How we clean our new hardwood floors

Disclaimer – This is a sponsored post brought to you by Bona.  All opinions are 100% my own.

It’s like when you have a baby.

You get the new little one and they are so super perfect in every way and you are so in love and then reality hits.  HOW DO YOU KEEP THEM PERFECT?!  HOW DO YOU KEEP THEM FROM ALL THE HARM?

Well, this past month, we realized that the same thing happens with newly refinished hardwoods.  You will literally do anything to protect those beauties from any damage, dirt or harm.  My baby floors are so perfect.  They are so new and fresh and I am literally questioning my sanity when it came to protecting them.  OH HI KIDS, YOU WANT TO EAT INSIDE THE KITCHEN?! I THINK NOT.

Ok, ok, I might be exaggerating.  but just a little.  The point is that Jeremy and I both were on high alert when it came to our hardwoods.  We really wanted to keep the finish from getting junked up and also keeping the color the same and being safe for the little ones and still be able to get a good clean.

Well, right after we finished our floors, Bona reached out and asked if we would like to try their cleaning products on our newborn floors.  Since we had used their stain for the custom color, we knew that they would never make something that would compromise their beautiful finish.  So let me walk you through the process on what we do to keep these babies clean.

Every day we vacuum.  We don’t vacuum all the rooms but every day we have to break it out and sweep up a variety of items tracked in by those eight little feet and four furry paws.  Jeremy and I don’t track in anything as we are adults and therefore flawless 🙂

The kids don’t generally wear shoes inside the house.  We have a ‘take-em-off’ rule and then they just run around barefoot most of the time.  I do think this helps considerably with the dirt.

And then between vacuuming, we have to use dusters on the floors because we have a lot of dust bunnies.

We use this microfiber dusting pad first and just walk around getting random dust bunnies, grass or dirt.

This is my favorite part and also the kids love doing it too.  I think it’s the fastest and simplest way to get kids to help….just get one of these.  The other great thing about having a microfiber duster is that it fits under furniture where the vacuum doesn’t.  It has a swivel head like the others on the market but the pad itself is much better at getting the little bits of dust.

The thing I was most excited to try was the Bona spray mop.  It’s new and it addresses all the issues I have with other mops.  I like to be able to apply a lot of scrubbing pressure (because I use these in the bathroom too and guys, little boys and tile floors near a toilet are a recipe for lots of scrubbing).  And as I bear down, in the past, I’ve had trouble with the mops breaking or coming apart.

Immediately I noticed that I loved the handle.  It’s very easy for a one-handed operation (which is all I have available most of the time).  I like the squeeze-to-spray vs the button on most other spray mops.  Definitely a plus!

The other thing I really liked is the fact that the pad is bigger than the mop head.  It makes it so that I can get right up on the baseboards.

And it definitely has the fine mist thing going on!   No giant wet spots here! (for reference, I squeezed the trigger about eight times for this photo so that Jeremy could capture the stream…but the amount on the floor with a single squeeze is not this much!)

And did you notice the blue padded part half way up the handle?  That is for those moments that require a two handed deeper scrub.  Moms, you know what I mean.

So I’ve been using it for about a month now and I love it.  I found that it’s super easy and lightweight and there is absolutely no residue or stickiness.

The best part about cleaning the floors though is when you get a volunteer helper!

Max wanted to show you all how easy it is 🙂

Of course, I made him give me lots of kisses in order to be able to help.

How often do we clean them?  We do our heavy traffic areas in the kitchen probably every day with this little wet mop and our bathrooms every other day.  Other than that, we do spot cleaning.  Once a month we have a lady come in and do some general cleaning and she uses our Bona cleaner and she cleans all the tile and hardwoods with them.

If you are wondering about the washable pads….the dusting one I take it outside and shake it after each use.  I have yet to wash it…and I have even pushed around drywall dust and it works great.  The wet pad I do wash at the end of each use.  I actually went to the store and bought three more pads to use so that I could wash them all together at the end of the week.  I would say if your floors are especially dirty, you could do two to three rooms before switching it out.  If your house is like my moms, you could probably do the entire house 🙂

And for the moments when we have a quick spill or if Bear gets sick, we grab this spray cleaner and it is great!  We can spray exactly where we need it (like I get weird about using the spray mop too close to the rugs) so this is a good small area solution.

I found out that Bona’s products are the first in the industry to offer a full line up of items that have the Greenguard certification.  That’s pretty cool.  And they even have a Free & Simple formula cleaner that is dye free and scent free and is certified asthma and allergy friendly by the AAFA.  That means it’s perfect for all your little ones!

So now that you know more than you ever wanted to know about our floor cleaning regime, I’d love to hear about yours.  What is your floor cleaning schedule?  What do you do to keep your floors looking clean and new?  Any hacks or tricks I should know about?  And do you follow the same kinda routine as us…..daily vacuums, quick dusting, followed by a once-over with a spray mop?  I know this sounds crazy but I love listening to how people with kids and pets and messy house partners clean their house.  Growing up we used a bucket and a washcloth and did good-ole-fashioned scrubbing so having a Bona spray mop feels so fancy!  ha!

p.s.  Here is the link again for shopping Bona’s full line up of hardwood cleaning products.  And the Bona stain color we used on our floors is Aged Pewter.