How to Sterilize with a Floor Steam Cleaner

A floor steam cleaner is a green way to sterilize your floors. Whether it's the kitchen, living room, or bathroom, everyone has at least 1 room in their home that desperately needs to be cleaned. The neat thing about steam cleaners is that you don't have to buy soap or disposable mopping pads. If you want to really sterilize your hard surface floors, the floor steam cleaner is the way to go.

Things You'll Need

• Distilled water
• Electricity

Instructions

1. Sweep the floor with your regular broom. Although this step isn't 100% necessary, it does help your floor steam cleaner get down to business and forget about picking up debris. You could even use a floor duster to make your life a bit easier.

2. Fill the floor steam cleaner with distilled water. You could use tap water, but distilled is easier on the machine and doesn't leave a mineral residue on your floors.

3. Plug in the floor steam cleaner and prime it. Depending on the design, that probably means you need to press down on the handle a few times, or pull a trigger. Typically, 10 or 15 times is enough. Then, just wait for it to start steaming. Again, depending on the model, it could be as little as 30 seconds.

4. Push the floor steam cleaner slowly back and forth across your floor. Use a slow, deliberate motion to make sure you sanitize every inch properly. This also helps break up stuck-on particles and lift them off.

Tips & Warnings

• Although the floors dry very quickly, they might be slightly damp, so use caution when you or your family walk around.