What is the one thing you hate most about your wood and carpet flooring? Is it the cleanup? I would think so. With wood, you have to be extremely careful. You don’t want to use water, as that could warp the floor. You need to use a wood polish, mopping with it as you would linoleum flooring. Once you’ve polished it, you must be doubly careful that no one steps on it, or the finishing could be ruined and brown coloring tromped through the remainder of the house. With carpet, you vacuum regularly, hoping that it’s enough, but knowing that it’s not. Every few months you have to shampoo the rugs as well, and that is a task. You must either clear out all of the furniture or prop it up on little blocks. Then you shampoo. Then you wait. When it is finally dry, you feel that you’ve accomplished . . . nothing, at least nothing of note. It is a frustrating and taxing process. Fortunately, when you have ceramic tile, granite or marble flooring, the same is not true.

All three materials are relatively easy to take care of and up keep. Assuming you have them installed properly (which often means hiring a professional), they will last you the duration of your home, and cost you no more grief than an initial seal - you want to seal the grout about thirty days after installation - and the occasional mop. But don’t get too secure in thinking of how easy the three are to clean and maintain; you still have to consider exactly which material you opted for and act accordingly.

If you installed ceramic tiling, your cleaning will start with a dry sweep. This is to get all of the excess junk off the floor from stray hairs to fallen cheerios to forgotten change. Once swept, you will damp mop using warm water and a disinfecting solution. Try one cup of ammonia with a gallon of water. If there are any stubborn stains on your tile, use a scrubbing pad to get them out. Your floor can handle it, and it will be the most difficult thing you have to do when cleaning, provided you remember to NEVER use a wax or soapy solution on the tile. If you do that, you will that your woes outnumber your tiles.

If you installed granite or marble, you will have to clean them even less frequently than the tile, which requires the sweep and mop only once every few weeks. With granite and marble, you begin by taking a soft brush and removing any dust from the surface. You will want to do this fairly regularly, say once a week or when you begin to notice small dust bunnies obscuring the beauty of your floor. Every once in a while, you will want to damp mop the floor; however, do not use the same solution you would for ceramic tiling. You want to mop with a neutral cleaner, which you can get at any local ceramic dealer. Once you have mopped and the floor has fully dried, you can apply a marble polish to protect the finish. And you are good to go.

Marble, granite and ceramic tile are three of the easiest to maintain floorings available. There’s no extra steps, hidden surprises or looming disasters. A sweep and a mop, on occasion, are all you need to do to keep things pristine and perfect.