- 1 day ago
Clean floors faster and keep them looking lovely longer with a few simple habits rooted in old-fashioned housekeeping. Esther Yoder shares practical floor-cleaning tips for sweeping up dry dust and grit before mopping, using only a little mild soap, and avoiding the sticky residue that can attract dirt back to the floor.
Learn how to mop in small sections with a well-wrung cloth, work with the grain of wood, rinse away grime, and protect floors from excess water and harsh cleaners. These straightforward floor care and mopping tips also cover keeping dirt outside with entry mats and shoes-off routines. A helpful guide to cleaning hardwood, tile, and other floors gently, without expensive products or unnecessary scrubbing.
Learn how to mop in small sections with a well-wrung cloth, work with the grain of wood, rinse away grime, and protect floors from excess water and harsh cleaners. These straightforward floor care and mopping tips also cover keeping dirt outside with entry mats and shoes-off routines. A helpful guide to cleaning hardwood, tile, and other floors gently, without expensive products or unnecessary scrubbing.
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00There is one surface in your whole house that you are almost certainly cleaning in a way that makes it
00:05dirtier.
00:06Not cleaner, dirtier.
00:08And the worst part is, you cannot even see it happening.
00:12Every time you set to work on it with the best of intentions,
00:15you are quietly laying down an invisible something that pulls the dirt back to it faster than before,
00:21so that the cleaner you try to make it, the quicker it grimes up again.
00:25It is a trap, and most folk are caught in it their whole lives and never know.
00:30And here is the stranger part still.
00:32The very first thing most people do when they go to clean it
00:36is the one thing that guarantees them a harder job and a worse result.
00:41A single wrong first move that turns loose dirt into a smeared paste and glues the muck down tight.
00:48They mean well. They simply begin at the wrong end.
00:51Start the old way, in the right order and with the right touch,
00:55and this surface comes clean in half the time, stays clean far longer,
00:59and your knees and back are spared the whole ordeal.
01:02My grandmother kept the floors of a large, much walked upon house clean and sound for decades.
01:08The same floors, lasting a lifetime, never worn out nor ruined.
01:13And she did it with a broom, a cloth, a bucket,
01:16and a handful of plain rules done in the right order.
01:19I am going to give you the whole of it.
01:22And the very first rule, the one nearly everyone breaks,
01:25is the one that decides whether the whole job is easy or a misery.
01:30By the end, you will clean your floors in half the time and keep them lovely twice as long.
01:35Quick word before we go further.
01:37My name is Esther Yoder, and the old household ways handed down to me,
01:41the kind I am sharing today, and a great many more besides,
01:44are far more than I could ever fit into one video.
01:48I have gathered the whole of them into a book,
01:51and you will find it at EliasYoder.com.
01:54If today's tips serve you,
01:56that is where the rest of what my mother and grandmother taught me lives,
01:59all in the one place.
02:01Now to it, and the surface is your floors,
02:03and the first rule, the one that decides everything, is this.
02:07You sweep it dry before you ever let a drop of water near it.
02:11My grandmother would not hear of it done any other way.
02:15Esther, she said, water on a dusty floor does not clean it.
02:19It makes mud of the dust and glue of the hair
02:21and works the both of them down into every crack to set hard.
02:25Take all the dry dirt off first, every speck, and only then bring the water.
02:29And she was exactly right, and here is the whole why of it.
02:33A floor gathers loose grit and dust and hair,
02:36and if you go at it straight off with a wet mop,
02:39every bit of that dry dirt turns on the instant to a gritty mud
02:43that you push about and smear into the grain,
02:45while the hair wraps around the mop and sticks to the boards like paste.
02:49You have made yourself a far worse job,
02:51and a floor that is dirtier for your trouble.
02:54So first, always, you take a good broom,
02:57a soft one that will not scratch a fine wood floor,
03:00and you sweep the whole floor clean and dry,
03:03getting right into the corners and along the edges where the grit loves to gather,
03:07with a handbrush for the tight spots.
03:10Only when every bit of dry dirt is gone and gathered up
03:13do you so much as think about the water.
03:15Dry first.
03:16It is the plainest rule there is,
03:18and the one most broken,
03:20and it alone will have your labor.
03:22Now the washing, and here is the trap I spoke of at the start,
03:26the invisible thing that pulls dirt back.
03:28It is soap.
03:29Too much soap.
03:30Hear me well, for this is the heart of it.
03:32You use the very littlest soap that will do,
03:35a small measure in a good bucket of warm water,
03:38and no more.
03:39For soap used heavy cannot all be rinsed away,
03:42and what stays behind dries to a sticky,
03:44tacky film across your floor.
03:46A film you cannot see,
03:48but that grabs at the dirt off every shoe and foot that crosses it,
03:52so your clean floor is grimy again in a day or two,
03:55and never truly comes clean at all.
03:57That sticky residue is the whole reason floors seem to dirty so fast and never satisfy.
04:02A little soap, well rinsed, dries clean,
04:05and leaves nothing behind to catch the dirt.
04:08Less soap, not more.
04:10Write it on your heart,
04:11for it is the secret to a floor that stays clean.
04:14And a firm word on what you wash with,
04:17for the wrong thing does slow harm to a good floor.
04:19Go gentle and middling.
04:22A plain, mild soap in warm water
04:24is the safest thing for near any floor.
04:27Keep the harsh and the sharp away from wood above all.
04:31I know many a one swears by vinegar for cleaning,
04:34and it has its fine uses,
04:36but not on a wood floor,
04:38for it is too acid,
04:39and will eat away the finish over the years and dull the wood.
04:43Harsh, strong cleaners do the same.
04:46On wood, mild and gentle always.
04:49And whatever you use that is new to you,
04:52try it first in an out-of-the-way corner
04:54to be sure it does the floor no harm
04:56before you put it over the hole.
04:59Now the washing itself,
05:01done the way that spares both your floor and your back.
05:04You do not flood the whole floor at once.
05:06You work it in sections,
05:08a small patch at a time,
05:09so the water never sits and dries
05:11before you have wiped it.
05:13And the mop or cloth is wrung out well,
05:16near dry, damp, and not dripping,
05:18for this matters more than almost anything on a wood floor.
05:22Standing water is the great enemy of wood.
05:24It seeps into the seams and swells and warps
05:27and ruins the boards in time.
05:29So, wrung near dry,
05:31you wash your small section,
05:33going with the grain of the wood,
05:35not across it,
05:36for with the grain leaves it smooth and streakless.
05:39Then on to the next patch and the next.
05:42And here is the old trick
05:43that keeps you off your own clean work.
05:46You begin at the far corner,
05:48the point furthest from the door,
05:50and you wash your way backward toward the doorway.
05:52So you are always stepping onto dirty floor,
05:55never your fresh-washed boards,
05:57and you walk out the door at the last
05:59with the whole room clean behind you
06:01and never a footprint on it.
06:04And mind your water and your cloth as you go,
06:06for here is a thing folk forget,
06:09and so undo all their work.
06:11As you wash,
06:12your mop or cloth fills up with the dirt it lifts,
06:15and your bucket water goes gray and foul.
06:18And once they are dirty,
06:20you are no longer cleaning the floor,
06:22you are only spreading dirty water thin across it.
06:25So rinse your cloth often
06:27in a separate pail of clean rinsing water,
06:29and the moment your wash water turns gray and murky,
06:32out it goes and fresh warm water in.
06:36Clean water and a rinsed cloth,
06:37or you do no good at all.
06:39Keep a dry cloth to hand as well,
06:41to dry up any wet patch that lingers.
06:44For a floor left wet dries to streaks,
06:47and worse,
06:47a wet floor underfoot
06:49is how a great many folk come to a bad fall.
06:52So dry up behind yourself
06:53and never leave standing water to be stepped in.
06:56Now the honest word,
06:57for I always give it.
06:58There is a harder dirt
07:00that lives down in the lines between tiles,
07:02the grout,
07:03where the plain mop will not reach it,
07:05and a thin paste can be scrubbed
07:07into those lines to lift it.
07:09But heed me,
07:10for this is where care is wanted.
07:12Any scrubbing paste you use,
07:14test it first in a hidden spot,
07:16and never use a harsh or acid one
07:18on natural stone or marble,
07:20for it will etch and dull them for good.
07:22And this above all,
07:24the one rule that never bends in any cleaning,
07:26you never, ever mix your cleaners together.
07:30Not bleach with vinegar,
07:31not bleach with anything,
07:32nor one bottle with another,
07:34for mixing them can raise a poison gas
07:36off the floor that does real harm.
07:39One thing at a time,
07:40rinsed clean away before the next,
07:43gloves on your hands,
07:44and a window open.
07:46The old ways are gentle ways,
07:47but gentle is never the same as careless.
07:50And once a wood floor is clean and fully dry,
07:53there is an old kindness that keeps it lovely,
07:56and spares it the harsh cleaning altogether.
07:58Now and again,
08:00you feed it.
08:00A good wood floor was never meant to be scoured bare
08:03and left dry.
08:04A thin rub of a proper wood wax,
08:07or a little oil worked in,
08:09well buffed with a soft cloth,
08:11nourishes the wood,
08:13brings up a soft glow,
08:14and lays down a coat
08:15that turns the next spill
08:17and the next dusting,
08:18so the dirt sits on the wax
08:20and wipes away instead of grinding into the grain.
08:23A fed floor cleans easier every time after
08:27and lasts a lifetime longer.
08:29A floor washed and washed and never fed
08:32goes gray and thirsty
08:34and wears out before its time.
08:36Feed the wood,
08:37and it returns the kindness for years.
08:39And here is the last and the wisest,
08:42for it is worth all the rest together.
08:45The easiest floor to clean
08:46is the one that never got dirty.
08:49So you keep the dirt out at the door.
08:51A good mat or runner at every doorway
08:54from outside catches the worst of the grit
08:57before it ever walks in.
08:59And the old rule that saves more floor scrubbing
09:02than any trick on earth,
09:03shoes come off at the door.
09:05The whole of the street's grit and grime
09:08rides in on the soles of outdoor shoes
09:10and grinds into your floors with every step.
09:14Leave them at the door,
09:15go in stocking feet or house slippers,
09:17and you keep out nearly all the dirt
09:20before it ever lands.
09:21Put a bit of felt under the chair legs
09:23so they do not scratch,
09:25and keep a steady routine.
09:27A dry sweep every few days
09:29so the grit never builds,
09:30a proper wash but once a week,
09:32and you will find the floor never gets the chance
09:35to go truly filthy.
09:37Keep up with the little
09:39and you escape the great back-breaking job forever.
09:42And let me set it in the larger truth,
09:45for it has the shape you have come to know.
09:47There is a whole trade now
09:49in floors and their cleaning.
09:50A special bottle of cleaner
09:52for every kind of floor,
09:54a throwaway pad for the mop,
09:56and the floors themselves sold to wear out
09:59and be torn up and laid new
10:01every so many years.
10:02It is no plot and no one skeened it.
10:05It is only that a cupboard of special bottles,
10:08a box of throwaway pads,
10:10and a floor that wears out
10:11and must be replaced
10:13make a far better customer
10:14than a plain wood or stone floor
10:17kept sound for a lifetime
10:18with a broom, a little mild soap,
10:21a wrong cloth, and shoes left at the door.
10:24There is no fortune in a floor
10:26that lasts a hundred years.
10:27So the special bottles and the new floors
10:30get the telling,
10:31and the old plain way,
10:33sweep dry, wash light, rinse clean,
10:36dry behind you,
10:37and keep the dirt out at the door
10:39gets quietly left out.
10:41The cupboard of cleaners is what they sell.
10:44A broom, a bucket,
10:46a little soap well-rinsed,
10:47and a mat at the door
10:49are what the old folks simply had,
10:51and their floors stayed clean and whole
10:54and lovely for generations.
10:56So there is the whole of it.
10:58Sweep it bone dry first, always,
11:00for water on dry dirt
11:02makes only mud and glue.
11:04Wash with the littlest soap in warm water
11:06for too much dries sticky
11:08and draws the dirt straight back.
11:11Keep the harsh and the acid off your wood
11:13and test anything new in a corner.
11:16Ring the mop near dry,
11:18work in small sections with the grain,
11:20and wash backward from the far corner to the door.
11:23Rinse your cloth and change your water
11:26the moment it grays.
11:27Dry up behind you so none slips.
11:30Feed a wood floor now and then to keep it sound.
11:33Never mix your cleaners.
11:35And keep the dirt out with a mat and shoes off at the door,
11:39little and often,
11:40so the great job never comes.
11:42Do that and your floors come clean in half the time
11:46and stay lovely twice as long.
11:48Now, I want to hear from you.
11:50Tell me down below,
11:52which county are you watching from
11:53and how old is the house you keep?
11:56The old houses have the finest old wood
11:59and stone floors of all,
12:00the kind made to last a lifetime,
12:02and I should love to know who still walks on them.
12:05And tell me this too,
12:07is it the shoes-off rule in your house
12:09or do the boots come straight in off the street?
12:12For I think that one rule alone
12:15decides more than all the rest.
12:17For that is how the old ways stay alive,
12:19we pass them on.
12:21I read every word.
12:23It is a quiet satisfaction, is it not,
12:26to learn that a clean floor
12:27was never a matter of scrubbing harder,
12:30but of a few plain things done in the right order.
12:34The dry sweep first,
12:36the light hand with the soap,
12:38the dirt kept out at the door.
12:40And that done so,
12:42a good floor will stay lovely
12:44and last you a lifetime.
12:46The old folk walked on the same sound floors
12:49their whole lives long
12:51and kept them so with a broom and a little care.
12:55We very nearly forgot how.
12:57But it is a plain old wisdom still
13:00and it is a thing, I think,
13:03we are only just starting to remember.