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The best ways to care for hardwood floors. Keeping them clean in the first place. How to get them clean if they do get dirty.

There is nothing like the look of hardwood floors. They add an elegant touch to a home, yet are durable and can take the abuse a busy family can place on them.

One of the main reasons that many people decide against hardwood floors is that they believe they are difficult to keep clean. Faced with hours of housework and tons of money spent on specialized cleaners, many homeowners opt out of this solution for their floors.

This couldn't be further from the truth. Keeping hardwood floors clean and looking good is very simple and inexpensive if you follow the right steps. With proper care, hardwood floors last a lifetime.

Surprisingly, the best tool for your hardwood floors is the simplest, cheapest and easiest: a soft broom. Of course, there are special cleaning systems that stores or flooring installers will want to sell you that are more expensive, but you don't need them. Just get a soft broom and make sure you gently sweep your hardwood floors each day. Especially in the high traffic areas such as hallways and kitchens, you want to pick up all the grit that may be ground into the floor.

You can use your vacuum for cleaning hardwood floors, as long as you remove the beater bar and only use the soft brush attachment. If there is an accumulation of dirt or if someone has just dragged in some dirt and grime from outdoors, this is a good solution because you want to pick up all of the grime; the soft brush will avoid any scratching.

Many hardwood floors are installed with a special coating on them. If your hardwood floors have such a polyurethane coating on them, you can actually use a damp mop on the floor. Since you are still dealing with wood, you can't let any water stand on it, so just a very lightly dampened mop or cloth is sufficient. If a spot remains after sweeping, just a quick rub with a dampened cloth should remove it.

If it seems that your hardwood floors get especially dirty in certain areas, covering those areas with area rugs might be a good idea. There are many attractive designs to choose from so, besides protecting our floor, you can add a decorating or color accent to the room. If you have a lot of traffic in a certain area, from either from visitors or from children running in an out, this is a practical and pretty way to avoid having to clean all the time.

So you see that keeping your hardwood floors clean is simple and easy, if you just make it a part of your daily routine. All you need is a soft broom and a damp mop, nothing fancy!