Work out what finish you have
Wooden floors are cleaned according to their finish, not their wood. There are three common ones. Lacquered (or varnished): the surface looks like a thin plastic film, water beads on it. Oiled: matt or satin, you can feel the grain, water slowly darkens it. Waxed: older floors mostly, soft sheen, a fingernail scratch shows wax.
The drop test settles it: put a single drop of water somewhere discreet. Beads and sits there for minutes: lacquered. Sinks in and darkens within a minute or two: oiled or waxed. This matters because water is fine on one and slow ruin on the others.
Never steam mop a wooden floor
Steam forces moisture into joints and under the finish, whatever the finish. Boards cup, edges lift, and no manufacturer covers it. The steam mop is for tiles.
Dry clean: where most of the work happens
Grit is the real enemy: every footstep grinds it into the finish like sandpaper. So the routine clean is dry: a soft-bristle broom or a vacuum with the hard-floor head (bristles down, beater bar off). Go with the grain of the boards and do the edges, where grit collects.
Do this twice a week in busy homes and most floors need little else. A £10 microfibre flat mop, used dry, picks up the fine dust a broom flicks around.
Protect while you're at it
Felt pads under furniture legs, a doormat at every outside door, and a no-outdoor-shoes habit will do more for the floor than any cleaning product ever made.
Damp clean, matched to the finish
When the floor needs more than dust removal: a barely damp microfibre mop, wrung until it's almost dry. The floor should be touch-dry within a minute of mopping. Any wetter and water finds the joints.
For lacquered floors, a splash of pH-neutral wood floor cleaner in the bucket (not washing-up liquid, which strips and streaks; not vinegar, which dulls lacquer over time). For oiled floors, use a wood soap made for oiled finishes; it cleans and feeds in one pass. Waxed floors dislike water full stop: dry clean only, and buff with a solid wax paste once or twice a year.
Marks and scuffs
Heel scuffs usually lift with a tennis ball or a pencil eraser. Sticky spots: the damp cloth, locally, dried straight after. A water-white ring on lacquer often fades with gentle hairdryer warmth. When bare wood shows through a worn patch, that's re-finishing territory, not cleaning territory.