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Monday, July 24, 2023

#MicroblogMondays: A sticky situation

Friday night, dh poured himself a glass of iced tea, sat down in the armchair and set the glass down on a coaster on the end table. 

He's not sure what happened, but over went the glass, and sticky, sugary iced tea sloshed ALL OVER the table, the side of the (leather) armchair, the (laminated wood) floor and the power bar/surge protector sitting on the floor between the table and chair. :(  

We managed to unplug the power bar and the things plugged into it without getting electrocuted (!) and started soaking up the liquid with various cleaning cloths and paper towels. I wiped down everything with a wet rag, including the floor -- but I could still feel the stickiness after it all dried. I knew I needed to give the floor a good, proper mopping -- it had been a while since I last did it anyway -- but my heart sank at the thought of starting this at 9 o'clock at night. I resolved to do it first thing in the morning after breakfast, when I could get in the shower right afterwards.  

Mopping the floor is one of those tasks that I always find myself putting off -- and when I do, I generally focus on the ceramic tiles in the kitchen, entryway, front hall and laundry closets, and two bathrooms. I grew up in houses with wall-to-wall carpeting in most of the living areas & bedrooms, and while I enjoy the look of our laminate wood floors and how easy it is to keep them clean, I find I'm a little leery of wet-mopping them too frequently, so I generally tend to just spot-mop any areas that look like they need it.  Dh vacuums our unit thoroughly every week, and I follow along behind him with a Swiffer dust mop to pick up the fine particles left behind, which usually keeps the floors pretty clean.  I figure I don't need to wet-mop every week, when there's just the two of us. I couldn't help but think, as I cleaned up the mess, that one bonus of being childless is that there's generally not a lot of sticky stuff landing on my floors with any kind of frequency, which means I don't have to mop as often!  :)  

When I do mop, I use the Vileda spin mop -- called O-Cedar in the U.S. -- recommended by GoCleanCo, and follow her method:  fill the bucket with hot water to the maximum fill line, and add one teaspoon of powdered Tide laundry detergent. (NOT liquid Tide, and no more than one teaspoon! -- and yes, it HAS to be Tide!)  That's it!  :)  

Before discovering GoCleanCo (on Instagram, during the pandemic), I used good old white vinegar in hot water, with satisfactory results too -- and I've also had a Shark steam mop, which I LOVED -- although I would be leery about using it on a laminate wood floor (the heat might soften the glue and warp the floor).  Also, I've had two steam mops, and unfortunately, they've never lasted very long...!   

Do you faithfully mop your floors on a regular timetable -- or are you more of an occasional/as needed mopper like me?  What's your preferred tools/method?  

You can find more of this week's #MicroblogMondays posts here

5 comments:

  1. I am an infrequent/spot mopper as well. And even though I have kids I cannot say they in any way motivate me to mop the floor oftener. LOL.

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  2. I am spot-mopper, but full disclosure we have a cleaning lady who comes every other week and mops everything then. Before that, I did it about once a month for all the floors, but spot mopped when it was needed. I use Bona hardwood floor cleaner with the microfiber mop heads you can wash, and Swiffer for sure.

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  3. I have mostly carpets, except in the kitchen, laundry, and bathrooms. I mostly spot mop, but don't do an overall mop often enough. I'm too embarrassed to say how frequently/infrequently I wash the floors.

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    1. You'll notice I refrain from mentioning here exactly how often I do wash the floors! lol

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  4. I sweep them a lot but mop them a lot...not so much.

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