Vacuuming wood floors

[Cosmos]

So, in complete opposition to my plan to waste less time on the computer this year, I thought I'd start a random topic about something inconsequential.

 

My entire adult life I have lived in houses that have some wood floors and some carpet. Our current house has all wood floors on the first floor, while the upstairs and the staircase are carpeted. So I have had a couple of decades of practice at this. But somehow I have never understood how to vacuum a wood floor properly.

 

Here's the thing. Carpet catches the dirt, so it accumulates in high traffic areas. The places you walk on are the dirtiest, the places you don't walk on are the cleanest. If you've ever moved a piece of furniture after a long time, you may find the carpet underneath is visibly cleaner. So in my carpeted rooms, for regular cleaning I just run the vacuum along the floors. Once or twice a year, I pull the furniture away from the walls and clean underneath and all along the baseboards, etc.

 

Wood floors are just the opposite. The high traffic areas are actually the cleanest because walking creates air currents that push the dust out of the way. All that light fluffy dust and pet hair whooshes to the edges of the space and accumulates around chair legs and under furniture. So vacuuming just the high traffic areas is pointless. Here's what I generally do -- I go around first with my attachment wand and vacuum along the baseboards, around chair legs, etc. All the nooks and crannies where the dust piles up. Then I do the main part of the floor, either with my vacuum (using the hard floor setting) or a dust mop. To be honest, it looks pretty much clean without even doing the second step. Seriously 95% of the dust is in all those nooks and crannies. But it would feel weird to say I cleaned my floors without actually cleaning the main surface. So I always do two passes. I love wood floors, and I hope eventually to get rid of all the carpet. But it is a pain to clean them. It's twice as much work as the carpet.

 

I don't really have a point. I just wanted to complain. Feel free to complain about your own house cleaning pet peeves. Or tell me your magic way to clean wood floors faster.

Edited January 1, 2018 by Cosmos

[foxbridgeacademy]

I use a dry mop with a swivel head that easily gets in and under everything plus unlike a vacuum it doesn't "blow" the dust and dirt around.  No need to move furniture all the time. I also use the same dry mop, except the other side of it, to damp mop the floors.  Every couple months or so I'll move the sectional and book case to do a better job, including baseboards, but it's usually pretty quick since the dry mop gathers most of it up.  Dry mopping is quick and easy, same with the damp mop (I just use a diluted spray cleaner).  I would have ALL wood floors if I could (we rent) I hate carpet.

[Arctic Bunny]

I pull out the vacuum when my FIL is here. He then happily spends hours vacuuming! The feet of all the furniture, the baseboards, the registers, the nooks and crannies in sliding closet doors - and regular doors, come to think of it! The rest of the time is maintenance.

[Cosmos]

I should use my dry mop more often. I think I wait too long and there's too much dust for it to pick it all up, so I end up having to use the vacuum anyway. Also, there's always at least a little bit of grit (even though we don't wear shoes in the house) and I'm always worried I'm scratching the floors by pushing that around. But mostly I think it's that I'm not in the habit. I only bought my dry mop a couple of years ago and never worked it into my regular routine. If I did, that probably would be easier.

 

I'm not fond of carpet either, except on vacuuming day. I love the patterns the vacuum leaves in the carpet fibers.

[Spryte]

I pull out the vacuum when my FIL is here. He then happily spends hours vacuuming! The feet of all the furniture, the baseboards, the registers, the nooks and crannies in sliding closet doors - and regular doors, come to think of it! The rest of the time is maintenance.

Oh my.

 

Would your FIL be available to visit random strangers on the internet?

[Pawz4me]

I usually sweep our wood floors to get up bigger stuff and grit and then go back over it with a dry (dust) mop. 

[wintermom]

I agree with your carpet vs wood floor observations. This is particularly evident when there is a lot of dog/cat hair in the house. The hair floats to the corners on the wood, and forms annoying balls of fluff that are harder to ignore than the hair stuck on the carpet. 

 

My solution is to have a poodle who doesn't shed and who keeps the cat in the basement because he's afraid of the dog. That keeps vacuuming needs down. ;)

 

When the floors NEED to be vacuumed, I get the kids to take out the central vac and give the floors a once over. Sweeping and dry mopping just makes too much stuff floating in the air and my allergies don't like that.

Edited January 1, 2018 by wintermom

[Bluegoat]

I have both, but I really prefer the wood.  I've become used to looking in the places that get dirty where the dog hair accumulates on the wood floors.  

 

The way everything just smears across the carpet just annoys me, and it sticks without using the power head which sometimes gets all crammed up.

 

I have found that having a high quality vacuum makes a big difference.

[Arctic Bunny]

Oh my.

 

Would your FIL be available to visit random strangers on the internet?

I know, right? On the 24th I told him he could take back anything that might be under the tree for me, because that was more than enough.

It keeps him from being bored ;)

[Monica_in_Switzerland]

All hardwood here.  I have the kind of vacuum where you  pull the bag/motor along behind you as you go through with the hose/head part, not an upright.  I use the vacuum to vaccuum all sorts of weird stuff.  I suck spider webs out of ceiling corners, I vacuum the bathroom walls...  

 

For the floors, I do the edges, then the middle.  I tend to do hands and knees mopping seasonally except under the dinner table where it's more like monthly.  Kitchen and bathroom floors are tile, they also get hand scrubbed maybe every 2 weeks.  

 

I hate, hate, HATE cleaning floors.  

[Monica_in_Switzerland]

p.s.  My mom calls the dog hair balls "tumbleweeds" because they blow around every time you open a door or window.  

[Cosmos]

All hardwood here.  I have the kind of vacuum where you  pull the bag/motor along behind you as you go through with the hose/head part, not an upright.  I use the vacuum to vaccuum all sorts of weird stuff.  I suck spider webs out of ceiling corners, I vacuum the bathroom walls...  

 

For the floors, I do the edges, then the middle.  I tend to do hands and knees mopping seasonally except under the dinner table where it's more like monthly.  Kitchen and bathroom floors are tile, they also get hand scrubbed maybe every 2 weeks.  

 

I hate, hate, HATE cleaning floors.  

 

This is so similar to me. Edges then middle, plus using the vacuum to get all the spider webs, etc.

 

I also scrub my kitchen and bathroom floors by hand. And here's something weird. I actually love scrubbing my kitchen floor. Even though it takes a long time and my knees are killing me afterward. I love seeing the water in the bucket get dirty and how it makes the whole kitchen smell so nice (I use Murphy's oil soap).

 

It also takes like an hour, so why does spending twenty minutes with the vacuum make me so much more annoyed??

 

[Ellie]

See, I've always thought hardwood was easier than carpet. :-)

 

I vacuum under the furniture every time I vacuum, because dust accumulates there (and it accumulates on carpet, as well, so when I had carpet, I moved the furniture regularly to vacuum). I lived in one house for 16 years that was all hardwood, and I kept the attachment on my upright vacuum cleaner, the one I bought when I lived in house that was all carpeted. In 2004, we moved to this house, which is hardwood downstairs, carpet upstairs. I put the upright upstairs and bought a canister vac for downstairs. Last year I replaced that canister with a Shark stick vac which I love with all my heart. I swoop that thing around the house and vacuum under the furniture every time. It has a carpet attachment for the area rugs, and a motorized attachment for the carpeted stairs, as well as attachments for furniture and crevices and whatnot.

 

Sweeping and dustmoppping don't clean the floor as well as a good vac. :-)

[Monica_in_Switzerland]

I think part of why carpet seems easier is because it hides the dirt better.  Hardwood you can really get all-the-way clean.  Carpet... not so much.   :scared:  :ack2:

[wintermom]

I think part of why carpet seems easier is because it hides the dirt better.  Hardwood you can really get all-the-way clean.  Carpet... not so much.   :scared:  :ack2:

 

And if you've ever ripped up your own carpeting, you know that a lot of dirt goes through the carpet and stays underneath in the padding and on the flooring. It may not be airborne or visible, but it certainly isn't all getting removed by the vacuum. 

 

We have no more carpet left in our house, and I love it!

[StephanieZ]

FWIW, we have a Roomba and it is AWESOME for getting under furniture. Since we have no carpeting -- which is the BEST THING EVER (except one area rug in the music room where no pets and no shoes go, so low maintenance) and gazillions of hairy pets and long-haired people, we get a lot of those lovely fur/hair tumbleweeds under furniture. Letting the roomba keep at it daily makes an immense difference. It goes under stuff so thoroughly that it really cuts down on those tumbleweeds and makes the thorough canister vacuuming (with a proper hardwood floor attachment) much faster and easier. 

 

So, anyway, that's my suggestion. Get a roomba to help out. :) 

 

[Forget-Me-Not]

Most of our main living area is bare floor (hardwood and tile). I have a central vac, though, so there's no dragging a canister around.  I just use the hose and a bare floor attachment and it works great.  Bonus: It's light enough that even my youngest kid can do it too.  Not that I trust his thoroughness, but he loves to vacuum so I'll pull it out and let him go to town for as long as he wants.