How to Clean Tile Floors With Vinegar and Baking Soda

How to Clean Tile Floors With Vinegar and Baking Soda

How to clean tile floors was perplexing to me. The grout. So confusing.

I have a lot of tile. It’s not my favorite. But it’s good for here in the dessert…. Or is it desert.

I’d like some dessert in the desert. Daily, thank you.

Anyway, back to cleaning floors. This is how I clean the floors at MY house.

Learning how to clean tile floors took a while. We had come from a home with hardwoods (btw, this is my favorite hard wood cleaner), so it took some adjusting.

I do the floors on Monday. I find that once a week is plenty often to sweep and mop. I should say that my floors are the color of dirt. Someone did a wonderful job picking them out. Are they prettiest floors you’ll ever seen in your life? No. But they’re perfect for my life right now.

This post was originally written in April 2014, but was updated in 2018.

Vinegar and Baking Soda Floor Cleaning Recipe

I mainly use Vinegar to clean my floors.

Best Homemade Tile Floor Cleaner

I use about 1/4 vinegar, the rest hot water, and about 2 drops dish detergent. I don’t add essential oils — it’s just this. It does smell VERY vinegar-y in the beginning, but that quickly wears off to just leave your house smelling fresh and clean.

I HAVE used Baking Soda to clean my floors — but be VERY thoughtful about your baking soda usage. While it does do a good job, you don’t want white baking soda residue all over your floors.

I do find that a baking soda paste (just some baking soda and water) can work wonders on stained grout — and that is what I would recommend baking soda for most in cleaning tile floors.

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Tools I use to keep my Tile Floors Clean

Full vacuuming

Sweeping is a thing of the past. I have just found that vacuums work better, with less work involved). I use a Hoover Lynx vacuum. I had it for about 5 years, and then it was dying (mostly the battery). I then saw it on a smokin’ deal at Costco and bought it AGAIN. I still LOVE IT. Sometimes we have to take a straightened coat hanger to unplug the thing when my kids think it can do pieces of paper — but most of the time it sucks, sucks, sucks. {stop you and your dirty mind}

Nightly Vacuuming

I had wanted one for SO long — I finally broke down and got a robotic vacuum.

Now, I just couldn’t justify the $900 one I really wanted — but I found a great deal on this one at Amazon (plus I had a gift card from my birthday). It has very few bells and whistles. BUT, it runs every night, we empty its dirt cup and it does it all over again.

Every. single. night. No complaints, no whining. Yes, it sometimes gets stuck — and yes, the first few nights it stuck EVERY night. We then had to figure out some ways to keep it from eating wires but since then it’s been a dream.

The one thing is that robotic vacuums can’t get under chairs (read: under my dining table) very well. It can get around the table and does a GREAT job in the food prep area — but if I really want under the table done, I have to pull the chairs out for it to go.

Had Vac

I have a little Black and Decker hand vac that I use to clean up quick spills. I also use it to really get into corners, etc. I recommend every house have one of these. My main complaint would be that the filter fills up really easily. And, while easy to clean — it is kind of a pain.

Broom & Dustpan

I will also say that I have a small broom/dust pan that I keep by our washing machine. Sometimes that is just as easy as pulling out any of these tools to clean up. I have mine hanging on a Command Hook — so it’s simple to use and put back.

Best Mop to Clean Tile Floors

I use a Rubbermaid mop. I have had to replace it 3 times at this point. One time it just broke off at the head, the 2nd time it wouldn’t squirt right and I just got #3. I will say that Rubbermaid has been good to work with and they feel like it might be my choice in cleaner that’s doing it. I tend to alternate between just Vinegar per their instructions and then this one. I find that the less dish soap I use, the better. Now, I only put a couple of drops in.

When I get around to it, I steam my floors with my steam clean machine. I don’t actually think it cleans all that better then a regular mop, but I do think there’s something to switching up cleaning tactics and how it makes things cleaner overall. But, my cleaning philosophy is a blog for another day…

Grout Cleaning

When my kids are on break (like spring break) I usually have them do the grout with grout cleaner, a scrub brush and a rag.

What do you do with your floors? I’m always working on it. We have at LEAST 1100 square feet of tile here, with little kids.

If you liked this post — be sure to sign up for my weekly cleaning schedule (Floors are done on Mondays at my house) — and check out my other cleaning posts below that:

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Original article and pictures take www.pullingcurls.com site