Mopping the Floor - How to and How Often?

I have a Shark steam mop and i absolutely love it. We have tile in the kitchen and the bathroom and hardwood throughout the rest of the house. I mop once a week (or more often if we have some spills). It is so easy and only takes water and heats up in 5 seconds, so it's really quick to whip it out and give the floor a deep clean. Walking on the floor after feels super clean.

How funny that you ask this! I just wrote a blog post about natural household cleaners and talked about safe, non-toxic, effective mop-water recipe!
http://knockedupknockedover.wordpress.com/2011/05/15/home...

I tried the swiffer wet-jet, but it left this film on my floor. It was weird and gross and the floor felt dirtier than ever! Blegh.

The recipe I came up with left my floors feeling really clean. Love it! Here it is:

■2 gallons of hot (VERY HOT!) water
■1 Cup of white vinegar
■1 squirt of Dr. Bronner’s magic liquid soap
■A few drops of Tea tree essential oil

Totally non-toxic and the tea tree oil acts as an antibacterial, anti-fungal, anti-viral. Great stuff tea tree oil.

And it's cheap, too! All you need (aside from the stuff in the recipe) is a bucket and a sponge mop. Easy!

I'm hoping to get a scooba. I have a roomba which has been the best thing since sliced bread. Apparently the scooba uses white vinegar and water, and sweeps, then mops, then dries all by itself. Also it doesn't use the water twice so it's always clean.

I have 3 sons and a husband (plus a 4th son on the way). Our floors get dirty. We have tile, but I find that linoleum is easier to keep clean (no grout lines). I do my floors once per week. I use a Hoover FloorMate and LOVE IT. It has a separate container for clean and dirty water, so I always feel confident that my floors are getting clean.

I used to have a Shark steam mop (actually, 2 of them), but both broke and stopped producing steam. I've also used the Swiffer Wet Jet. With both of those products, after I finished mopping my floor, I could take a white washcloth, get it wet and run it across the floor. It always came back with some dirt on it. With my Hoover FloorMate, the washcloth came up clean.

I love it! It is fast and easy and is super quick and easy. Good luck!

I have an old fashioned mop and use Pine-Sole cleaner. My husband loves the smell.

I wear gloves and use the hottest water possible. I use the Pine-sole cleanser mixed with the hot water.. If the water is really filthy. after the mopping. (During rainy season) I will drain the water and mop it again with more water and Pine-sole. . After I have mopped the whole floor. I go back and mop using clear hot water to clean up the soap.. Then I leave it all to dry.

I try to mop once a week when there are 3 of us here. If it is just 1 or 2 of us here a week I notice every 2 weeks in fine.

We do have a cat, and she brings in a lot of dust.. and sheds.. So I dust or vacuum when needed.

I use a flat mop. I like the Method O-Mop best, but it's kinda hard to get, so now we have a Mr. Clean Dry/Wet mop (we have linoleum and hardwood).
I simply use water and dishsoap. Yeah, with the flat mop you have to take off the pad, rinse it, wring it and put it back on (velcro). But that's fast and easy and both the dry and wet pad can go in the laundry.
My husband would prefer a string mop, but I find they get nasty and start stinking after a few weeks (even the fancier vileda ones) - and I simply don't have the budget to buy a new mop every month.
Good luck!

I use a steam mop, then every 3 times I use pine sol, and a string mop with a built in wringer. Occasionally I use bleach, slop ip on, leave it soak, mop it up, and dry it with a white towel (about every 6 months) that gets it really clean. But my steam mop is my mainstay, about once a week, I mop

I also have a Shark steam mop and absolutely love it. I try to use it once a week. The mopping goes really fast because you don't have to stop to rinse it or anything. I love that there are no chemicals, but it still gets clean because it gets so hot. Mine broke once but that was because I refilled the water without unplugging it (gotta read the directions).

We used to swifter wet jet and I felt the same; not well cleaned and residue left behind. We got the steam mop at Costco and really like it. Easy to use, no cleaning solution and the floors are clean.
We do weekly, just too busy to do more often.

I use a regular old string mop. Fill the sink up with hotwater and vinegar or bleach. Dip the mop in the hot water, ring it out, mop, rinse the mop in the other side of the sink, re-dip in your cleaning water and repeat till complete. With the string mop you can get down on your knees and wash the corners with the strings. I hate sponge mops, they are worthless. And the wet swiffer mops are dumb too, they leave a dull residue.

Those cleaning liquids, leaves residue.
That is why it doesn't feel clean after.
You have to wipe/scrub it until it is clean and has no residue.

I clean with my hands and knees.
Would like to get a steam mop one day.
I mop at least, once a week.
I scrub until the cloth is not dirty.

With a baby around, well gotta be careful of what cleaning agents you use. Per residue.

Hey Alice,
We use the Eureka steam mop and it does an AMAZING job of getting our floors clean with zero chemicals. It heats the water up very hot so it disinfects the floor as well. There is a great review of it on Amazon where one woman compares several steam mops and it was the best rated. I have been quite happy with my purchase.