Clean Your Floors for Healthy, Odor-Free Feet

We put a lot of attention on our feet and footwear when we try to avoid foot odor. Clean socks, fresh shoes, and dry, well-cared-for feet are all on the to-do list, but guess what? Our floors have a pretty big say in the health of our feet too. Learn about the ways we can care for our feet by caring for our floors. 

If you are the average person, mopping and sweeping are things you put off. Vacuuming is probably not on your to-do list every day either. Let this article be a reminder that getting serious about scrubbing the floor until you could eat off of it is just as important as scrubbing your feet each day. It should be a household cleaning ritual. While it’s okay to skip once in a while, regular cleaning will eliminate the build of bacteria, dirt, and grime that can catch on our feet and create problems. Here’s a breakdown of floor cleaning advice to get you started. 

• At least wipe the floor down every few days with a Swiffer or broom. It doesn’t have to take long. Just do a quick sweep to get the more significant, visible material out of the way. Then grab a little dust devil and spot vacuum the carpets. 

• Once per week, vacuum everything that has carpet. Sweep all the hard floors. Mop bathroom and kitchen floors. Gently pull the larger furniture away from the walls, and just drag a broom along the baseboards to keep build-up from hiding from you. Then, wash all floor mats – bathroom, shower, kitchen, wherever you have mats, wash them to keep moisture and dirt from making a home. 

• Once per month, do everything listed here, plus some. Tilt the furniture and clean underneath the couches and chairs. Get a washcloth wet and run it along the baseboards to get grime that managed to stick around. Take rugs outside to beat them or throw them in the wash. If you put on some killer tunes and keep working at a good pace, you’ll finish a five-bedroom home in about an hour, so take some advice from Nike and just do it. 

• Two to three times a year, depending on your environment and activity level, a seasonal cleaning should take about half a day. Whether you buy, borrow, or rent a wet-vac, or whether you decide to hire a professional, steam clean the carpeted floors. Then wax the wood floors. Get a heavy-duty cleaner, there are professional scrubbers out there, to not only clean tiled floors, but to get that grout looking bright and new again. 

• Once a year, more if you find it’s needed, replace mats and rugs throughout the house. If you take good care of your floors, carpets only need to be replaced every 5-10 years depending on wear and tear. Rugs and mats, however, are intentionally placed in high-traffic areas. That means they hold the brunt of the dirt we carry into the house, and they end up with the most damage. Once they are dirty, they end up helping to spread grime by depositing soil and particles back onto us as we walk over them. 

• If you have furry pets, like cats for dogs, the frequency of your floor cleaning may need to increase just a little, but you decide based on the season, what they may be tracking in, and whether they are blowing their coat. 

• If you have allergies, you may want to do this a lot more often. Pollen and other environmental allergens are just some of the things that can get in your home and stay there if you don’t actively clean them up. 

Finally, remember to choose cleaners that are safe for pets and green, meaning they are natural and won’t be harmful to you and your family if inhaled, walked or crawled on. You can always keep a stash of the harsh cleaners nearby for the really dirty jobs and hard-to-clean stains. But if you are regularly cleaning those floors, the green cleaners will be the most useful for you. 

Last tip: everyone has that one weird friend who loves to clean and organize. Seek them out. Offer them a six-pack or pizza and some quality time. Call on them to help you if the job is big and you hate cleaning. Work like this is always better with a friend, a great playlist, and a few laughs. ProTip: Use our FOOT SENSE all-natural foot odor powder formula to help you fight foot odor and keep your floors fresh. Sprinkle just a little near doorways and in high traffic areas to keep carpets and rugs free from moisture build-up in spring and summer, or as needed. Our powerful formula is designed to eliminate odor-causing problems on your feet, as well as equipement, foot apparel, and even flooring.