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Cleaning vs. pushing dirt around - help please!



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seeker




 
 
    
 

Post Sat, Mar 07 2015, 10:42 pm
Can someone please educate me on how to do it right? I feel like I am very inefficient at cleaning, waste a lot of time without even really getting much done. Need some pro tips, please!

Floors are the problem.
First I sweep. I must be doing something wrong because there is always more dirt after. It runs away from my broom. But the sweeping gets done.
Mopping is worse. I have tried both sponge mops and string mops. I do not have a sponja hole, I don't know why they aren't standard here, that seems to me the most logical way to actually GET RID of the dirt. When I mop, I feel like I'm just pushing the dirt around! I clean it but it stays on the floor! A little gets picked up by the mop I guess. Then it goes into the water, some stays on the mop, and the rest of the floor is getting mopped with dirty water. I pour out the water, refill it, swoosh the mop around again, get clean water again, and re-mop the whole floor with clean water. It seems a little better but there will always be some dirt left behind anyway, and is it really supposed to take that much shlepping around and re-doing?
The bathroom floor seems to me the most frustrating. It seems like no matter what I do, the dirt stays on the floor, and even if I do my very best job and really get it clean, spending an inordinate amount of time for a room that is barely big enough to turn around in, it's filthy again within a few days. I don't get it! And it's not just that my tiles are possibly permanently grayish; that I can deal with and I know how clean they can technically get from the times when I actually did scrub thoroughly. What I'm talking about is still finding actual grains of dirt and dust all over.

Can someone please tell me if this is normal, and if not how do you do it more efficiently? How much time is normal to spend cleaning a floor?
I have tile floor in the bathroom that traps dirt because there are those little spaces between tiles.
Tile floor in the kitchen but there the tiles are flat and flush with each other so it's a little easier (still have the problem of moving dirt around instead of cleaning, but maybe there's less dirt in the first place. And it's a little easier to get it off the tiles before starting to move it around Cool )
Wood in the living room and bedroom whose sealant is starting to get worn so I need to be careful with that. And also probably get the finish redone, but meanwhile need to be gentle and not too wet.
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mha3484




 
 
    
 

Post Sat, Mar 07 2015, 10:50 pm
I hate mopping which is why we have carpet Smile. The kitchen and bathroom are tile so I have a steam mop that also vaccums. It is the only thing I've had success with.
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seeker




 
 
    
 

Post Sat, Mar 07 2015, 10:54 pm
Oh forgot to mention we have some extreme noise sensitivities (both mine AND the kids!) so vacuuming I do only when truly desperate. Maybe twice a year including erev Pesach. And no carpet because DH claims it collects dust and we have allergies and asthma in the family (I say better a carpet collecting the dust than our wood floors letting the dust fly around! But some beliefs are too deeply ingrained to argue with. So it all comes down to better housekeeping)
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BetsyTacy




 
 
    
 

Post Sat, Mar 07 2015, 10:57 pm
What about Swiffer (dry) for the wood floors?
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seeker




 
 
    
 

Post Sat, Mar 07 2015, 11:02 pm
We do use swiffer. It helps dust. Doesn't do much for anything else (e.g. the kind of dirt that needs to be wiped/scrubbed/mopped off, tiny piecey dirt that escapes sweeping)
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BetsyTacy




 
 
    
 

Post Sat, Mar 07 2015, 11:07 pm
There is a big difference between mopping and scrubbing. I will be unpopular here and say that I have only been successful with scrubbing my making it a hands and knees affair. I hope you find an easier answer.
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seeker




 
 
    
 

Post Sat, Mar 07 2015, 11:14 pm
So, BetsyTacy, when you scrub how do you get the dirt UP OFF the floor? I can get it off its original spot by scrubbing, but it is still on the floor! This is what I'm asking, mostly. Also for general tips.
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BetsyTacy




 
 
    
 

Post Sat, Mar 07 2015, 11:23 pm
When I scrub with a wet, diluted with cleanser shmatte, I scrub, and then rinse out/fold over schmatte to a clean section once I have picked up the scrubbed off shmutz.
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seeker




 
 
    
 

Post Sat, Mar 07 2015, 11:25 pm
Sounds like work Sad


(yes, I'm whining)
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BetsyTacy




 
 
    
 

Post Sat, Mar 07 2015, 11:28 pm
I'm sorry. I told you I hoped someone else would chime in with an easier way. The only way I know to make it easier is to encourage (slightly older) children to eat more neatly.
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nywife




 
 
    
 

Post Sat, Mar 07 2015, 11:36 pm
BetsyTacy wrote:
There is a big difference between mopping and scrubbing. I will be unpopular here and say that I have only been successful with scrubbing my making it a hands and knees affair. I hope you find an easier answer.


I agree! Thankfully all of my apartment is carpeted, besides for the kitchen & bathroom, so it's not that much. I find that the only thing that works is to get down on my hands and knees with a shmattah and scrub (especially all those spots that are hard to get to with a mop, like in between the fridge & counter, toilet & bathtub) After that I mop over it but that's just to clean up anything left behind.
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gp2.0




 
 
    
 

Post Sat, Mar 07 2015, 11:46 pm
Maybe get a new/different broom that will gather dust more effectively? Mopping doesn't really pick up dust, I know what you mean, it's more for scrubbing stains...

I was really happy with a Roomba for awhile (until it started acting funny, still haven't figured out why) but you say you/your kids have issues with vacuuming so you can't do that anyway.
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mandr




 
 
    
 

Post Sat, Mar 07 2015, 11:50 pm
I found a huge difference when I changed brooms. I don't know, my old broom was such a pain. It fluffed all the dust and dirt all around the room like the Amelia Bedilia illustrations in the books. So I got a new one from Walmart that says it has extra features on the bottom that attract the dust. It works pretty well. I sweep very carefully. Then I wash the floor with an OXO mop that has a nice microfiber cloth at the bottom of the sponge. That traps every piece of dirty. By the time you reach the washing step, the floor doesn't have dirt on it that you can pick up with your fingers. The mop is for washing the stains, dried liquid spills, grease, very fine dust, etc. The bucket of water shouldn't have floating debris inside. If yes, repeat the sweeping step.

Bathroom floor: First sweep with a good broom. My old broom made the floor worse. It divided the lint fluffies all around the room in little pieces. With new broom it takes 1-2-3. Then wash with mop. Do that room last so you don't bring all the bathroom germs around the house.

I wash with a solution of Lysol and water. It smells nice and is a disinfectant. With a baby on the floor, I need that. Murphy - I love the smell but it leaves streaks and a weird film over the parquet.
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youngishbear




 
 
    
 

Post Sat, Mar 07 2015, 11:58 pm
So mandr, what kind of broom did you get? Please name names so us cleaning challenged women can benefit from your expertise.
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mandr




 
 
    
 

Post Sun, Mar 08 2015, 12:03 am
Certainly.

Broom: http://www.walmart.com/ip/2454.....=true

Mop: http://www.bedbathandbeyond.co.....o+mop

Lysol: http://www.walmart.com/ip/Lyso.....38915
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seeker




 
 
    
 

Post Sun, Mar 08 2015, 12:28 am
Thanks for the suggestions. I did try replacing both broom and mop with different types but I guess I still didn't get it right! (traded old broom for new broom and sponge mop for string mop)
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gp2.0




 
 
    
 

Post Sun, Mar 08 2015, 12:51 am
I like this mop: http://www.amazon.com/Scotch-B.....X0DER
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Iymnok




 
 
    
 

Post Sun, Mar 08 2015, 5:51 am
I'll tell you the way I do sponga. I have a rubber broom and tiled floors.
I fill a bucket with soapy water. If the floor is really gross pour water on the dirtiest parts to loosen it. Put a shmatta in the bucket, take it out without squeezing spread it over the a sponga stick. Start at one end of the room, work as if you are sweeping, scrubbing the tough spots. I do this with my toe in the shmatta. Poor more water as needed. When the shmatta you're using gets too dirty, put it in a second bucket. Once you finish going over the whole floor take a clean shmatta and wipe up everything following your footsteps from the beginning. The floor won't be dry yet. Toss the shmattas in the second bucket as needed. Now you have 2 options, if you think it's clean then dry the floor with a fresh soft shmatta, if not take a clean shmatta, put it in the soapy water, squeeze it out and go over the floor again until you are confident in the cleanliness.
Dry the floor with a clean soft shmatta-or two.
I use 6-8 each time, toss them in the washer right after.
Usually 1/4- 1/2 a bucket is enough for me.
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