tips are the five best-kept secrets for cleaning tile. They can be used on just about any kind of flooring and should be shared with your friends and family members. They’ll think you’re a cleaning genius when they try them out.
1. Baking Soda is a Secret Weapon
You’ve probably heard of this one before, but it is worth emphasizing here again. Baking soda is a powerful cleaning tool that can provide your home with the high-quality clean that it needs. It is particularly beneficial for tiles because it can naturally disinfect their surface while breaking away stains and other types of dirt.
Creating a baking soda cleaning solution is so simple that even the least experienced homeowner could do it. Mix your cleaner using this proportion: one cup of baking soda per two cups of water. This level helps to break the baking soda down a little bit and makes it easier to spread across the surface of your tile using a mop or even a sponge.
Wipe it on your floor and let it sit for a few minutes before drying it with a towel. Don’t be afraid to get down on the floor and scrub away the stains using a sponge. Try to avoid any cleaning tool with wires, though, as those have a nasty tendency to scratch a tile’s surface and will leave you with a scuffed and unattractive floor.
2. Microfiber Cloths are a Lifesaver
If you have never used microfiber cloths to clean your tile floors, you’ve been doing it wrong for years. Microfiber cloths are the best choice here because they are gentle and don’t grind dirt when you use them. That’s one problem that other types of cleaning cloths have when they’re used to scrub tile. That grinding action can seriously damage the surface of your tiles and compromise their exterior.
There are many types of microfiber clothes that you can purchase to clean your tiles. For example, microfiber mops are very popular for those who are trying to avoid scratching their tiles. These mops can soak up just about any cleaning solution without getting damaged. However, there are also microfiber towels that you can use for hand cleaning.
In fact, you should not only clean your floor with microfiber mops but dry them with microfiber towels. Doing so will reduce the chances of suffering from streaks or stains caused by wiping your cleaning solution in one direction too quickly. It can also protect your floor from the kind of scratches other types of towels create.
3. Steam Clean the Grout Lines
Cleaning your grout lines is critical because bacteria, dirt, and fungus love to settle here. A failure to eliminate these contaminants will make it easier for them to spread and make your floor not only unattractive but unhealthy. Thankfully, you can clean the grout lines fairly easily by using a steam cleaner combined with a high-quality scrub brush.
Steam cleaning is your best option because the heat will focus on the grout lines and kill bacteria and fungus. These cleaners are also a great choice because they are designed to be easy to use and inexpensive to rent. There should be a cleaning store near you that has a steam cleaner that you can either rent or purchase.
Even better, the hot water will disinfect your floor and break apart any other stains that may have been lurking on your tiles. Combining this approach with a scrub brush is particularly useful because the brush will break apart stains and also fit into the grout lines more easily than sponges or other types of cleaning tools.
4. Pencil Erasers Can Clean Black Lines
Black lines from sneakers are one of the most frustrating stains on a tile floor. While they do rub off, they can also scuff and spread around on your floor. However, a pencil eraser can help you manage this issue by focusing directly on the point where the stain occurred.
Just rub the eraser over the surface of the stain to transfer it to the eraser. Once the stain is here, you can scrub it off with water or another type of cleaner to make your eraser usable again for later cleaning. In this way, you can avoid having to buy multiple erasers and save yourself some cash.
5. Add a Little Tea to Shine the Surface
Tea is not only a tasty drink but an incredible cleaning tool. It naturally disinfects surfaces and provides a nice shine and an even better smell. To get the best results, you need to brew black tea using a brewer or a large pot on a stove. Remove any stray leaves that may have fallen out of the bags and throw them away to avoid staining your floor.
Take a soft cloth (microfiber, obviously) and dip it in the tea. Let it soak in the tea for at least 2-3 minutes and then wring out the excess. You want to let it soak because it will spread the mix through the cloth as much as possible. Identify spots on your tiles that are dirty or which have stained. Wipe the surface with the tea to break apart the stains.
Let the tea sit on the stains for a few moments to let it soak. This wait should give it the power it needs to eliminate stains. Wipe the tea away with a soft paper towel using dabbing motions. Drying the floor like this removes streaks that can make your tile look unattractive. Repeat this process if necessary to get the best results.
Final Thoughts
As you can see, cleaning your tile floors is a snap when you use these amazing cleaning tips. Integrate them into your weekly cleaning routine to get your tiles looking as flawless as possible. And please don’t hesitate to share this article with friends and family members to help them get the same kind of excellent home-cleaning results.
Carmel Stone Imports is a major West Coast Importer and Wholesaler of unique and exotic first-rate quality natural stone. We have 3 locations and showrooms from the Bays of San Francisco to Monterey in beautiful California.
