How dirty is your floor? Studies show that you probably shouldn’t be following the “five second rule” whether your food drops onto a wooden floor or carpeting. Although the bacteria found on these surfaces won’t necessarily make you sick, they have the potential to — and on surfaces that have been contaminated, up to 10,000 bacteria per square centimeter are still alive eight hours later.

While you might realize that floors aren’t substitute plates, there could still be some floor cleaning tips you haven’t been made aware of. What’s the secret to keeping your home’s floors sparkling clean? Here are a few tips you should keep in mind.

1. Eliminate Clutter

When you have furniture and knick-knacks taking up space all along the edges of your room, dust tends to build up more quickly on all your tightly-packed furniture. The more open space you have on the floor, the easier it will be to clean around it, and the fewer gross surprises you’ll have when you finally run a broom under your many shelving units.

2. Keep Shoes Away From the Floor!

No matter what type of floor you have, it’s not getting cleaner from people walking all over it. Do you enforce a “shoes off” rule in the house? If not, it’s time to start. Not only does this keep dirt and mud off the floor, but it also prevents shoes from grinding in dirt and grit that wear down and dull your floor with tiny scratches. Keep a basket or tray by the door for shoes, and perhaps house slippers for indoor wear.

3. Use the Right Cleaning Solutions

What works great for your wood floor isn’t friendly to your laminate, and visa versa. Using the correct cleaning solutions for each floor type can make a vast difference in how clean they stay. For cleaning rubber flooring, for example, you should only be using rubber floor cleaning products. Products intended for other floor types can end up damaging and degrading the surface, cutting the life of your floor. This is also true for indoor sports surfaces.

Do you have any tips for cleaning rubber, or other common floor types? Let us know in the comments. Continue.