[texmati]

I'm 25 years old.... and I realized last weekend that I don't now how to mop.

I just got married, and we bought a house with wood floors downstairs, and tiles in the master bathroom. We had the house cleaned when we bought it. So I hadn't really cleaned it after that.

This past weekend I spent nearly two house cleaning the bathroom floor. I tried to vaccum it, I tried the clorox swiffer thingy, and I finally ended up using a bucket and rag on my hands and knees, and (this is so disgusting) used the little green scrubby thing you wash dishes with and my nails to get the grimy spots off.

And it honestly wouldn't be so bad, except the floor is still DIRTY! I can't face the rest of the downstairs, so it just keeps getting worse and worse.

How do you do it? How do you guys mop?

 

[superstella]

I only have one very small room that needs mopped (my tiny bathroom) so I just use a bucket and hands and knees and an old rag. Some vinegar, water, and TTO, and away we go!

 

[mightymoo]

I use a swiffer (old style, not wetjet) and I wet a rag and dunk it in soap in the sink and put it on, wash the floor, then switch to a non-soap wet rag and rinse and then dry with a towel.

 

[iamama]

Hand, knees and some elbow grease. I have had all kinds of mops but my floor get cleanest this way.

 

[Snowdrift]

Bucket, vinegar, warm water, rag. Hands and knees. I don't do it very often

: because it is a lot of work, but a string mop is the only effective mopping method I've found and it's too messy for me, plus I can't figure out how to squeeze it out (I came to love string mops cleaning my dad's restaurant years ago, but it had the industrial bucket thing). Swiffers and sponger-type mops just never seems to work for me.

 

[LianneM]

me too - vinegar water and hands and knees. I usually grab some washcloths and a spray bottle of vinegar water, and clean each tile

It's a lot of work

but regular mops just don't work as well.

I'm going to try the swiffer rag idea - thanks mightymoo!

 

[Village Mama]

I prefer the hands and knees method myself. I just finished mine a minute ago. I used a natural orange peel cleaner, a squirt of dr bronners and a few drops of essential oil. I scrub first with a scrub brush ( we have this pitted lino stuff in our rental kitchen) and then I wipe it clean with a cloth.

 

[kellid]

I use a Libman Mop here with water/vin/a little Dr. Bronners and then I "dry" it with my Real Simple Microfiber thing here. Both can get thrown in the wash.

 

[KariM]

If I want to do a quick mopping I'll use the sponge mop, but for a thorough cleaning nothing can beat a bucket, some rags, and gettin' down on your hands & knees!

 

[Naturalyst]

Quote:

Originally Posted by mightymoo I use a swiffer (old style, not wetjet) and I wet a rag

... with a mixture of vinegar and water (50/50) with a little liquid castile soap. I don't have to rinse when I use this solution and I let it air dry. This is my process for tile floors and what makes it easy is that I do it often, at least every other day, so that it is never allowed to get very dirty.

For my wood floors, I also use a rag on my swiffer except that my solution is water and Murphy's Oil Soap. I don't wash my wood floors often because the less water on wood, the better. I do vacuum them regularly and run over them with a dust mop every other day. Again, the more often I do it, the easier it is.

 

[KMK_Mama]

All of my house is tile except for the bedrooms.....so the hands and knees thing would NEVER work! I usually use my Libman Wonder Mop with a bucket of water/Dr.Bronners/ or vinegar/or dish soap/ or whatever I have handy. Sometimes I use my tile scrubber but I find it to be a hassle because you need to refill the water so much and the baby is afraid of it.

 

[oneKnight]

I use a regular string mop, bucket of water with some kind of cleaner in it. Scrub good rince and maybe do it again depending on how it looks. I do it about once a month I guess.

My mom was a stickler for this huge mop day: mopping twice and waxing like 6 coats at least twice a year - that has never happened in my married life. I really don't think she ever did a quick mop more regularly, it was always just one big ordeal.

 

[texmati]

Sorry for not getting back to you all earlier, and thanks so much for all the responses. It makes me feel much better that a lot of people do get on their hands and knees.

I'm going to try some of these suggestions this weekend before my first dinner party.

 

[cristeen]

For the tile, I use a stiff scrub brush and water as hot as I can stand it. I also have a gardening pad thing to kneel on so I don't kill my knees on the tile.

A Magic Eraser also does a good job on those tough spots. Out tile is that "natural" kind with a textured surface which means it's both harder to identify dirt and harder to clean. The Magic Erase does a great job on it. Works great on the grout, too.

For the hardwood (tile in the bathroom and carpet in the sun room, hardwood in the rest of the house), I have a Hoover Floor Mate. It's like an upright vacuum. You spray hot water (you can use cleaner, but I usually go without and just use water as hot as I can make it) onto the floor, and then you vacuum it up. Much easier and quicker than trying to mop it AND you're not putting dirty water back onto the already cleaned floor. I can usually do 2 rooms before I have to refill and empty the water containers.

 

[MissMommyNiceNice]

I would never use anything regularly on wood floors but white vinegar & hot water. Maybe once or twice a year I would use a special wood cleaner, but other than that, white vinegar won't leave a residue. None of my houses have ever had nice new wood floors, only the old fashioned gap-filled kind, but I love them. I would sweep twice, mop, then sweep again. When I got a Kirby, I would vacuum it instead of sweeping every time.

For tile, which unfortunately, my whole house is now

, I use ecos orange clean diluted to the mopping mixture, very weak to avoid having to mop with water to rins the cleaner.

I prefer the sponge roller mop that has a scrubber on one side and the plain sponge on the other. It is refillable, so you just need to get a new head once a year or something.

Ironically, I hate & loathe most house work but actually like mopping.

 

[texaspeach]

bathroom and kitchen I get down on my hands and knees and scrub. sometimes if the floor isn't too gross I'll just use a sponge mop. I've only mopped the wood floors once, they're waxed floors and getting them wet isn't good

 

[zeldabee]

Quote:

Originally Posted by kellid I use a Libman Mop here with water/vin/a little Dr. Bronners and then I "dry" it with my Real Simple Microfiber thing here. Both can get thrown in the wash.

That's my mop, and I've been eying the microfiber thingy. For vinyl I'll just used water and vinegar, maybe with some lavender EO. For the wood, I sometimes use Murphy's Oil Soap, just because...I always have, and I like the smell. I used to have a scrub brush on a long handle, so I wouldn't have to get down on hands-n-knees, but I don't have one now and don't seem to need it.

The bathroom floor is the only one that seems to need scrubbing, and I just use a scrub brush on that. It's a tiny bathroom, so it's not a big deal. Whoever thought white textured vinyl in the bathroom was a good idea ought to be shot, IMO.

I dry the floor after mopping, which makes all the difference. I have some Gerber birdseye diapers that I've only ever used as rags, and I put one under each foot and scootch around.

 

[Marni]

Quote:

Originally Posted by zeldabee I dry the floor after mopping, which makes all the difference. I have some Gerber birdseye diapers that I've only ever used as rags, and I put one under each foot and scootch around.

I agree -- "drying" is the key (to not showing streaks on wood floors AND to not damaging them with residue water). Wood floors should NEVER be left to "dry" on their own (like tile can) -- or you will eventually destroy them.

I break the floor up into sections, then use a sponge mop dipped into distilled vinegar and water (1:3). Before moving on the next section, I get on HANDS AND KNEES and swirl the area with old clean towels or diapers until it is dry. Then squeeze the dirty mop into the sink (not back into the vinegar bucket), rinse with fresh water, and dip again into vinegar for the next section. My floors sparkle!

 

[LolaPop]

I live in a huge loft with all hardwood floors and tiled bathrooms. I am going to sound like a commercial here, but the Bissell Steam Mop has changed my life!!! I used to get on my hands and knees and scrub, not any more. You can get it at hsn.com, sometimes they sell out though because it is THAT GOOD!! It is fast, easy, safe on sealed hardwood floors, dries super fast and uses NO chemicals. You can watch a demo of it on the website. I am telling you this mop ROCKS!!

 

[bigeyes]

we have bamboo floors in most of the house and ceramic tile in the rest. I use the clorox version of the swiffer, but I carry a scrub-brush on a stick for the stubborn spots. I'm also a fan of murphy's oil soap, but for now with the kids helping the swiffer (whatever it's called) scrubber combo is easier.

In my younger days I did the hands and knees scrub, but with fibromyalgia I just can't get down on the floor any more with a reasonable expectation of getting up again.