I'm moving to a home that has all wood and tile flooring and I'm actually pretty excited about it since I have 2 kids and 2 cats and I feel like the floors will be easier to keep clean than carpet, but it has occurred to me that it is A LOT of floor to clean/mop! How do you keep up with it all? I have heard people talk about the Shark steam mop, but I don't know anything about it. I only have tile in the kitchen, bathrooms and entryway, so I just use a Swiffer mop right now, but I don't think this is a great solution for a large house with all hard floors. Any thoughts? I also bought a Europro stick vac that I LOVE to vacuum my hard floors, but I'm thinking more along the lines of CLEANING them. Thanks in advance!
I use vinegar and water on my floors (wood and tile) with a quickie mop that you wring out. I use swiffer wet for small jobs.
I also have a Hoover Floor Mate - it does a great deep cleaning. But I have to say that the steam mops look great.
Do NOT use swiffer on hardwood. It will ruin it.
I use a steam mop on our tile, and murphy's oil (best after a few others I have tried) on our hardwood.
I use the shark steam mop and I LOVE it! I have tile and laminate wood floor through out the whole down stairs of my house. It does take some time to mop it (maybe 15-20 minutes), but it's well worth it!
For tile I use a Libman Freedom Spray mop. I like it because the pad is washable, so I don't have to keep buying new pads for it. Also, you can use whatever cleaning agent you want in it. I use vinegar and hot water.
My last house had hardwood floors, which I miss so much. I used a stick vacuum instead of sweeping, and a rag mop and warm water most of the time. It was sufficient to remove the everyday dirt, even with a young boy and dog running in and out all the time. Once a month or so I used Murphy's Oil Soap. It cleans well, and leaves the floors looking like new.
Libman Spray Mop: http://www.libman.com/products.aspx#/Mopping/284m/0/
http://www.vinegartips.com/Scripts/
we have a sheet linolium (or however its spelled) floor. it looks like tile and ppl actualy reach down and feel it to see if i am fooling them!! i use vinegar to clean it as the bleach tends to hurt my breathing! not sure if on wood floors they would work or not. i REALLY want a steam mop. these floors are a lot to keep up with all over the entire house. but it is cleaner than carpet!
I use a spray bottle with straight white vinegar n it, a string mop, and a bucket of hot water for tile and laminate.
I have tile in my kitchen and HATE it! I am saving up to have wood floors put it. Then I will buy one of those steam mops/vacuums to clean it :) Everyone I know that has one loves it.
We also have 3 kids and 3 cats so there is mess! The tile in my kitchen is at least 10 years old (that's how long we have lived in this house) and it is chipped, slippery and very difficult to keep the grout white.
Just my opinion.
I have the Bissell steam and sweep and I love it. First I use a regular broom to get as much off the floor as I can, then the steam and sweep does the rest. It get up all the fine dirt, dust and sand and cleans the floor with steam at the same time. Right now we have linoleum floors but are planning on getting tile or laminate and get rid of the carpet. I can't wait until I don't have to vacuum all the time! I had a stick vac a long time ago and I love that for every day cleaning.
Make sure it's hard wood and not laminate. Laminate should never get wet like with a mop. A light misting with a cleaning fluid and buffed up with a cloth....either one can be waxed, tile can be waxed too, and that will make it easier to clean. Waxing floors, wither laminate or tile or vinyl or wood, is highly recommended and easy to do. Maybe if my inlaws had waxed their laminate the floors would have stayed nice. Everytime you walked on it barefoot it left marks and everytime you got a drop of moisture on the floor it left spots...drove me nuts to try to keep the floors looking nice so we finally covered them up with rugs!!
I have wood look vinyl in my house and I bought a thing like swiffer wet jet but I can put my own cleaning fluid in it and the pads are reusable/machine washable! Way better then the alternatives.
I also have two brooms so that two people can sweeo at the same time. Really, my floors haven't been mopped since I moved in (still trying to unpack) and they look great (but my feet do not. LOL)
I just moved to a home with mostly laminate flooring. Right now I just sweep with a regular broom and then use a map like the Libman one below (basically a wet swiffer with a reusable cloth and you can use whatever you want to clean with). I read lots of reviews on amazon though and I am kinda set on getting this steam mop. There was someone on there who basically put a bunch of the steam mops head to head and this one came out on top. And it's cheaper, too ::))
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001LYFBHG/ref=ox_sc_act...
