Help! My Kitchen Floor Is Driving Me Nuts!

I understand where you are coming from...I hate a dirty floor too. (oh and ignore anyone that wants to say you have "other" problems!) I would definitely look into a different form of cleaning. I have heard wonders about the Hoover thing mentioned and there are other brands too I believe. I have not invested in one yet, but have not ever had a house that had a lot of un-carpeted floor until now (we just moved 2 weeks ago). I will be looking into them now though! Normally I have just used the swiffer sweeper and then the wet jet. Now I have a lot more tiles to keep clean and will have to look into other forms of doing that.

I hope you find something that works for you...Good luck!

I love my Hoover Floormate. I know my floor is clean after I use it. It mops it and sucks up all the dirty water rather than just moving it around.

I can't remember the last time I got on my hands and knees to clean mine. Maybe you could change the flooring so that the dirt doesn't show...

I vacuum my tile floors. I spot clean any messes, and I only wash the floor thoroughly about once/month, because the spot cleaning works really well. Good luck.

I recently moved into a new home with lots of tile. The woman who owned it told me she loved her Hoover Floor Mate. I got one and I love it! It vacuums and then you put a cleaner in it - one made by Hoover - It has fairly powerful scrubbers that go round and round and then it sucks up all the water again. I couldn't believe how brown and disgusting the water was once sucked back up. I love it. If you do it once a week, that should do it. If you want it done more than that, you're obsessing. Floormate: http://www.bedbathandbeyond.com/product.asp?order_num=-1&...

Also, we don't wear shoes in the house. That helps a lot!

Good luck.

Unfortunately I don't have any answers because I have the EXACT same problem & I need help too! My problem is that I have about 1,000 sqft of stained concrete. When I had it done the guy told me I didn't have to do anything to clean it just sweep - which made absolutely no sense to me so I mopped anyway. Like you, Ive found that the mop just swishes the dirt around & so does the swifter. I've tried on my hands & knees & it's just to much & even in small areas it seems as tho I just can't get the dirt up. I have a few small grease spots near the stove so I went out & bought 2 different steamers & neither worked in getting the grease or dirt up.... I'm so stumped because my daughter is walking now & her little socks & feet get filthy from the floor! It's disgusting to me to think about her crawling & walking on a dirty floor that I can't get clean. I'm seriously considering renting one of those heavy duty scrubber/polishers that you see them using in places like the airport, Lowes & the Walmart or Target stores. Does anybody know of any solution that safe for the stain (and of course my daughter)that really cleans & lifts the dirt??? I need help too & figure w/as many people in Austin that have stained concrete floors SOMEBODY must know how to REALLY clean these floors without having to scrub 1,000 sqft inch by inch on my dog-gone hands & knees! :)
Thanks & sorry for redirecting your request towards me but when I read your email, it felt as tho' I was looking in on my life & I need the same help only on stained concrete.
M.

I'm not sure what kind of floor you have, but for my tile/grout kitchen floor I do the following, after sweeping the foors(really good)I mix in a bucket with hot water, borax- not too much, vinegar, and clorox liquid cleaner with bleach and after mixing I pour it on the floor and start scrubing it with a Libman brush/scrubber I bought at Walmart, it's green & white with a pole just like a broom so you don't have to get on your hands & knees, the hard bristles from the brush & the hot water mixture removes all the dirt from the grout and tile even dried food and stains. After I'm finished scrubbing the whole floor I use my Libman mop to pick up the excess water, I rinse the mop in the sink with hot water( as hot as your hands can manage)every time I pass it on the floor until I have picked up all the water and then give the floor another 'rinse' with the mop, now that part takes me longer than the scrubbing but is well worth it to see my floors clean & shiny.
The borax leaves a light sparkle on the floors and mix with the clorox bleach it whitens the grout. I have been doing this for years now and my grout looks almost like the first day we bought our house(new).
Since this is a deep cleaning you will not have to do this everyday. Hope this helps you out!

wow, ummmm, w/o actually seeing your kitchen floor I would probably have to agree with your husband. I know that some floors tend to show dirt more easily, and some finishes clean more easily, but I've never had a floor (I've had lots) that I felt compelled to spend that much time on. I usually just sweep, spot clean w/ a wet rag for spills/sticky spots and occasionally mop or
clean the whole floor on my hands and knees. Unless you have infants that are spending lots of time on that floor it probably doesn't need to be cleaned that often.
Just my opinion...

I'm going to address the "who will???" A few years ago when my ex-husband and I were still married and he was in the military, we lived in base houseing. We had those ugly tile floors like they have in Wal-mart, but without the shine, throughout the house. I would scrub the kitchen and livingroom on my hands and knees every day. And of course the husband and kids would track it right back up. So I decided to go on strike! Yes, I said it! I went on STRIKE!!! I refused to do any house work, and I refused to wash dishes. I would cook IF someone cleaned the kitchen and that included the floor. After a few days of them only eating Ramen Noodles, they started cleaning up the kitchen so I would cook. For 2 weeks, I didn't lift a finger to clean anything. Finally, he got tired of the house being a mess and he and the kids cleaned one day. Guess what I did?? Took the dog walking through some not so clean areas and we tracked it right on the floor. You should have heard my husband. He had a fit. Telling sounded just like me when he would do the same thing. After a few minutes, he stopped and looked at me. He told me...."I get it. You work your butt off to clean up and we make a mess." Keeping my floors clean was much easier after that.

What type of floor? I'm concerned why it needs cleaning two to three times a day (scrubbed.)

First, what kind of flooring do you have (tile, vinyl, wood)? Vinyl is the toughest to keep clean. We tore ours out and just stained the concrete underneath. Second, I have a really good vacuum cleaner that works on bare floors. I use a swiffer wet to clean daily and it works pretty well. My secret weapon is my "floor towel". I keep it in the corner and if there are any small spills, I grab it with my foot and swipe it up right away before it turns into a sticky mess. I do still have to resort to getting on hands and knees occasionally. It has been much better since we got rid of the old flooring. Hope this helps. Cleaning the floor is absolutely my least favorite thing to do.

I use a string mop and HOT water. No soap. Soap residue will attract dirt. The string mop works really well but I agree to get it really clean you must scrub on hands and knees. I hate tile!!

Hope this idea will help it did me.
Most of the electric carpet shampoo machines have a floor attachment on them. I have used it on my floors. It scrubs, and gets up the water and the floor dry's fast.

what kind of floor do you have?

Make your husband pitch in, or make him buy you one of those steam cleaners for kitchen floors for Christmas!

H.O. we had beautiful tile installed in the kitchen, dining and living areas. The installers told me something my daughter-in-law had already told me about, plain white vinegar. Clean with diluted vinegar. I NEVER use an old fashioned mop these days as I see them as germ spreaders. Even using vinegar I still use the swifter idea, or a cloth on the end of the swifter head. I used to be obcessive about cleaning, then accepted that clean doesn't have to be as hard as I was making it. You might even consider changing your floor covering. If that is out of the question, Home Depot / Lowe's have something to redo your grout color if that is the main issue. Life is too short to let cleaning become a thorn in your homelift. You have several very good ideas, grab one or two and relax.

Try a Shark steam mop!

Floors are the evil pits! Especially tile floors in my opinion. I have a white tile floor so when it rains and shoes are wet it gets really nasty. On those days I'll leave it till it's dry outside before I beat my head against the wall trying to keep it clean. On non-rainy days I mop about once a week and spot clean in between. I vacuum it about every other day. I'm thinking about giving up my dirt pushing mop for wet jet or something but I haven't decided yet. Maybe you should try one.

What bothered me about what you wrote is how often you're worrying about it. It's a floor that gets walked on. By yucky dirty shoes. I've tried to let myself obsess about this too since I have a crawling age child, but I just can't see beyond the reason that it's STILL A FLOOR. You will never be able to get it sanitary and keep it that way. The first time you walk through it, it will be dirty again. I think you need to turn your attention away from the floor a little. From your message/question it seems like it's taking up way, way, way too much of your time. And you seem really stressed out and obsessive about it. There are better things to worry about.

Your husbands right, you are being eccentric about it but he should be helping you rather than picking on you about it. Stop washing his underwear till he mops the floor for you.
Take a breather!
:-)
Jen
http://www.mommysjoy.com

Hi There,

I have a friend who swears by the Shark steamer. She said it sucks up all the dirt and cleans the grout too! I haven't bought one yet because they are a bit pricey (close to $100 I think) but she LOVES it! I think you can get it (or something very similar at Bed Bath and Beyond and use the 20% off coupon they send in the mail).
I have nasty nasty grout too and I plan on painting mine a dark color.

Good luck!

yes I agree the kitchen floor is perpettual work. What works for me is to use a Shark steam cleaner and then spot clean what it missed.
good luck:)

Dear HO, I can relate,I am 64, married at 16,divorced at 38, and no one ever offered to do my floors either. I have white viynal(know it's spelled wrong;o) that I stupidly installed when I could get down on my knees!Anyways... Get yourself a Swifter Wet Jet, forget about the flimsy throw away cloths.Buy a pack of Microfiber dishtowels(Walmart has a 4 pack of really bright colors) Use these instead.I wet mine first and wring it out really tight throw it on the floor and stick the mop on top of it and I am off to the races. Same process for using Mop and Glow just clean floor first then use a clean cloth. These cloths can be thrown in the washing machine and they are ready to go again.About twice a year I use Armstrong floor stripper using the same method.The spray you get for the swifter last a really long time as you always wet the cloth first.Also you can just use water, no chemicals to worry about.if I was left with nothing to clean with I would want my micro fiber cloth!!Good Luck!

I don't know what kind of mop you have but the one I have is great. It is flat and it has towel covers which are washable. You can find it at SEARS Hardware store in Panter Creek. I still have to do the edges/borders by hand every now and then. It is great, specially if you tend to clean your floors more than once.

I have to sweep our kitchen floor at least 3 times a day but every since I bought the swiffer wet jet it has made the time spent on hands and knees go down to once or twice a month it's 20 dollars for the initial kit and the refills are 4$ for the liquid and 7 for the pads but it is soo much better than a mop! I love mine and since it has a small motor that sprays the liquid my husband will even use it once in a while!

My husband bought me a Hoover machine that does hard wood and tile floors....I love it! My grout is even getting back to its original color. We got ours at Costco but they do have a retail store off of San Pedro. The cost is about $100.00. It is worth it!

I have tile in the kitchen. I have found that I can use my steam cleaner in there. To keep the grout clean I use the hose. Mine has two different peice that I can use to clean the floor. I use the one that is that doesn't spin. I had some grout cleaner that I bought that I used. Then I figured out that I could use tide and some bleach and get my tile looking great again. Since the steam vac can be load I do little sections in the kitchen.

I am assuming you have some type of vinal flooring not tile. I do belive that 2-3 times a day scrubbing the floor on your hands and knees is a bit eccentric also. If you must have a super clean floor then I would do it at the end of the day only once. Try to move it back to once a week, then once a month. I have also thought about scrubbing our floor because its so dirty and I agree the mop just gets the top layer off but by the end of the chore its just moving the dirt around. I hear that a steam mop works wonders. I have been wanting one for a while. Hoping I will get it for Christmas!! Best to find out from the manufacture what is the best way of caring for the floor.

2 or 3 times a day??? OMGosh! I hate floors too. I wipe up spills immediately and then vacuum maybe once a month or everything 3 weeks and mop with vinegar. If you vacuum first you should not be pushing anything around when you mop.
Beginning when my kids were in 3rd grade or so I would pay them to vacuum, cause Ihate it so bad. They loved earning extra money and would do it for cheap.
sometimes I will sweep in between vacuuming, but not often. Relax and try to focus on the feeling in your home being content and happy rather than the condition of your floor.
In years to come the kids and family will remember the atmosphere of your home and not the condition of the floor.

You may just hafta get "stern" w/your hubby. That's what I've had to do. Before marriage, he was SOOOOO helpful...did everything w/o me having to ask. After marriage...seems to have developed housekeeping amnesia. So, what I've started doing is saying stuff like "are you finished w/that wadded up papertowel/napkin you've left on the stove/counter?" if he says 'yes' then I'll say, "well will you come throw it away since you're finished w/it." & say it in a tone that means 'now' not later. Or if he doesn't clean the stove after making a mess cooking I'll say the same type thing "since you're not really busy, will you come clean up the mess you've made while cooking, I'm tired of looking at it." If he argues (which he usually doesn't) I'll say, "you cooked & made the mess, I shouldn't hafta clean it up...I didn't make the mess--YOU did" & he'll usually clean it up eventually but more often than not I still end up doing it sometimes. You may hafta assign days of the week for him to do the cleaning like M-W-F he cleans & T-TH-Sat you clean & on Sundays, switch off. Tell him what you told us & just be firm that you have to get on your hands/knees to scrub the floor but if he would clean up messes right away when he makes them, you wouldn't haft work so hard & get 'down' in your back or cause you to get arthritis eventually because he's acting like a boy who can't clean up after himself. (of course you should use discretion on how you tell him but BE FIRM about it!). Good luck!

A steam mop is the way to go. They are wonderful to use and gets the floor so clean. Also, because it is steam the floor is truly clean. And no chemicals! Plus, while it cleans the floor, it also dries right away so you don't have to keep your family out of an area because the floors are wet. I have very severe allergies and need to maintain my floors as well as keep myself away from the dirt and dust. I am also sensitive to chemicals and most cleaners. I use the Shark mop to get my floors clean. I also use a canister steamer to clean everything in my home. I can get my bathrooms and kitchen so clean without having to scrub and get down on the floor. Also, I don't have to worry that I didn't get something rinses well enough because I am not using cleaners. The steam cleans and disinfects. The canister steamer is also great for getting pots and pans clean. You can blast the steam on a pan and get all the baked-on stuff off quick and easy. No more scrubbing. It even works to get the barbecue grill back to gleaming. I got both my mop and canister steamer as a set at Sam's Club for around $80.

I agree with your husband. Unless you run a day-care center in your kitchen I can't understand why it's necessary to get on your hands and knees 3 to 4 times a day to clean the floor. If you think the mop in not working, then get a push broom to scrub with, but I think the problem is not so much the floor as it is you. You sound like you should see a doctor. Is the kitchen floor the only thing you are obsessed with? You need some help and it's not the soap and water kind.

I bought the new H20 mop and love it. It make floor cleaning a breeze. It uses hot steam and gets up the mess from my two rugrats! They are always spilling something that I find later. I bought it at Linens and Things but you can probably find it other places too.

Hoover Floor mate is the way to go!!!

Ok, we have the ugliest grout between our tile and I hate it. I would get a jack hammer and take it out and put in linoleum in a heartbeat, but we're saving up. It never looks clean, but in an attempt to get it a little cleaner, I've enlisted the aid of my children and a bucket of mild soapy water with toothbrushes to scrub the grout. My six year old actually asks to do this chore if it hasn't been done in awhile and likes getting a quarter in the piggy bank for his 15min of trouble. The whole floor doesn't get done at a time but it helps me out a little. Good luck!

For a light vacuuming of ceramic tile, I use a Swival Sweeper. Although I have a bad back, I can operate that very easily. However, my maid who is very healthy uses it too.
As for grout, don't try cleaning it, paint it. I have done this several times over the years and it is very effective. Go to a home store in the grout section. It comes in several colors including white. The first time I repainted it, it was to change to a darker color. I have done some myself so know it is easy and fast. Use a small brush or toothbrush. If you are worried about sanitation, you might clean it with bleach first.
The paint costs $8+ and goes a long way. You should be able to do a regular kitchen floor in an hour or so. If you are worried about keeping it clean, get some cheap plastic drop clothes and put over the floor for a few hours.
Good luck.

I have 3 small children and a dog so my floors have seen their share of messes, but I'm guessing based on what you say you do regularly to clean your floors and what your other responders have said that either my family is not as messy as I think they are or I'm not nearly as concerned about the cleanliness of my floors as others. This is what works for me....I have a small vacuum (a Bissell Easyvac) that I keep handy to use in the kitchen after my kids have eaten to pick up the crumbs as well as any dog hair, craft project spills, dried playdoh, etc. I run the vacuum in the kitchen once or twice a day, but it only takes a couple of minutes each time. Then once a week I use a steam mop to actually clean the floor. That's it. On vacuum only days I probably spend a total of 5 or 6 minutes on my kitchen floor and on steam mop days I probably spend more like 10 or 12 minutes. The great thing is, because it's so simple my 6 and 4 year olds enjoy helping too.

Good luck,
K.

I have two kinds of floor. One tile and grout and the other is like a tile linolium type. Once a month I get toilet bowl cleaner with bleach (make sure you're wearing something you don't mind messing up) and I pour that on the floor get on my hands and knees and go to town with the hard floor scrubber brush. Then during the meanwhile I use a swiffer wet jet. It seems to work out pretty well. And the swiffer seems to pick up most of the dirt. Just have to sweep or vaccuum really well first.