I am fed up. LOL. I bought this mop, that mop, this one....I even have a Swiffer electric thingie that is not a mop but sucks up dust and crap and uses the cloth to get more, etc, etc...

I have Pergo floors, lots of pets, 3 messy kids.....nothing seems to get up the hair *and* the little stains, spills, dots of whatever ends up on the floor......ugh.

Anyone just give up and use the ol' rag and bucket method? How does *that* work for you??? :help:

Yup, I hate mops they never seem to get it really clean. Our kitchen and dining rooms aren't very big so yes, I get down on my hands and knees and clean. It's the only way I feel that they are really clean.

I had until I got my ecolovables. Love it. Would never use anything else. I do use a broom for sweeping as we have so much dog hair this time of year.

I scrub floors on my hands and knees. I hate mops. I use watered down ammonia to clean the floors and future to shine them. 2 steps all done by hand. Thankfully my kitchen isn't so big. I used to have an apt with all hard wood floors that I did on hands and knees..

Works pretty well- I make my kids mop!

Hope

Yup, I hate mops they never seem to get it really clean. Our kitchen and dining rooms aren't very big so yes, I get down on my hands and knees and clean. It's the only way I feel that they are really clean.


Put in dh instead of I ...lol.. So he does all the floor cleaning on Saturday morning. I do clean up spills in between. yk

I even say a prayer for you when I am down there! ;)

seriously, Denise, I think my floors seem cleaner when I do. I dont have a huge floor so we do it twice a week and then sweep the rest of the days.

It works great for us.

When I had a galley kitchen I didn't own a mop. I just used all-purpose cleaner and rags. Now, though, I've got a lot of real estate in my kitchen so for regular use I have a Sh-mop and I only do the hands-and-knees thing once a week or so.

I have laminate flooring too and it always seems smudged. After reading a thread here I ended up buying some microfiber clothes and just used a bucket. My girls get a kick out of it and help out a whole lot. We have A LOT of wood floor on the lower level.

We have porcelin tile in our dinning,kitchen,entry way's and linoleium in our bathroom.
All are done on my hands and knees.The kids think it is a great game so they often help. I have not used a mop in years

I sweep my floor, and then get a bucket and a rag and get on my hands and knees and wash them. I do this in the kitchen, the entryway, and the bathrooms (where we have tile/linoleum). I've tried using mops and swiffer thingies, but I evidently couldn't get the hang of it, because my floor wouldn't get very clean and it just pushed the dirt around! This way is more *uncomfortable*, but I can at least see all the spots and get into the cracks and corners so I know it's clean.

I gave up on mops, too, but I think it's due to my kdis being supermessy! I have laminate floor in the kitchen,and I get on my hands and knees to scrub it about once a week. I sweep alternately between times whenever it getts looking bad, and I will do spot touch--ups if there is some sort of smudge or spilled something. I think it does get them cleaner. I don't hand mop my whole house, though, just the kitchen and bath. I have hardwood floors but they don't seem to get that dirty, so a sweep will get them clean,a nd then a quick polish once a month if I'm lucky! I have a rug in the LR (over the hardwood) and I vaccuum it almost daily!

Love the rag and bucket method! Seems to get my floors cleaner plus it's easier on my body than mopping. Mopping makes me dizzy.

Hands and knees the bathroom and the woodfloors in the hallway, playroom and living room (there are area rugs in there so just the few feet around the edges.

We have a huge eat-in kitchen that is white tile and I use a steam cleaner with just water. Works great. I vac every other day and wet rag the splats as they happen so it doesn't get too bad between washes. The glaring white tile (what were the builders thinking???) makes it hard to leave the drips and splats when the kitchen is most of our downstairs and what you see first when you come in the house.

I tried a swiffer but always wound up down on my knees scrubbing something sticky or gooey off the floor that the swiffer didn't clean. So now I just do the bucket thing. The kids think it is fun so I usually let them do it and then just get any spots they missed.

We have tile in 90% of the house.

I sweep, and mop and then use the vacumn every other day.

Once every 2 weeks or so, I sweep, scrub on my hands and knees with a scrub brush, then mop, and vacumn.

Once a month I bleach my grout lines in the tile.

I hate floors that need so much dang attention...lol

Yea, it does seem like hard floors of most types do seem to require more work and care over carpet. However remember, carpet gets just as dirty, smudged, etc., we just don't see it! The dirt and etc. is there, we just don't see it, and can't get it up like we can with hard floors.

I shudder thinking about what is on our carpet in some of our house that I can't get up and off....now with Pergo in 70% of the house, I really am aware of what we drag in and around our floors, and it grosses me out thinking what remains on and in carpet.....

Yep.

I tried mops a few times but could never "get" it. It just seems like they push dirt around and that's about it.

Cinderella-style here I come :D

We have linoleum throughout the house. Except on the stairs. They're carpeted. I don't know why. (I talked with someone who lived in this same housing, literally across the street from us, back in the '70s and she said the carpet wasn't here then.)

I sweep daily and mop fairly often, and then give up on the mopping and get down on my hands and knees and scrub. The Magic Erasers work fairly well, and a sponge isn't too shabby either. I don't like doing that too often, to be honest. So the "mop" we use right now is the Clorox Ready Mop. It's not great, but it does a good enough job for me to space out my scrubbing a bit.

I find mopping not very effective compared to hands and knees. I can get all the little bits my broom left and get all the little spots the mop would miss. Also I can effectively clean edges and baseboard areas.

I love our mop. We got it at the state fair a few years ago. It is the kind that is really hard and you soak it for 5 minutes before you use it? I don't know the brand but DH has a refill stashed somewhere, I would ask him to find it right now but he is upstairs painting the kids room green :). Let me know if you want to know more about this mop.

I have no mop, either...I prefer the hands and knees method, myself, cause it's so much more thorough, and the kids are always leaving drips and splashes everywhere.

That said, I am about to buy a mop today, cause the kids HATE the hands and knees method, and procrastinate so badly that I usually end up having to do it every time.

So nobody does the "put a wet kitchen towel on the floor and shimmy around on it until the floor is clean method"? This is what I have started doing and it works pretty well on my icky old floors. I started doing this when I would put the 2yo in the kitchen sink for a bath after dinner (I am right there!) I had to put a towel down anyway to catch the water that would make it to the floor. So I figured if I have to use a towel for the water, why not sweep under where the towel is going, that way I will have a clean spot after mopping up the spills, and since it is also right beside the stove, I can get any messes made while I was cooking. So then, I decided to try this towel method on the whole floor, since it is working so well by the sink and stove......and it works fairly well. Also, the big girlies love to "dance" around on the towel and I love the help. Now, I haven't given up the mop yet, but I also haven't used it in nearly a month, because this method is working so well. I tried hands and knees, but over half of my house is hard floor, and that is a lot of work. I do do it in a few areas, by the door, in the bathroom, but for the kitchen and hall, I'm liking the shimmy on the towel method.

KJ...I heard you have the be all end all answer to mops

KJ...I heard you have the be all end all answer to mops

gosh your baby is so cute!!

anyway here is a link and it may look cheap or not that great but trust me it rocks. it is one of things that they demo at the fair and people oooh and aahh over. By the way you can get a deal and refills on ebay.

PVA mop, PVA Magical Mop, touch (http://www.touchoforanges.com/pvawetmop.html)

I use to when I used those clorox cleaning wipes but I realized that wasn't very green of me.

I have 2000 sq ft so hands and knees is not an option.

http://ocedar.com/img/products/detail/prod_41785-02525.jpg

O-Cedar - Product Detail (http://ocedar.com/main.taf?erube_fh=ocedar&ocedar.submit.getProductDetails=1&ocedar.productid=33)

I use this with various cleaners in a spray bottle. Spray on, scrub off. Works reasonably well. Vinegar and water works well. My favorite right now is the Armstrong hard floor cleaner. It seems to get the sticky stuff up better. I just wish I could find something that didn't leave the floor looking smudged as soon as someone walks on it barefoot.

If I'd known then what I know now about laminate, I'd have gone with carpet. I can get this cleaner, but it's loud, it shows dirt a lot sooner, and it's 3x as much work to get clean every time. I vacuum daily and have to mop at least 2x a week. The whole floor. It takes me most of the day to do it.

haven't read other replies but....My kitchen is huge and my living room is laminate...so no it'd take me all day. I do get on my hands and knees, with a rag for my baseboards and thbe floor along baseboards because
I have two dogs & a muddy pit for a backyard.


i do have a microfiber mop that i love. i got it from Trisha of ecolovables and I think she is no longer selling them. target has a spify one that I believe Nancy(OnTheBrink) raved about a few weeks ago and I buy the microfiber pads for that to go on mine..

Yep! I feel like things get cleaner when I just grab the bucket and rag -and I get a bigger sense of achievement when I do it that way too - I sent all my "gadgets" to my mom lol

if i want it just done, i mop it with a sponge mop after vacuuming. i used to do fly lady routines and one of the things that really stuck out for me was that "it doesn't have to be perfect, it just has to be done." for me that rang really true because it would go a good long while before i'd scrub the floors when i didn't want to use a mop...so instead the floors would be perfectly cleaned once in a great while, which is kind of gross compared to clean enough on a regular basis.

and at this point, we only have carpet in one room, so hands and knees all over isn't happening. actually, i find that as long as i vacuum first, the mop doesn't do too bad a job. but the vacuuming is a must with the 3 kids and dog who sheds a lot.

Oh. I ALWAYS vacuum and then mop. I thought everyone did that? Well, that or swept first. I can't imagine trying to mop a floor with little bits of stuff on it.

I mop (ecolovables here too :) ) every day but I have white linoleum and dirt is constantly getting trapped in the cracks and bumps. Every few days I get down and scrub with the Mr Clean magic eraser to whiten everything up and then mop after that.

Aw, I was about to cheer that Denise was back--fooled by an old post. :lol:

Aw, I was about to cheer that Denise was back--fooled by an old post. :lol:

me too! lol

But I'll participate in the thread anyway. :)

I used to do hands and knees at my old house. But we only had a kitchen and dining room and 2 bathrooms to do.

At this house, we have no carpet at all. My Floormate is the bomb. I love it. :)

I either use my Act Mop that my mom bought me, or hands and knees, or a liberman mop with the head that has the microfiber type threads on it. I prefer hands on knees, but I don't do it very often.

I am horrible at cleaning too. :(

Oh, I always vacumm first too. I can't stand the thought of dust and dog hair flying thru the room from sweeping.

holy bumpin oldies! I was like, wha? Denise is back!?

eh. I use a magic eraser mop on my stone tile. :)

I feel like I have every kind of mop too, along with a Hoover Flip It and a Swiffer. Luckily we don't have a lot of uncarpeted areas (basically just the kitchen, laundry room and bathrooms) so I just swiffer a lot lately, like every day. The mops seem like too much of a hassle, even though they work for the most part. I love the Flip It, but I have to pull the bulky thing out, fill it up with cleaning solution, empty the dirty water tank ... usually not worth it for so little floor. But I am not down on my hands and knees at this point.

I vaccuum and then usually I do both a mop and on my hands and knees, just depends on what I feel like doing. Sometimes I don't feel like messing with a mop. Now, I only have to do my kitchen, bathroom & entryway, everywhere else is carpet, sadly. When we have wood laminate everywhere, I'm sure I'll be using a mop and who knows what else, and not on hands and knees!

Oh darn i was going to comment Denise and say welcome back - but I didn't realize it was an old post until I came back to this thread today:lol: