“Proper” in this case being whatever will lift more dirt off the floor. My husband and I disagree over the method of mopping. We have a tile floor with wide grout, so we use a microfiber mop. Sponge mops (and the new spray mops with disposable pads) only clean the tiles, and deposit dirt into the grout. The previous owners of the house apparently used a sponge mop for 20 years, because the grout was filthy when we moved in. It’s gradually getting cleaner each time we mop. My method is to take the wet mop, let it drip a little bit into the bucket, then put it on the floor with a lot of water and scrub that around for a good while. Then I wring the mop, and soak up more water from the floor with the wrung out mop, until I can’t wring water out of the mop anymore. When I’m in the kitchen near to the sink, I actually wring the mop out in the sink to keep the mop water cleaner. (This may sound weird, but like I said, we’re trying to remove 20 years of accumulated dirt from the grout. Plus, the kitchen is usually much dirtier than the hallway and foyer, which are all connected.) When I can’t reach the sink, I wring it in the bucket. I think this gets the floor cleaner than my husband’s method, which is to wet the mop, wring it lightly, mop a section of floor, then put the mop in the bucket, slosh some dirt out of the mop, wring it and mop again. Which way is going to get more dirt off the floor?
Given the described conditions, I think that the amount of elbow grease applied to the mop scrubbing is going to completely overwhelm any differences in wringing strategies, which will have a fairly minimal impact.
I’d just like to point out that while researching mopping technique (way to go with the mircofibers!), I found (surprisingly high in the google listings) a site for arm pit porn.
Not that this answers your question, but I blame you.
Arm pit porn. Seriously.
I have spent the last five years mopping floors in my cafeteria at university. The grout is nearly impossible to keep clean only mopping. Periodically, we have to power spray the floor. It is amazing the amount of dirt that actually gets trapped in the grout. Obviously, you cannot I assume, power spray your kitchen tile, but you always have the manual option. We have these yellow brushes at work, which when applied with some hard scrubbing work just as well as the power sprayer. My suggestion would be for both of you to stop arguing about proper mopping methods and just get down on your knees and scrub that grout clean.
As for regular mopping, I don’t believe you should really have to wet and dry mop. Unless your floor get extremely dirty a single mop should take care of the situation. cheers
[ol]
[li]Sweep[/li][li]Swifter[/li][li]Add some Pine Sol (or other floor cleaner) to a bucket of hot water[/li][li]Get yourself a Cinderella brush. Get on all fours. Scrub about 3 x 3 feet of floor at a time.[/li][li]Mop up the water/Pine Sol solution, after each section of floor is scrubbed.[/li][li]Wring it out in the toilet or another bucket.[/li][li]Repeat until done.[/li][li]Rinse out mop.[/li][li]Go back over floor with very tightly wrung out mop and clean water.[/li][li]Kill the first person to step on floor before dry.[/li][/ol]
What? Nobody uses the tried and true Navular method of swabbing the deck anymore?
You get one of those round mops (like this), dunk it in a bucket of soapy water, spin it smartly so that all of the strands spread out radially, plop it down as such, and then start swabbin’
Actually, once you get your floor clean, using any means, you can probably mitigate the grout staining problem by properly sealing the grout. Go to Home Depot and ask them for grout sealer and they’ll set you right up. It needs to be replenished every once in a while, and you know when the time is drawing near because the dirt doesn’t come out of the grout.
You definitely need to rinse/wring the mop more often. The purpose of rinsing & wringing is to take the filth off of the mop and deposit it in the bucket. Without farily frequent & effective rinsing/wringing, you are just spreading the filth around as you continue to mop i.e. not accomplishing the job.
A good mop bucket with wringing attachment will really facilitate the job. Otherwise just get those hand dirty.
I don’t know what it is with this floor, but it gets dirty extremely fast. I’ve lived in houses with all these same people and animals before, and the floors looked fine with daily sweeping and weekly mopping. This floor looks disgustingly filthy after ONE DAY. It’s driving me batty. I don’t know if it’s the light color of the tile, or what. I have actually scrubbed a portion of the grout before, but I got so damn sore it was unreal. Now I’m 8 months pregnant and not inclined to grub around on the floor. And it is extremely painful to kneel on this floor, even when I was significantly less pregnant. I lost 40 pounds just before I got pregnant, and since then kneeling on anything is torture. I lost all my knee fat, or something. On the other hand, I do have a 14 year old who’s currently grounded… perhaps he might earn some TV or computer time with some manual labor. It still doesn’t explain to me why this floor gets dirty so quickly, though.
It’s a self-wringing mop. One of those red ones with the swirly wringer tube on the end.
i would recommend getting on your knees (or, having 14 year old do so - older kids picking up the slack while you’re pregnant is probably a great idea!!) with a scrub brush to totally clean it up. mops just don’t do what hands-and-knees scrubbing can do, IMO. there is grout cleaner spray that supposedly etches out the dirt from your grout channels, but since i have linoleum, it’s been a while since i had to use the stuff. don’t exactly remember what it’s called.
then again, if the floor itself has this “looks dirty all the time” property to it, maybe you should consider ripping it up and replacing it! if this is where you’re going to live for a while, it might be a big investment, but would pay off in the tremendous amount of stress it would alleviate long-term.
I second the grout sealer. It makes all the difference in the world. For the painful kneeling: get thee to a large hardware store and buy knee pads. Once you have them, show the 14 year old how to put them on and get him or her to scrubbing! Good luck with the new kidlet.
I think keeping the mop as clean as possible would remove the most dirt, so I agree more with your method.
I have a stiff bristled, nylon scrub brush with a swivel head on a long handle, so I don’t have to get on all fours. After scrubbing and mopping, I spritz a clean, damp rag with Mr Clean, and get any build-up from the corners and a little further under the fridge and stove.
Scrubbing and then sealing the grout will make all the difference in light maintenance.
O/T: That brush is awesome for cleaning the top half of my walls. I turn it into a swiffer by securing a clean rag that’s been dipped into an ammonia solution, then wrung out, with a couple of those black clippy thingies ahem that I got from the office. The rags I use are like 12-inch square, white cotton facecloths. I get them at the hardware store, in a package of ten for CDN $10.
Spezza is right about most of this. Like him, I spent several years megascrubbing horribly grubby tile floors. Let me add a few things:
Use a wet vac. Once you roust all that gunk out of the grooves, it will tend to settle back into the same grooves before you mop it up. A vac will yank it all up.
Do your scrubbing with a push broom. You needn’t kneel to clean aggressively. Get the floor wetter than usual, with more detergent than usual, and let the chemical work a few minutes while you agitate with the broom. Follow with the wet-vac, then mop with clear plain water. If you need to scrub hard along the edges and corners, get a Doodlebug®. It’s a swivel mounted scrub-pad holder that screws onto a standard broom handle.
In extreme cases, an acidic cleaner is very effective on grout. However, it will also eat the grout. You must follow the acidic stuff with an alkaline cleaner to neutralize the acid, so the acid stops working before it destroys the grout.
No cleaner works instantly. Detergents are quick, but give each area at least two mop strokes. The first pass lays down the solution, and, a second later, the return stroke picks up the elmulsified dirt. One-pass mopping is only slightly better than dusting.
I think that your method would leave less residue on the floor when finished mopping. Hospitals use a 2 bucket method in mopping the surgery rooms but, you will never get the grout cleaned without using a brush for the each grout line.A mop is just not going to do it. I use a stiff scrub brush and degreaser.
I’m wondering why your kitchen floor gets so dirty after one day. Perhaps there’s some systemic things that can be done to help keep it clean after you first get it thoroughly cleaned:
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Do you get much traffic directly from the outside (or a garage) into the kitchen? Perhaps there’s a very grungy/oily garage floor that desperately needs cleaning, or a soiled pathway (that might need more pathstones or something) where shoes are picking up lots of dirt. Do you have a good footmat for that entry, and does everyone consistently wipe their shoes on it? It might even be worth experimenting with having your family leave their shoes in the garage or front porch/front steps/foyer for a week or so to see what happens. Are you seeing a lot of scuff marks from shoes on your floor? (I once had a pair of boots that I loved, but I had to stop wearing them inside because of all the scuff marks they were leaving on the kitchen linoleum.)
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Is it that family members are unnecessarily careless when preparing food and pouring drinks? Are paper towels located in a location convenient and readily reachable even by young children (they may require a second roll located lower to the floor somewhere, just for them)? Are leftovers stored in closed containers in the fridge, or overfilled serving bowls and platters and the like? Are children pouring their own drinks, but trying to pour too close to the top of the cup?
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Are pets a complicating factor? (Litterbox dust can be reduced by switching to less-dusty brands; you might need a bigger food bowl; dogs can get accustomed to having their paws wiped off with a wet cloth after a walk; etc.) Do you have a doggy-poo-dirtied yard that would benefit from diligent hosings, or more dog-walking?
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Do you need better ventilation in your kitchen? Do you have a ventilated range hood and do people use it when cooking (and esp. frying)?
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Do you have forced-air heating in your home? That’s the worst system for dust and allergy sufferers… you might need to check your system’s filtration and ducts for excessive soot or dust accumulation.
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Is there a problem with excessive soot in the house, either from inefficient burning of heating oil or fireplace issues?
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Are your refrigerator coils clean? (No, dirty coils aren’t causing your floor problems, but once your floor is good and clean you don’t need a thick matting of dust bunnies around to help dirty things up. Besides, keeping the coils clean greatly aids the efficiency of the fridge, and allows the compressor to run less frequently… lessening mechanical wear and tear and adding life to the fridge.)