Loving Home: The Art of Cleaning- The Floor

I am going to say upfront, I HATE BUCKETS! The whole idea of cleaning my floors like my Mother did; with a mop, a bucket and some Pine-Sol seems just archaic to me.

There’s something about putting your mop back into the dirty water to clean your floor that just doesn’t sit right with me.

And the very concept of a bucket in itself is daunting to me. Having to lug the bucket around with the possibility of knocking it over, spilling the water while moving the bucket around the room, having to lift the bucket from the floor to the sink to dump it out, a bucket is just not practical FOR ME… if this works for you then great.

Our house is mostly hardwood and ceramic tile so cleaning our floors do require some type of mopping.

This is the method I use to clear our floors, call me crazy but it’s a three step process:

1. First, I go over my flooring with my cordless stick vacuum. We use the  Electrolux ErgoRapido Bagless Cordless Handheld/Stick Vacuum Cleaner– I LOVE this little machine, it’s the perfect stick vacuum. The vacuum picks up most of the cat hair, crumbs, lint and dust.

2. Next I go over the floors again very quickly, with my handy dandy Swiffer Sweeper loaded with a Dry Sweeping Cloth, this picks up the very last remnants of cat hair and does a great job at getting under furniture and grabbing those hidden dust bunnies. The other great thing about the Swiffer Sweeper is it literally dusts and polishes my hardwood leaving it with a nice shine.

3. Last, I go over the floors ONE MORE TIME with my Swiffer WetJet -this thing is, in my opinion God’s gift to my hardwood. I load it with the Swiffer WetJet Multi-Purpose Cleaner and a WetJet Pad Refill and I’m ready to clean. The WetJet leaves both my hardwood and tile sparkling clean, the floors dry extremely quickly and the best part: NO BUCKET.

Yes, I realize this method is not exactly environmentally friendly but it’s the easiest and most productive method I have found for cleaning my floors and I’m always satisfied with the results.

In a pinch, I can skip the third step and just run over the floor with the vacuum to pick up any large debris and then go over it quickly with the Swiffer Sweeper and the floors still look great.

I have tried the Swiffer Sweeper Vac in the past (instead of the stick vac and Swiffer Sweeper) and even though it was one less step, I was completely dissatisfied with the lack of battery life and power. In my experience, I had to replace my Swiffer Sweeper Vac every 6 months. In the end I have found that my three step floor cleaning process gives me far better results.

My husband thinks it’s so funny (he says it’s funny in a cute way though) how I rave about my collection of household gadgets. What are your favourite housekeeping gadgets?

Also please note, I have not been given any of these products for review purposes they are simply products that I already own, love and want to share with my dear readers.

Happy Cleaning, Shannon O

Tagged as: cleaning, housekeeping