When we moved into this house, the carpets were trashed from renters who had lived here before.  By trashed, I mean they were so bad that the flooring installation crew was appalled, and they have seen some pretty bad stuff. 

I was so disgusted by the shape the carpet was in that I swore I would never have carpet in my home again.  Instead, we installed laminate flooring in every room of the house, a decision I quickly came to regret. 

The variety of cleaners designed for laminate flooring is truly amazing.  There seems to be no end to the ways you can blow money when you have laminate floors, and marketing teams count on this when they try to sell you special products.

Laminate floors are exceptionally difficult to keep looking clean and new, especially if you do something ridiculous like, say, walk on them.  We have several kids, dogs and a pet door though, so of course our floors get more abuse than the floors of a quiet retired couple, but no amount of preventive measures help keep this floor looking good for more than a few minutes.

One thing I have learned is that special cleaners designed for laminate floors are pretty much a waste of money.  After seeing my mother-in-law’s beautiful laminate floors, I asked her what her secret was.  Are you ready for this?  She cleans using only water.  No chemicals, no special cleaning tools, just water and a rag.  Her floors are immaculate, with never a water spot or cleaning film to be seen.

Since I started doing it her way, my floors have looked just as good, if not better, than they did when I used cleaners, and we sure save a lot of money and hassle in cleaning them.  So if you have been struggling with keeping your laminate floors looking new, stop buying cleaners and throwing money at the problem.  Instead, just simplify.