I can’t say I’m a freak about floors, but as an interior designer I do hold an opinion on the matter and it’s a rather harsh one (hope you weren’t expecting anything less by now). Floors in general, are a large style element in a home and can either enhance your interior design scheme, or can completely ruin the entire look and ambiance of a room if not chosen properly. Just imagine this: a wonderful kitchen made of high quality materials in a lovely colour that complements the rest of the interior (walls, a connected dining room maybe) and then bam: the floor is old and made of some ancient tiles from a material not even the best interior designer in the world could define. On top of that, they’re in some colour that literally changes your facial expression every time you look at it. The result? You don’t even get to start admiring the beautiful kitchen because the floor is such an eyesore that it takes all your positive energy.

If you’re in a such situation, normally the first thing an interior designer would suggest is changing them. Do it like a spring/summer cleaning action or a minor refreshment in your home, just like I did recently. That way it won’t feel like you’re about to be renovating your entire home by spending a fortune and scaring your husband.

An important aspect worth talking about when it comes to floors, is their maintenance. I don’t know why some women simply neglect floors when they clean the house; when someone enters a room, the floors are the first thing they notice as they’re probably taking their shoes off or watching their step. And if I have to choose a room where the floors need most cleaning and maintaining, it would have to be the kitchen.

The type of kitchen flooring you have will largely determine the method you’ll use for cleaning and maintaining it. For example, if you have laminate kitchen flooring, you should pay attention to using the right products so that the laminate shines in its full splendour. The same goes for other kitchen flooring types such as: vinyl, hardwood, natural stone and others. You could do a thorough cleaning let’s say once every week, or once in two weeks if you don’t use the kitchen that frequently. However, if you’re a full time housewife, spending most of the time in the kitchen doing all kinds of delicious goodness,you’ll probably need to clean the kitchen floors more often. Naturally, that implies a shorter cleaning procedure.

Just because it should be a quick clean, it doesn’t mean you should ruin your floors

Because none of us likes to clean for hours, we often reach for products that are known as “cleaning supplies” because of their features. Like vinegar, for example. Vinegar truly is an effective cleaner, but not in all cases and for all materials. That being said, avoid using vinegar if your kitchen floors are made of natural stone, glass tile or glazed ceramic tile because on these materials, vinegar acts like a deteriorating substance, meaning, it pits the stone and glass and can totally destroy the grout.

Not all cleaning products are “good” products

I like using “green” products on some natural or organic base so that when I clean I don’t pollute my home. Make sure you avoid using products that contain too much chemistry. I assume you’d say that some dirt like a piled and solidified gunk simply won’t come out without a harsh detergent, but if you prevent gunk from happening in the first place, you won’t have to use harsh chemistry at all.

Some really easy ways to clean your kitchen floors

The first step is to vacuum the floor thoroughly – don’t miss a spot nor a corner. Try to pick everything from the floors like crumbs, or accidentally fallen pieces of vegetables, herbs and similar (it’s a kitchen so it’s normal to find all kinds of foods on the floor). Besides cleaning pieces of food, vacuuming also collects the dust from the floors, preparing them for the next step: cleaning with a specialized product. Just spray the product on the floors and go over them with a mop twice: once to loose the dirt and the second time to wipe it off. There are also floor cleaning machines you can get if you’re looking for a way to really make your floors sparkly, but those are quite expensive in my opinion.

So ladies, do you have any special ways of maintaining your kitchen floors you’d like to share? We’d love to read all about it.