How to Clean Floors

Dirty floors got you down? Hometalk can help! Take a look at our best, new, and top DIY floor cleaning projects. We have ideas to help you save time and money. Check out our slideshows, videos, and discussion boards to help you take your floors from drab to fab! Get rid of those scuff marks and stains and make your floors shine.

Learn How to Clean Wood Floors With DIY Wood Floor Cleaners

Floor Cleaning Made Easy

Dust before you wipe: Vacuum or sweep your floor before cleaning. Take care not to use a beater bar or coarse bristles as these can leave scratches.
Prepare your surface: Wipe floors with a microfiber mop and a touch of cleaning solution before a deep clean to prep the surface.
Use heavy strokes for deep clean: After a light wipe, go over the surface again. This time, soak a mop and use heavier strokes to get a deep clean.
Avoid streaks and patches: Leave floors until they're approximately 95% dry before spot cleaning. This ensures you aren’t left with streaks or patchy areas.
Maintain a clean floor: Daily dusting is the best way to maintain a clean floor. Complement regular light and deep cleans by using a dry microfiber mop to remove dust.

More cleaning categories

Top Projects for Cleaning Floors

We have the top DIY floor cleaning ideas and projects all right here.

First Aid... Remove Sticky Residue

Hi, Liz here, from SimpleDecoratingTips.com a DIY & decorating blog for everything home to cottage. (This post was first published on Simple Decorating Tips. )

Liz at Simple Decorating Tips

Easy and Mild Deep Cleaning for Vinyl Floors

I love cleaning and I've used almost every product and solution you can name, even industrial ones. I cannot any longer though due to severe allergies, therefore I had to devise a way to deep clean my floors but with mild cleaners. Those of us that have four legged family members realize floors can get dirt grinded in them if they are rough surface or have a lot of texture.

Skilled Thrifty Creatives

DIY Wood Safe Floor Cleaner

I have made a ton of homemade cleaning solutions, but was a little nervous about making a mopping solution for my wood floors. I wanted to make sure that I could make something that wouldn't damage them, but will still get them clean. After much research, I came up with the perfect DIY Wood Safe Floor Cleaner!

Mom4Real

Removing Tough and Odd Stains

Stains can be such a challenge to remove and I put some to the test. Here are a few ways I found to remove these stains with inexpensive and easy to find ingredients. You can see more of my crazy creations here

Chas' Crazy Creations

DIY Super Absorbent Swiffer Cloths

Is keeping your floor clean a challenge? Do you go through disposable floor cloths like crazy?? My homemade Swiffer cloths get the job done and are reusable! Using cloth diapers and microfiber cloths makes these do an amazing job!

Far From Normal

Make Your Own Steam Mop Pads

I'm already in Spring cleaning mode so I've been cleaning like a mad woman lately! We bought a Swiffer Bissell Steamboost Mop recently and it came with two of the cleaning pads for it. They smelled wonderful, but I was concerned that the solution on them may not be good for our three cats to be walking around on as well as the the refill pads are kind of expensive in my opinion, especially for as often as I mop my floors.

DeeDee

DIY 3-Ingredient Tub and Tile Cleaner

Cleaning your home doesn't have to be toxic! This easy and inexpensive tub and tile cleaner cleans just as effectively as commercial products - without the addition of harsh chemicals. And, it smells great too!7-9-17 Update: This project is no longer published on To Work with My Hands. Proportions are included below.

To Work With My Hands

DIY Tile Grout Cleaner

I thought my house was kept up pretty well until one day my world came crashing down on me. I had house guests coming to stay with us, so I went into the guest bathroom to make sure the bathroom was stocked with all necessary toiletries. I hardly ever go into this bathroom and when I walked in this time, it hit me. I saw how clean the grout in the tiles looked compared to the rest of the house. My entire downstairs floor and the upstairs bathrooms have tiles, but they all looked filthy compared to this barely used bathroom. I needed to do something fast, but I didn’t want to spend too much money to get the job done.

The Kreative Life

The Best Grout Removal Tools for Shower Tile Floors

Who else has tried cleaning their shower grout but just can't get it back to looking brand new? Maybe I'm giving up prematurely but I've tried several tips. Plus some of our grout is falling apart. Thus I've taken on the uneviable project of removing all the grout in our shower tile floor. What's the best grout removal tool for this job? An oscillating multi tool and a rectangular grout removal tool will help you remove grout lines without losing your cool (or hair, unless you're already bald-sorry). Here are some tips -Apply two layers of duct tape along surfaces you don't want to scratch with the tools -Use a grout attachment with the oscillating tool -Measure the width of your grout lines to determine the correct multi tool attachment size -Remove grout down to 1/2 the thickness of the adjacent tile (e.g. if your tile is 1/4 inch thick take out at least 1/8 of an inch of old grout) -Vacuum the are grout lines frequently to make sure you're not penetrating the shower pan or substrate the tiles are attached to You'll discover more pictures, tips, and resources by clicking on this link to my blog post http://www.homerepairtutor.com/best-grout-removal-tools-for-tile-shower-floors/ Have a great day!

Home Repair Tutor

Refresh Your Bathroom By Doing This One Thing

The grout in my laundry room has seen better days. I've tried many different methods of scrubbing the grout but I couldn't get it clean anymore so I decided to refresh it.

Alicia W

First Aid... Remove Sticky Residue

Hi, Liz here, from SimpleDecoratingTips.com a DIY & decorating blog for everything home to cottage. (This post was first published on Simple Decorating Tips. )

Liz at Simple Decorating Tips

Easy and Mild Deep Cleaning for Vinyl Floors

Skilled Thrifty Creatives

DIY Wood Safe Floor Cleaner

Mom4Real

Removing Tough and Odd Stains

Chas' Crazy Creations

DIY Super Absorbent Swiffer Cloths

Far From Normal

Make Your Own Steam Mop Pads

DeeDee

DIY 3-Ingredient Tub and Tile Cleaner

To Work With My Hands

DIY Tile Grout Cleaner

The Kreative Life

The Best Grout Removal Tools for Shower Tile Floors

Home Repair Tutor

Refresh Your Bathroom By Doing This One Thing

The grout in my laundry room has seen better days. I've tried many different methods of scrubbing the grout but I couldn't get it clean anymore so I decided to refresh it.

Alicia W

Floor Cleaning Videos

Need some video tutorials on how to get started cleaning your floors? Enjoy.

Vacuum Cleaning Tips

Want to get through some of your cleanings faster? Your vacuum cleaner is for more than just the floor and it can help you get through a lot of your cleaning in no time. Plus, I'll share a couple of extra tips along the way. You can see more of my crazy creations here

Chas' Crazy Creations

Six Ways to Use Tea Around Your House

Here are six different ways to use three different teas - black, green, and mint.You can use unused or used tea bags; however, in some of the tips, the tea must be dry. This is a great way to recycle your tea after you've enjoyed a spot of tea.

Alicia W

5 Ways to Clean With Baking Soda

Baking soda is a staple in every DIY'ers home. So, I'm giving you 5 awesome ways to use it in your cleaning routine!

Kara S.

Refresh Your Bathroom By Doing This One Thing

The grout in my laundry room has seen better days. I've tried many different methods of scrubbing the grout but I couldn't get it clean anymore so I decided to refresh it.

Alicia W

Hometalkers' Favorite DIY Floor Cleaning Projects

Here you'll find our best DIY floor cleaning projects. Go ahead and browse.

Six Ways to Use Tea Around Your House

Alicia W

Making Old Floors Look Good Until You Can Afford New Ones!

I'd Love to have new hardwood floors, but since that's not even close to being an option yet, here's a little tip to make them look clean and at the very least livable. Hope this helps at least one person be a little happier until they can get new floors too! :D

Amy Ogden-Paparone

8 Ways To Make Cleaning Physically Easier

After I had hip surgery, I had to come up with ways to make cleaning physically easier. Here are some of the ideas I used, as well as I plan on keeping moving forward. You can see more of my crazy creations here

Chas' Crazy Creations

Homemade Grout Cleaner Recipe

This is the best homemade grout cleaner recipe I’ve tried. It’s great for just freshening up grout in a bathroom or on a backsplash, but it also works really well for deep cleaning dirty mudroom floor grout as well!I wanted to make sure to share this homemade grout cleaner recipe soon because this is the time of year where we all start to get really impatient for spring to get here and we start wanting to freshen our homes up for spring. If you have tile in your entryway, there’s a good chance that cleaning your grout is on your spring cleaning list. I don’t necessarily endorse spring cleaning, because I prefer to do my deep cleaning tasks a little at a time and this grout cleaning recipe is perfect for that. If a big spring cleaning frenzy is your thing though, this will definitely work wonders for that as well.

CreekLineHouse .

5 Fabulous ( and Cheap) DIY Cleaners or Your Cleanest Home EVER

Tired of having so many different cleaners for cleaning the house? Motivated to cut down on cleaning products and reduce toxic chemical use, I turned to my pantry and cupboards to make my own cleaning products.

Sharon E. Hines

How I Restored My Wood Floor for $5

No sanding required, but I did find a great product to give those wood floors new life.

Dawn @ Creative Cain Cabin

Six Ways to Use Tea Around Your House

Alicia W

Making Old Floors Look Good Until You Can Afford New Ones!

Amy Ogden-Paparone

8 Ways To Make Cleaning Physically Easier

Chas' Crazy Creations

Homemade Grout Cleaner Recipe

CreekLineHouse .

5 Fabulous ( and Cheap) DIY Cleaners or Your Cleanest Home EVER

Sharon E. Hines

How I Restored My Wood Floor for $5

No sanding required, but I did find a great product to give those wood floors new life.

Dawn @ Creative Cain Cabin

Popular Floor Cleaning Discussions

Join our discussion board on how to clean your own floors yourself.

How to remove white "plaster mud" off concrete floor?

/> K S

Just woun't come off easy!

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How do you best clean grout before recolor it it??

/> Jul28626820

We have a light blue tile floor with white grout that has turned brown. We bought blue tile grout recoloring, but need to clean the grout first. What is the best way to clean the grout?

View discussion

How can I clean dog pee stains on a wood floor?

/> Dar32946730

View discussion

How can I clean vinyl floor yellowing caused by being covered w/ rugs?

/> Tammy Rhoden

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New Floor Cleaning Projects

We have tons of new DIY floor cleaning projects to get you started here.

How to Clean Slate Floors?

How to clean slate floors find out with these tips that you should know to clean your natural slate floors easily and without significant effort.

Rojy

How-To Make Your Old Linoleum Floor Shine Like New

The linoleum floor in my kitchen and dining room is original to the house and is over 40 years old. Even though the linoleum pattern is dated the floor shines like new thanks to a few simple tricks I've learned along the way.

Mary Beth @ The How to Home

Wood Floor Mark Remover

I was making a Birthday sign for my son. Mistake #1. Do not use a Sharpie Marker. Seriously? Who does that? Me.😂 Mistake #2. I made the sign on my wood floors that were redone 2 years ago. Noooo!! Result? Several and I mean Several different color polka dots on my floor.😱 What is a girl to do? Research, right? Right. Sadly, I couldn't find anything with wood floors and permanent marker. Ask questions? I did. No one seemed to have answers. Oh my!! What now. Oh yeah! I know. The one item that just about removes anything you put it to task on. Mr. Clean Magic Erasers!! That's right. Magic Erasers. I was very nervous because it was a wood floor. I had never used a Magic Eraser on wood before.I thought I ruined the floor once let not make it worse. It actually took me several weeks before I got the nerve to try it out. Check out my results below.👇🏻

Rebecca Peterson

Two Ingredient Homemade Carpet Refresher Recipe

I use this two ingredient homemade carpet refresher recipe all the time and realized I have never shared it with you!One of the most popular posts ever on Chemistry Cachet is our 3 ingredient carpet cleaner (click blog post link at the bottom of this post to get the recipe for carpet cleaner). Readers love it because it is easy and it works! Plus, there is actually science going on behind the scenes showing why it works so well.I don’t always need to clean my carpet though, so I use this homemade carpet refresher all the time to keep everything smelling clean!Although this is such a simple post, I still want to share with you the chemistry behind a simple DIY like this. Also, be sure to read the important chemist tips at the bottom on ideas for substitutions too.

Alexis @ Chemistry Cachet

Make Your Grout Look Like New!

I can’t believe we’ve been in our current house for over two years. In a way, it feels like we just moved in here. It was our first single family home. We love having a spacious, private backyard for the kids. We love having an in-house washer & dryer to make laundry day a breeze. We also love our family-friendly neighborhood. However, there has always been one thing that bothered me about this place…The tile floor in the kitchen has seen better days. To be clear, the tiles themselves are in good condition, as in there are no cracks, chips, etc (although I probably would have chosen another color for the tiles). However, the overall floor in the kitchen has been a bit (a lot!) of an eyesore, mainly due to the condition of the grout.

EngineerMommy

How to Clean Your Floors: There’s a Right Way to Mop

Mopping. Not really the most exciting subject matter. This is, until you find yourself the proud owner of floors that just don’t seem to come clean or that always look a bit lackluster. They can make your whole house feel icky and if you’re like most people, then you probably never really put much thought into whether you’re really mopping them correctly or not.

CreekLineHouse .