Housekeeping Aggravation: Floors Dirty After Mopping!

I vacuum all my floors and use the attachments to get into all the corners and crevices. Then I make a bucket of the hottest water I can stand to put my hands in with a floor cleaner of choice. I get down on my hands and knees to scrub small sections with rags and ascrub brush. I dry one section before moving onto the next. If the floors are crazy dirty after a party or something, then I change the water frequently.

A thankless job but my floors do come out the cleanest this way. Also it helps keep the grout cleanest too. I bought a pair of knee pads to aid the process. Good luck.

I used to clean houses in college. The company I worked for was actually a huge nationwide chain that did research on the most effective cleaning methods. Here goes (you may not like it):

Vacuum your hard suffices with a hard surface vacuum or attachment. Hand mop with a mild diluted detergent (like dish soap) and terry cloth, and hand dry with terry cloth. I own a set of knee pads for this task.

For the sake of my back I mop with a sponge mop (just to get the floor wet), then hand dry it. But I always vacuum first.

Many poo poo the need to hand dry (I know i did). But for the sake of experiment just try it once. You'll be amazed at just how much more dirt comes up. Swiffers seem like a gimmick to me, and frankly any mopping that is not precluded with vacuuming and ending with a terry cloth dry is just creating a layer of mud on you floor.

I had the same problem with the swiffer! Somehow it made my floors worse! My little boys feet were dirty immediately after I used it. What the heck? I got a real mop and then had clean floors. :)

Once in a while, you gotta do the bucket, rag, soap, hands and knees thing. IME, the Swiffer only goes so far....

I think the answer is seriously machinery! I am thinking of getting a small handheld vacuum so the kiddos can vacuum up their own crumbs and to get the corners better. I received a steam mop for Christmas and it is THE BEST. Mopping has gone from my most hated chore to something I *GASP* enjoy. I have the Bissell Steam Mop and we got it off Amazon . com for about $80.00. Worth every penny. The floors look 10 times better than they ever did when I used a swiffer, and I don't have to buy any cleaners; it just uses water. It heats up in 30 seconds. Again, WORTH EVERY PENNY! Plus we do not wear shoes past the entryway of the house, that helps a lot too.

I used to have a tile floor in a home that I used a buffer on. It came with attachments that you could use to scrub the floor and boy did the dirt come out of it. I would do this about every three months and wax it. The tile and the grout all looked new.

I could get the brushes to swirl around and get into the grooves and get the dirt out.

Swiffer was a nice idea for someone who has an apartment and no kids or pets or live in an area with lots of dirt/dust.

Sometimes it takes good old fashioned elbow grease to keep a home clean.

The other S.

I actually vacuum hardwoods/tile floors. I have a Dyson and it allows me to turn off the bristle rotating brush...that way there's only suction. So I do this along the entire floor THEN I take the wand and go around the baseboards and corners so I can pick up anything that accumulated there...and believe me, ALOT builds up in the corners. Then I use the Swiffer Wet Jet. If I see the disposable pads are getting too dirty, I just replace the pad and continue. By the time I'm finished, the floors look and smell great. Depending on how dirty the floor is, sometimes I may even mop it twice.

Personally, I sweep the floor when I want a quick clean...but if I want a really really good clean, I always vacuum. When I sweep, it just doesn't seem like I get everything up.

Good Luck!

Very aggraveating indeed. to try to keep the muck off your floors institute a no shoe policy in your home, if you haven't done so already. Just like the japanese, everyone, guests included remove their shoes in the foyer. Also, you can wipe the dog's paws with a wet rag, or dip them into a shallow bowl (my mother had a stainless steel bowl for this), then wipe dry with a terry washcloth. You'd be amazed at how much dirt you prevent from getting into your house this way.

Good luck to you and yours,
F. B.

i have a swiffer for the 'lipstick and earrings' cleaning, but i'm always aware of the lines of hair and dirt smooshed into the baseboard, and the way the dirt settles into the stupid little pits in the linoleum tiles (who came up with that bright idea anyway? i'm so looking forward to a new kitchen floor. but i digress.)
sometimes there's nothing for it, you just have to tell your back muscles to suck it up and get down with a bucket of ammonia and a couple of rags, one for scrubbing, one for drying. if you don't dry it, you're wasting a lot of energy.
i hadn't thought to vacuum first! now i feel so dumb. ha!
:) khairete
S.

Look up a Norwex consultant in your area and get yourself their mop system, preferably with the "superior" dry mop pad. I'm sorry to recommend something you can't buy in the store, but their mop is awesome! It's like a swiffer where you velcro the pads on, but there's a dry one that gets up EVERYTHING from every nook and cranny and then you go over with the wet one which also has their microfiber and picks up everything. Plus, you just use it with water so you're not spraying the Swiffer chemicals all over your floor. I hosted a Norwex "party" for a friend and got the mop for free otherwise I never would have purchased it - I am SO glad I have it! With kiddos, I use it all the time and I can just toss the pads in the wash so I'm creating less waste.

Sweeping is good for a quick pick up, but I prefer to vacuum. We purchased a Shark steam mop a few months ago and I'm really happy with it.