Wooden floors and rugs

[EarSlaps]

We're hopefully moving soon into a house with wooden floors throughout, and obviously we will want to add rugs in the living areas.

What is the best way to keep all of that clean? Our current ancient vacuum cleaner needs to be switched between carpet and hard floor setting, and I can see that being a massive pain. Is it worth getting a new vacuum cleaner or should I just occasionally vacuum the rugs and sweep the rest of the house? And what about cleaning the wood- a steam mop, microfibre mop or similar?

I have two very messy children so sweeping will be a very regular occurence- I hate the feel of crumbs and dirt underfoot and dust bunnies! Luckily no pets to clean up after though.

What you might mostly need, is some underlay for the rugs to stop them sliding around when people walk on them.

Ikea does a great kind of mesh which solves the problem perfectly.

As for cleaning, I would suggest shaking out the rugs , leaving them outside. Vacuum the floor while the rugs are away.

I have rugs that fit into my washing machine. In fact, I have two identical rugs so I rotate them. I shake them outside, hoover under and put them back.

You can get expensive wood cleaner, but the best is soap flakes, it's cheap and makes the floors smell really clean. Use a mop, if the floors ar varnished. If they are not varnished, a soft scrubbing brush and a cloth to wipe off excess moisture.

I have old wooden floors throughout the house with rugs.

What kind of wooden floors will you have - and what sort of rugs?

PS - in particular, what sort of sealant (if any) shall you have on the wood?

It's a modern house and it looks like real wood flooring (not laminate) but I don't know if it's engineered or not. Looks varnished to my non expert eye!

Rugs will be what we can afford! So a few polypropylene ones and hopefully a few real wool ones too, nothing too long pile.

I've got some Ikea underlay stuff in a box in the garage so hopefully that will be enough for a couple of them.

I would highly recommend vacuuming the wood floor. Fleas & dust mites can lay dormant in the cracks in the floor for up to 6 months.

An upright with a brushroll on/off feature or a cylinder with a suction only floor tool would be best for cleaning wood floors as the rotating brushroll on an upright or turbo brush will scratch the floor.

When you say your current vacuum has to be switched between carpet and hard floor settings, most vacuums still have that & some uprights don't have a hard floor setting at all so I would hang on to what you have if it cleans both floors well. My in laws have a Sebo Felix that has a button to go from hard floor to carpet.