Cleaning the kitchen floor

[AHapka]

I am a firm believer in hands and knees. I always have been, ever since my mom taught me that is the only way to clean (and wax) a floor.

Interestingly enough, when I met my wife she had NEVER seen it done at her house, or done it herself. So you know who does the floors in my house. Come to think of it, I do all of the cleaning because I am the most particular about it. I tried to mop once or twice, and it doesn’t do the job good enough. I used to clean the floor every week, but ever since the baby last year, i’m doing good to do once a month. Combined with the 92 hours of overtime i worked last month, i’m surprised I did it

Anyway, on another note, I would like to know how many households are out there were the guy does the majority of the cleaning?

P.S. As far as carpets go, vacuum once a week and steam clean high traffic areas twice a year, with a full carpet cleaning once a year. Usually right after Christmas like around new years works best since you are probably moving furniture around anyway and it likely got dirty from people being over.

 

[MooCowSteph]

AHapka:

Anyway, on another note, I would like to know how many households are out there were the guy does the majority of the cleaning?

My husband is the one who does the majority of the cooking and the kitchen cleaning since he works from home and I work away from home, but I still do the general household cleaning. I’m also the one to do the kitchen floor.

 

[lifeisbeautiful]

Oh boy! This thread got me pumped and I got down on my hands and knees and scrubbed the whole floor like some people here mentioned. Either my kitchen is a lot larger than I thought or scrubbing is very time consuming! It took me about 1 !/2 to 2 hrs. Is that what it always takes y’all?

I usually sweep, then mop real well, and then spot clean any hard to reach areas. The swifter doesn’t work well for me, It just pushes things around.

BTW, how do you guys deal with cleaning floors in other parts of the house that have long hairs on them? The hairs get caught on the broom, making it hard to sweep and then if the broom missed a hair it is a pain to deal with the mop. Also, if you try to clean the floor on hand and knees with bucket and scrubber the hair sticks to everything. Sorry if it sounds bad, but I was just looking for ideas. Even the vacuum gets messed up with long hair (I have to keep cleaning the roller).

Also, now that we are talking about floors, my husband and I are thinking of putting in a corner fireplace in a room with a rug. (We think we can’t put it on a rug, its a gel type fireplace, doesn’t need escape). We figured we have to remove part of the rug and put tile where the corner fireplace is going. Either that or remove the rug in the whole room and put in a hardwood type floor. This will be like a sitting room. We are hoping to have many children (we have one right now) so we want a child friendly/ easy maintenance floor. Any suggestions?

 

[leaner]

For those of you with the “pitted” vinyl/linoleum floors that the dirt gets stuck in and you have to scrub on your hands and knees…we moved into base housing two years ago, the white floors were GRAY – how the last family got away with that, I’ll NEVER know…anyway – I was 8mos preggo, so nesting was my friend…I grabbed a bottle of Greased lightening and a few scrubby rags and went to town…4inch square by 4inch square…my hubby was convinced I was trying to put myself into labor…no, I was just disgusted by the thought of barefooting on someone elses dirt…LOL! THEN, I asked dear old mom…she said the “finish” shiny wax that is on there needs to be stripped if you’re going to get those little pits clean…mix Ammonia and water…half and half, turn on fans, open windows, put on your chem gear and suck rubber, 'cause the fumes are pretty bad, but slop it out there, all around, and then take an old towel (one you plan on tossing) and soak it all up after it’s been down 10min or so…rinse with clear water and put a new coat of Finish or whatever “glaze” you choose…I was amazed at how awesome this worked and how little effort required…no mopping, no scrubbing, just the mopping that it took to slop the water around on the floor. OH – toss that towel, b/c if you throw it in the washer, after time, the wax will cling to the barrell of your washer and you could do damage that way…

TRUST ME, this works…and to think I almost bought a power steamer cleaner thingie…

NOW – your turn to offer suggestions for hardwood floors! Any good cleaners/solutions, etc? I like the idea of a clean and sanitized floor, but everyone tells you to ONLY damp mop it…sigh doesn’t seem like it would disinfect, kwim?

 

[Johnmichelsr]

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!

Cleaning kitchen floor is an art. You are required to have right cleaning solution along with scrubber that suits your floor. I would even suggest to opt for expert services if you have not cleaned them for very long duration.

Thanks

 

[Catholic_Wife]

We have ceramic tile. I vacuum first to get any crumbs and cat fur, then I use a steam mop. Clean as a whistle!

 

[Cariethra]

I use a baking soda paste and a vinegar wash on my hands and knees. The tenants before us stripped the wax from the floor, so that is the only way I can get the floor clean.

For the in-between times I use the swiffer mop. That also helps pick up the cat hair under the table.

 

[Johnmichelsr]

Cleaning kitchen floor is an art. You are required to have right Carpet Cleaning solution along with scrubber that suits your floor. I would even suggest to opt for expert services if you have not cleaned them for very long duration.

Thanks

Recently I met one person who have opened his own cleaning company. I usually asked him about his service charges and I was amazed to know they were so cheap. This weekend I called him to clean my home. Hope everything works well…

 

[TheRealJuliane]

we have a dog

she likes to lick the floor

Ours was just doing that as I read your message!!!



But for the OP, I have ceramic tile and I slop mop about once a week. I know people who swear by Swiffer or steam machines. If you’re more obsessive about dirt than I am, you might try those out.

 

[TheRealJuliane]

NOW – your turn to offer suggestions for hardwood floors! Any good cleaners/solutions, etc? I like the idea of a clean and sanitized floor, but everyone tells you to ONLY damp mop it…sigh doesn’t seem like it would disinfect, kwim?

You shouldn’t even damp mop a wood floor. Just spot clean, and keep it swept. Maybe a very lightly damp microfiber cloth every once in a while. Water or any liquid cleaner is a big NO NO for wood floors. People who have to disinfect every hard surface should have ceramic tile - it stands up to harsh cleaners. (Grout can be damaged over time, however)

 

[silicasandra]

For those of you with the “pitted” vinyl/linoleum floors that the dirt gets stuck in and you have to scrub on your hands and knees…we moved into base housing two years ago, the white floors were GRAY – how the last family got away with that, I’ll NEVER know…anyway – I was 8mos preggo, so nesting was my friend…I grabbed a bottle of Greased lightening and a few scrubby rags and went to town…4inch square by 4inch square…my hubby was convinced I was trying to put myself into labor…no, I was just disgusted by the thought of barefooting on someone elses dirt…LOL! THEN, I asked dear old mom…she said the “finish” shiny wax that is on there needs to be stripped if you’re going to get those little pits clean…mix Ammonia and water…half and half, turn on fans, open windows, put on your chem gear and suck rubber, 'cause the fumes are pretty bad, but slop it out there, all around, and then take an old towel (one you plan on tossing) and soak it all up after it’s been down 10min or so…rinse with clear water and put a new coat of Finish or whatever “glaze” you choose…I was amazed at how awesome this worked and how little effort required…no mopping, no scrubbing, just the mopping that it took to slop the water around on the floor. OH – toss that towel, b/c if you throw it in the washer, after time, the wax will cling to the barrell of your washer and you could do damage that way…

TRUST ME, this works…and to think I almost bought a power steamer cleaner thingie…

NOW – your turn to offer suggestions for hardwood floors! Any good cleaners/solutions, etc? I like the idea of a clean and sanitized floor, but everyone tells you to ONLY damp mop it…sigh doesn’t seem like it would disinfect, kwim?

Thank you so much for this post! We have that pitted linoleum too and it is gross, gross gross. I can’t wait until we have enough saved up to replace the floor. When we moved in, I used a mop first and then a scrubby mop/vacuum thingy that a relative gave us to get the worst of the top layer of dirt, and then used baking soda to scrub in the pits on hands and knees. It did look a heck of a lot better after I did that (a whole new color, actually!), but I could still tell there was a lot of dirt left. I guess it’s the wax?

How often does a linoleum floor need to be stripped/rewaxed? If we do good maintenance on the floor after rewaxing it, will it stay looking good? I grew up in a house where the floor was almost never mopped, so floor cleaning is kind of a foreign concept to me. I can keep up with carpeting pretty well, but anything other than that - no idea what to do beyond the everyday sweeping.

 

[EasterJoy]

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!

If it* looks *clean enough to you, it is clean enough. I wouldn’t say this to anybody, but I’m sure it does apply to you. Clean your floor as clean as you like, then walk across it once. If you wouldn’t eat off of the bottoms of the feet that cross your kitchen floor, then there isn’t much point in getting the floor clean enough for the Health Department in the first place. (There is a reason the Health Departments typically have minimum height requirements for food preparation areas.)

Unless you are mightily near-sighted, a crumb you cannot see or a smear so small that it doesn’t affect the shine is not going to hurt anything. If you are mightily near-sighted, I’m guessing you’re not going to sleep as well if you don’t get down there and see what you have when you clean. Do not let anyone tell you that you can’t clean your floor from your hands and knees if that is what it takes to satisfy you. There are floors, however, that are flat enough that a mop will get them as clean as a rag that’s using the same bucket of soapy water. (I’m not making bets on floors with lots of little nooks and crannies.)

As to the cleansers and finishing products you use, though, that is a different subject. You are probably not cleaning a floor like your mom had. Floor manufacturers have formulated products that work better than the old waxes that used to be available. Do a little research before you slap an old-fashioned wax on a modern floor, or you may find yourself doing stripping that you didn’t have to do. But again: you cannot buy enough chemicals to make a kitchen floor into an eating surface. Floor hygenine means that the floor is so clean that the insects and rodents will find that they can’t eat off of it (because there is nothing there that even smells like food), not that you can eat off of it. Once you’ve gotten your floors clean enough that the bugs won’t find anything interesting any more, the rest is for your own satisfaction.

There have been studies done about “the ten second rule”. The conclusion I saw was that something that drops on a* dry* floor and is picked up and consumed on the spot doesn’t pose a particular health threat. (As I understand it, these were floors in public places that had been swept and walked on, but not sanitized.)

My floor-cleaning tip: After sweeping or vacuuming, take a squirt bottle with floor cleaner diluted for “heavy” jobs and squirt anything that looks dried-on. Allow it to stand a few minutes before you start wet-cleaning. When you come back around, the dried-on soil will have softened so that it comes right up. Not only is this faster, but you will avoid scratching the floor with whatever abrasive means it takes to get dried-up bits (with sharp edges) off of it.

 

[Kelfa28]

wood floor throughout the house on the first floor with throw rugs everywhere…including kitchen. Tile for the bathrooms and wall to wall carpet upstairs in the bedrooms.

I sweep and spot clean for the most part.

I swiffer the bathroom once or twice a week and sweep/spot clean once a week. If it results in me corralling the dust bunnies by hand…then I do that.

I tend to use swiffer as my main cleaning solution.

 

[TheRealJuliane]

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.

Well, thanks for the prayers, if getting into heaven is based on being an OCD housekeeper I am doomed to Hell…

 

[TheRealJuliane]

Also, I just realized that someone resurrected this thread from 2005!!! I’m usually more alert than this, sorry to contribute to such an old thread. The first post could easily have been directed to spam…

 

[Kelfa28]

Well, thanks for the prayers, if getting into heaven is based on being an OCD housekeeper I am doomed to Hell…

Might as well book my ticket now…

I’m just obsessive about my bathroom…and to a certain extent the kitchen. Mainly because they are the most germ-filled spots in the house.

 

[TheRealJuliane]

Might as well book my ticket now…

I’m just obsessive about my bathroom…and to a certain extent the kitchen. Mainly because they are the most germ-filled spots in the house.

My beloved Daddy always said, “A little dirt never hurt anybody.”

And my dear stepmother wisely reminded me, “Don’t make housekeeping your God.”

 

[BlueEyedLady]

This sounds silly but its a lot of fun. FH and I have cleaning slippers that go on over our shoes. They’re made out of something similar to ShamWow material. Anyway we squirt soap and dump some water on the floor and skate around like 7 year olds. An hour or so later we do the same thing with floor wax. When we’re all done I grab a mop and do the adult thing of doing a once over to get rid of any lines or streaks. Done.

 

[Kelfa28]

My beloved Daddy always said, “A little dirt never hurt anybody.”

And my dear stepmother wisely reminded me, “Don’t make housekeeping your God.”

Oh I agree.

It’s funny, my husband and I have both been through basic training and I’ve lived through the beds made with the perfect hospital corner on a bed so tight you could bounce a penny on it and having to cover the brooms with trash bags when we swept so that they wouldn’t get dirty either among a million other things (the latrine was such an epic clean it usually took 10 girls on their hands and knees to get all of it spotless and we were only allowed to use one sink and one toilet so we wouldn’t dirty the 8 others during the day.) Wish I could have said that to some of my drill sgts. The second I was done with basic I threw in the towel and, although I’m much neater now, I’ll never do that kind of cleaning ever again.

I did learn some neat tricks while there. Newspaper is a perfect way to clean a mirror without streaking it and who knew that three-ring binders have the exact measurement to make and fold a perfect hospital corner.

Anyway, now I’m perfectly content to have the beds made, trash taken out, the laundry and dishes caught up and the general clutter down to a dull roar.

 

[thewanderer]

This sounds silly but its a lot of fun. FH and I have cleaning slippers that go on over our shoes. They’re made out of something similar to ShamWow material. Anyway we squirt soap and dump some water on the floor and skate around like 7 year olds. An hour or so later we do the same thing with floor wax. When we’re all done I grab a mop and do the adult thing of doing a once over to get rid of any lines or streaks. Done.

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