Mops and Mopping

[Irene]

So, Dh was teasing me the other day that my mom didnt teach me how to mop :lol I think hes right :O I have been struggling with this ever since, well, since I have had kids :think my floor was always eat off the floor clean before :eek
the house I grew up in the kitchen was like 3 feet by 6 feet so we just always washed it with a rag by hand. My kitchen now is much bigger than that.
I use a roller mop for the big mops, and then I go over it daily with a swiffer mopy thing. but my floor is sticky every single day. I cannot for the life of me seem to be able to get it clean and it bothers me soooo much! I do not have the patience to clean it by hand every day!

something is wrong and I dont know how to fix it! Im tired of changing my socks! its embarrassing :/

[ArmsOfLove]

what kind of flooring do you have?

[tree_hugger]

I cannot for the life of me seem to be able to get it clean and it bothers me soooo much! I do not have the patience to clean it by hand every day!


So, is it your mopping tools/technique, or the fact that you have a large kitchen and a 1 and 3 year old that is preventing you from having a clean floor? :)

[Irene]

I have a vinyl floor.

So, is it your mopping tools/technique, or the fact that you have a large kitchen and a 1 and 3 year old that is preventing you from having a clean floor? :laughtears you know, I have thought about that! but this just seems over the top stickiness. like, I mop, but then an hour or two later the whole floor is sticky again! I am wondering if I am just spreading the stickiness when I mop?

the kids eat at the table. I let them eat dry foods and walk around, easily swept or vaccuumed, but the more messy foods they have to eat at the table. so, they spill on the floor, I use a small little broom and dust pan and sweep it up, if its sticky I take a rag and wipe it so it doesnt get spread around or on my socks ;)

you know? so its not like Im leaving mess on the floor and its getting tread about. its just weird to step into my kitchen and stick to the floor :sick

[Mamaka]

When we moved into our current house, the linoleum was sort of sticky. My mom & dad spent several days stripping the floor and rewaxing before we got home and that seemed to take care of the problem. It took a lot of elbow grease and some fairly harsh cleaners, but now it's very easy to keep clean - mostly I just damp mop and then every other week or so use a mild cleanser and lots of water.

Here are a couple of web sites that might be helpful:
http://doityourself.com/vinylfloors/resilient.htm
http://doityourself.com/clean/floor-lino.htm

I'm actually not a big fan of the flooring we have (WHITE - what were they thinking???), so the next time we have extra cash buring a hole in our pockets (yeah, right, like that's ever gonna happen :lol) I'm tearing it out and putting in pergo. ;)

[godsgracegiven]

I have been doing mine by hand once a week and using the mop the rest of the week.

[Irene]

I wonder if its like build up?
our house is only 5 yrs old... but maybe I have just used the wrong products on it.
yeah, ours is white- what what *I* thinking!!!!!???? (oh, yeah, I was never going to have kids lol )

thanks for the links :)

[Mamaka]

And if you find something that works really well, Irene, let me know because we have like 800 sq ft of this stuff (I'm not kidding... it's in kitchen, dining room, tv area & down the hall, it's like a sea of white :giggle) so you know I'm not getting down on the floor to clean it if I can help it. :lol

[Irene]

Most detergents won’t rinse clean leaving behind a sticky residue. That residue becomes a magnet, attracting dirt off the bottom of your shoes. It builds up, deteriorating the sealant and leaving you with the hard job of stripping and waxing yikes!

well, we dont wear shoes in the house, but still... Im sure its a magnet for everything!
I also read on the other article about rinsing- maybe thats what dh was talking about that I didnt know how to mop :think I never knew you were supposed to rinse! :O thats like mopping twice!!! and the kids in the mop water and sliding all over and falling on the wet floor... oh its loads of fun :lol oh dear....

and for the waxing- I have never waxed my flooring because when we got it it said something about not ever using wax on it and not to do it... but these articles said to wax? I just shouldnt :)

I just hate cleaning it by hand- I know, pure laziness :blush

[Gretchen]

What kind of cleaner are you using? When I read your first description, it sounded to me like the stickiness is residue from a cleaner.

I have never been a rinser myself ;) - I always just use water with a little vinegar and haven't had a problem with residue.

Gretchen

[Irene]

well, last fall I switched to just vinegar, but that is when I noticed a problem! maybe I need to do a start over stripping or something?

Im glad Im not the only one who doesnt rinse :)

[RealLifeMama]

I have vinyl in my kitchen, too.
I don't think it ever needs waxing.
I use the water/GSE/Lavender solution.
It cleans well and doesn't get sticky.
However I do use a star mop and a Sh-mop. I spray as I go. No bucket. If the floor is super dirty I change heads midway, or sometimes I do a quick mop with the star mop to get the sticky globs/spots up, (dried jelly, smushed raisens, Etc) and then I do a round with the fresh sh-mop.
I bet if I kept up with it better (ie, wiping up the smushed raisen immediately) it would be easier. But I usually say "Oh, I'll just mop later today" and then I don't!

[Mamaka]

Some vinyl floors are no wax floors. I think one of those links (maybe the 2nd one) talks about how to replenish the wax.

The spray model method is a good idea, Amy. :tu

[Irene]

yeah I did later see the article about the no wax :) I didnt scroll all the way down before.

Can you tell me more about those mops? I do the spray bottle thing with my swiffer, but i have the same results.

I havent heard of using GSE to mop. Ive heard of it for thrush! Have a whole bottle of it from when ds was born :lol

[RealLifeMama]

yeah I did later see the article about the no wax :) I didnt scroll all the way down before.

Can you tell me more about those mops? I do the spray bottle thing with my swiffer, but i have the same results.

I havent heard of using GSE to mop. Ive heard of it for thrush! Have a whole bottle of it from when ds was born :lol


I just use the GSE/Water/Lavender mix as my general cleaner.
I put about 35 drops in a 32 ounce spray bottle. Then I add several drops of lavender and tea tree oil. It really does clean. I have tried cleaning surfaces with just water to see if it was just a result of the water, but that did very little. Even my dad, whom we nicknamed "Mr. Clean", was impressed by its performance.
This cleaner was one of the first I learned about when I joined GCM years ago and I am still on that first bottle of GSE! So, it is cheap, too!

The StarMop (http://www.blom.com/products/starmop/index.html)is microfiber. You can just get the mophead and put it on your swiffer because it velcos. I bet you can get any microfiber cloth w/ velcro and velcro it on.
The Sh-Mop is from the clean team. (http://www.thecleanteam.com/catalog_f.cfm) I like the size and the fact that the cloths are reusable. This is a big mop! It is quick. But the terrycloth covers are not for if you let your floors get really dirty. If you mop daily or every other day that would probably be good. It is like mopping with a towel on a stick.

[blessedwithboys]

I totally love my Libman Wonder Mop! It rocks :dance! I mop daily because we have 2 big dogs and tons of family members (my IL's) traipsing in and out of here all the time. I use whatever I've got- Pine Sol, Mr. Clean, even sometimes just a few drops of dish soap and a few drops of bleach :hiding, or a 1/2 cup of white vinegar in the bucket of water. I think the key to avoiding stickiness is to not put more than just a bit of cleanser in your bucket. If I feel like the floor is ecspecially dirty then I don't add extra cleanser- I dump the first bucket and make up a fresh one and mop again.