Cleaning the kitchen floor

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BasBleu

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This may sound like an odd question, but how do all of you clean your kitchen floor? Hands and knees scrubbers? Moppers?

I was raised to scrub and regularly wax the kitchen floor. My mother thinks that mopping doesn’t really do a thorough job. I do like to get down on my hands and knees and scrub; helps me feel like the floor is **clean. **It’s not possible to scrub everyday, though, and between scrubbings I think I’d like to mop. My question though is, what kind of mop should I use? What will really help to clean and not just push dust and crumbs around?

I have a Libman, but I don’t think it does anything! Advice, please! 🙂
 
ceramic tile
vacuum followed by cleaning on hands and knees
 
Ummm, I’m kind of lazy about the whole cleaning thing… I tend to try not to get it dirty in the first place. I spot clean on demand, and mop MAYBE every year, when I’m moving out :rolleyes: .

I think I can count on one hand the number of times we mopped our kitchen floor when I was growing up, but we were very strict about taking off shoes and eating at the table, too.
 
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SP38:
we have a dog

she likes to lick the floor
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Lol! I have a cat who likes to do that same thing. A dog I can understand, a cat…we don’t eat meat, so I’m not sure what could be so appealing down there!
 
Clean your floor as you normally do. Then, cover it with brown wrapping paper. When the paper gets too dirty, simply pull up and replace. This way the floor is always clean.

Another nice feature of this: when company is coming, there’s less cleaning to do in preparation for their visit. Again, simply pull up the paper and there’s your clean floor.

If you need any other helpful household hints, let me know. I’ll be glad to help!😃
 
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savone:
Clean your floor as you normally do. Then, cover it with brown wrapping paper. When the paper gets too dirty, simply pull up and replace. This way the floor is always clean.

Another nice feature of this: when company is coming, there’s less cleaning to do in preparation for their visit. Again, simply pull up the paper and there’s your clean floor.

If you need any other helpful household hints, let me know. I’ll be glad to help!😃
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Are you joking or serious?
my kids would Never leave wrapping paper on the floor alone, my 2 yr old would have a hey day pulling it up.

I scrub my floor on my hands and knees once a week, usually in the evening when the kids are in bed so it doesn’t get walked on right away, I use a swiffer in between or spot clean, I wax with Armstrong once a month, more than that makes my floor too slippery, if my floor gets dirty during rainy season etc. I simply scrub it that night, it just drives me nuts to have it dirty and when I am down on my hands and knees I can make sure I’m getting it really good, I put on some good music and the kids are all in bed and hubby is reading and it can actually be quite theraputic 👍
 
What kind of floor do you have in the kitchen? If it is linoleum, here is the best and easiest way:
  1. Sweep your floor.
  2. With a rag and a spray cleaner like 409 get in all of the areas that a mop would miss, like in the corners, under the cupboards etc.
  3. Get a stiff brush with a long broom handle, you can find this at some place like Home Depot. Get a bucket with some cleaner and water (I like Spic n Span the best). Scrub all of the problem areas on the floor with the brush and cleaner. Your floor should be pretty wet all over now, but you’ve only really had to scrub the problem areas.
  4. Get a squeegee on a long broom handle, start at one end of the room and pull the squeegee towards you. Have a couple of old towels or rags on hand to catch up the dirty water as you squeegee it up.
No need to mop. When you are finished your floor will be almost dry and absolutely amazingly clean. A German friend taught me this technique and it leaves the floors much cleaner than mopping. Swiffer wet jet works fine for in between touch ups.
 
We cannot wet mop (only damp mop) as we have laminate floors…the click together kind so we don’t want water getting into the seams.

What works best for us is something we read in a book about speed cleaning.

We bought a mop from home depot that has cotton cloths that fit onto the head.

Fill up the sink with hot water and your cleaner (we use vinegar here). Dip a cloth into the solution and put it on the mop. Clean with it until it is dirty.

Soak another cotton cloth in the solution and replace the dirty one with it. Repeat until you are done your floor.

I love the fact that we are never putting dirty water back on the floor like we used to with a traditional mop/bucket.

We had a Swiffer Wet Jet but found with our dog it just wasn’t good enough.

Malia
 
I can’t do anything on my knees, because of orthopedic problems, so no hands-and-knees for me. My kitchen floor is ceramic tile. I vacuum it several times a week (I have to, as the cat litter pan is in a room that’s off the kitchen, and they track litter in). I’ll then mop it with a Swiffer dry mop, then go over it with a wet mop. If anything needs to be scrubbed, I use the wet mop for that. I use either my Swiffer Mop (with a wet pad) or my Clorox model-with-the-bottle, not that old-fashioned stringy thing. 🙂

I need to seal the floors soon; before doing that, I’ll have to scrub them, so I’ll be sitting on the floor to do that. Needless to say, that isn’t something that gets done often. As a matter of fact, this will be the first time since I bought the house (five years). :rolleyes:

Crazy Internet Junkies Society
Carrier of the Angelic Sparkles Sprinkle Bag
 
ceramic tile throughout the house, area rugs in LR and BedR.

vacuum kitchen every other day or as needed
vacuum rest of the house weekly
swifter for spills or in between
steam cleaner every couple of weeks-DH does it, too heavy for me.
 
Great thread. I have been collecting mops that I am not satisfied with. One cleaning lady got down on her 70 year old knees to clean the floor. The next one used a string mop. My sister swears by the Swiffer. But I hate it. The Swiffer with the wet pads just pushes the dirt around (on my linoleum) and it doesn’t clean in the corners (neither did the string mop).Dulcissima’s approach sounds best to me. I printed it out and am going to try it. (Except, wouldn’t you know it, her approach requires buying two things I don’t have–the squeegie and the long-handled brush.):crying:
 
My linoleum kitchen floor I sweep as often as I can and then every other week - or so - I get down on my hands and knees and do a thorough cleaning. I use a gentle but effective non-toxic cleaner, Ecover Clean Scrub (I also use it on tub and sinks) or if it seems really dirty, I use Orange Scrub, also non-toxic.

Most regular cleaners are really, really bad for your lungs. I like the idea of the vinegar clean that was mentioned in this thread. Economical and non-toxic.

When I clean the floor I use three towels and two buckets. I also have have a scrubbrush and sponge for the floor which I “rinse” off with a towel that I keep wringing the towel in an empty bucket just for the dirty water. Then I have a clean bucket of hot water and I re-rinse with a big old bath towel just for the re-rinse, discarding the water in the dirty water busket as I go. and then I have another big old bath towel I use to “dry” the floor. Then I put the three towels along with the cat’s sleeping carpet thru the laundry.

I had a swiffer wet jet once and I thought it was great fun at first. Easy to use and the floor looked great. But then I noticed that my floor got dirty a whole lot faster. The Swiffer Wet Jet solution leaves a slightly sticky residue - just sticky enough to collect dirt faster.

So you think that when the Swiffer company tested their own product, that they push on those expensive TV commercials and print advertisements, they realized that their cleaning fluid gets your floors dirty way faster so you have to hurry out and buy more Swiffer cleaner?? Hmm.

So I gave mine away curbside. I suppose it would be good if you just used water in it, if you could refill the specially designed bottle with water, that is.
 
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Eliza10:
So I gave mine away curbside. I suppose it would be good if you just used water in it, if you could refill the specially designed bottle with water, that is.
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I have the Clorox version of the Wet Jet, and that’s what I do – refill the bottle with water. 🙂

**Crazy Internet Junkies Society
**Carrier of the Angelic Sparkles Sprinkle Bag
 
FYI, for the Swiffer fans, you don’t have to keep using their overpriced ineffective cleaning solution. With a little effort, you can pry the lid from the bottle and refill it with a diluted version of your favorite floor cleaner for a fraction of the cost.
 
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kamz:
Are you joking or serious?
my kids would Never leave wrapping paper on the floor alone, my 2 yr old would have a hey day pulling it up.

I scrub my floor on my hands and knees once a week, usually in the evening when the kids are in bed so it doesn’t get walked on right away, I use a swiffer in between or spot clean, I wax with Armstrong once a month, more than that makes my floor too slippery, if my floor gets dirty during rainy season etc. I simply scrub it that night, it just drives me nuts to have it dirty and when I am down on my hands and knees I can make sure I’m getting it really good, I put on some good music and the kids are all in bed and hubby is reading and it can actually be quite theraputic 👍
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Why, I wouldn’t joke about such a topic as this. I’ve been giving household tips for a few years…For some reason, they don’t seem to be appreciated, nor my recipes!😃
 
Vinyl floor, swiffered every day, swiffer vacuumed once per week followed by Swiffer wet ones. It sounds like alot of work but it is really quick. Also, I wipe up the cat food crumbs daily.
 
Well, my kitchen floor is huge, 26’ x19’. It’s marble and it requires a certain temperature water or it will streak. Also no soap. Very high maintenance and annoying. I have to also towel dry it after mopping or it will leave water spots. I always offer this work for the souls in purgatory who are there because they were slothful in housework.
 
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