The holiday season can be a busy time in your home. You may find yourself hosting a large dinner, having family members stop by to drop off gifts, or supervising extra playdates while your kids are off from school. Because of all this extra traffic, it’s particularly important to protect your home floors during the holiday season.
What can you do to keep your floors in mint condition despite the extra traffic and food spills? Use these 6 easy tips to protect floors in your home this holiday season:
1. Place a doormat inside your front door
Boots covered with snow and slush don’t just make your floors dirty. They also carry salt that can end up on your floors and damage them. To protect floors in your home from salt and other debris that gets tracked in, place a doormat just inside your front door. A well-placed doormat will absorb some of the water and debris from guests’ shoes. This will protect your floors from scratches and damage to the finish from salt stains.
2. Set up a boot tray
Using a door mat is a great first step to protect floors in your home during the holidays. But if your guests remove their boots and place them on your bare floors, residual water and debris can still end up damaging your floors. That’s why it’s useful to place boot trays at your front door. Boot trays give guests a place to leave wet boots and shoes without worrying about getting your floors dirty.
Note that if it’s particularly wet or snowy outside, some water may still end up on the floor around the boot tray. For this reason, it’s a good idea to place a small towel underneath the tray. This simple trick is an easy way to protect floors from drip marks.
3. Lay down area rugs
Don’t want to ask your guests to take off their shoes at the front door? Consider laying down area rugs in your home. Area rugs can be particularly useful in high-traffic places, such as hallways. They can also protect floors from spills if you place them in dining rooms and around tables or counters that you use to serve food.
4. Stick felt pads on furniture
You may be extremely careful when pulling out chairs and moving tables in your home. But your guests may not be. That’s why it’s useful to place felt pads on the bottom of chair legs and tables (if you haven’t already). These small felt pads can protect floors against scratches and scrapes.
5. Use a Christmas tree tray
Real Christmas trees look gorgeous in homes, but they can also damage your floors. To protect floors from the water used to sustain the tree, place a tree tray under it. You can also use a tree skirt that’s designed to catch needles to prevent them from falling on and scratching your floors.
6. Clean up spills immediately
When you’re entertaining lots of guests, it can be hard to spot spills as soon as they happen. However, to protect your floors against water damage and food spills, clean them up as soon as you notice them. As tired as you may be at the end of a party, resist the urge to let a spill sit until the morning. A few hours is all it takes for a spill to stain your floors permanently.
Use these simple tips to protect floors in your home while entertaining
Hosting family and friends over the holidays can be challenging. But protecting your floors while you entertain doesn’t have to be. Use the easy tips we’ve shared above to protect floors in your home from extra guests and holiday décor. They won’t take long to put in place, and they’ll save you money and headaches down the road.
Want to give one of your floors a makeover in the new year? We’ll help you achieve the right new look.
Schedule a complimentary consultation.