Both general and everyday house cleaning usually ends with a mop. Regular cleaning of the flooring is a laborious task, but this is the only way to save the house from dust and germs and create a healthy atmosphere. Many housewives are interested in the question of what is better to do first - to vacuum or mop the floor. Or maybe do without a vacuum cleaner? So that the cleaning does not take up all your free time, it will be useful to learn some secrets that are used by cleaning service professionals.
How to vacuum up or wash first?
The answer to this question is extremely simple. If the household has a vacuum cleaner, before you start cleaning the floor, it is better to clean it with this useful device: collect dust and small debris, walk along the baseboards, under the sofa, bed and bedside tables. This will facilitate wet cleaning as much as possible, as the main dirt will move into the dust collector.
You can do without a vacuum cleaner at all. Just in this case, you will have to change the water more often, because due to the dust dissolved in it, after a couple of meters it will become dirty. Vacuuming after mopping is also possible - if you accidentally spilled something on a clean, just dried linoleum, why not vacuum it? In addition, the modern vacuum cleaner is equipped with a HEPA filter, which captures the smallest particles of dust at the outlet and absolutely does not pollute the clean floor.
General rules for cleaning floor surfaces
Many of the following rules seem absolutely obvious, but they will allow cleaning as best and as fast as possible - and this is exactly what every housewife wants.
- Before washing the floor, first of all, it is necessary to free its surface as much as possible: lift small things and interior items upstairs, hide shoes in a cabinet, put chairs on a table or take them out of the room, and remove rugs and rugs.
- Using a vacuum cleaner from the floor and baseboards, it is worth collecting dust by looking into the most inaccessible corners. If there is no vacuum cleaner, you can walk with a brush or a broom, but garbage and dust must be collected before starting work.
- To clean the floor, it is better to use special detergents suitable for the specific floor covering. With the help of such compositions, it is possible to achieve high purity and gloss and at the same time protect the coating from damage.
- It is right to start washing floors from the farthest corner, moving towards the exit. The work is done using a mop or manually. It should be borne in mind that only the first method is suitable for pregnant women.
- Do not stomp on wet floorboards, so as not to leave traces that will certainly appear after drying.
- Water should be changed as often as possible so as not to smear dirt and not transfer bacteria from one room to another.
Cleaning by coating
Each floor covering - and there are many of them today - has its weaknesses. For this reason, the rules for cleaning linoleum are different from washing a laminate or parquet. Detergents also select exactly those that are suitable for a particular coating.
- Wood. Wooden floors in a house or apartment are usually covered with paint or varnish. Such surfaces can be washed in the usual way by dissolving liquid soap in water or using a special product, such as Pronto. At the end of the work it is necessary to wash off soap traces with clean water.
- Parquet. Before washing, the parquet must be vacuumed. This will remove dust from the gaps between the planks of the coating and collect debris and sand that can damage the varnished surface. Parquet does not tolerate dampness, so you need to wipe it with a slightly damp rag, dissolving in water a detergent, such as Pallmann Clean or Pallmann Finish Care.
- Linoleum. Practical flooring is afraid of abrasive substances and chemical damage. Before wet cleaning, linoleum must be vacuumed to collect fine debris, grains of sand and pebbles that can ruin the surface. In addition, after such a preliminary cleaning, dirty stains during washing will not occur on linoleum. As a detergent use special industrial compounds - Mr. Proper, Mr. Muscle, Glorix and others.
- Laminate. To clean the laminated board, first use a vacuum cleaner, and then wash the floor with a well-wrung cloth moistened with a special detergent - Unicum, Ludwik, Cinderella, etc.
When it is better to vacuum the floors, before or after washing, and whether it is necessary at all, everyone decides for himself. However, cleaning company professionals advise pre-cleaning the floor with a broom or vacuum cleaner and only after that proceed with wet cleaning. For those who want to combine these two actions, there is only one way out: buy a washing vacuum cleaner.