Tuesday, May 31, 2011

I'm in Love...with a Steam Mop

A couple of years ago we owned a home. There was wood flooring throughout the whole home. Silly-no kids yet-wood floors are so cool and different- me thought they were such a great selling point...until about two weeks after we moved in. I felt like I had to clean then ALL THE TIME! We live in the southwest, so there is just constant dust coming in from the outside and after about three years there I thought I was going to lose it!




So we moved into an apartment...with nasty carpet...and I longed for my wood floors again.




We moved AGAIN into this condo at the beginning of the year...and there are wood floors throughout. Can you see the pattern I am in?




So, I hate them. Yes, I know hate is not a nice word, but basically if wood floors never existed in my life again...I would be totally OK with that. Everyone comes into our place and says, "Oh, wood floors are so nice!" and I kinda wanna punch them...or hand them my Swiffer to clean up the dusty footprints they just brought in.




So, after using wet floor wipe after wet floor wipe, only to still have my socks be dirty after cleaning...I gave up hope of ever having truly clean floors...then I ran into this:




(source)



I was at Target (trying to get away from my dirty floors) and saw this guy on clearance from $60 down to $15!! I figured I could give it a try for $15 and brought it home. At first I was very annoyed to find that it had an electrical cord. I know...how did I think it would make steam without it being electric? But still, the happy model girl in khakis doesn't have a cord!



The first few uses were annoying. It didn't "wow" me at first and my floors were kinda streaky afterwards. Then I realized my floors just needed another go around with the steam mop to get off all the nasty soapy junk from all my wet floor wipes. THEN the floors looked SO good! Best of all, they FELT so good!



Here is what the pad looked like (after dry dusting the floors before use):





That's after I had already used a dusting cloth on them before using the steam mop! All this time I had been just swishing the crud around on my floors and paying $3 (per pack of wet wipes) to do so!



So, being the really cool neat freak that I am...I poured some water on the floors and wiped it up with a paper towel to see just how clean they really were...and the paper towel came up totally clean!



So, yes I really just made this whole long post about a steam mop. And no I wasn't contacted by Shark to give a good review on this product:) I rarely buy products like this. The whole "as seen on TV" thing kinda bothers me...but when I find a product that really works, I like to share it:)



This isn't a perfect solution for every day messes. It takes a little bit longer to clean the floors now and it doesn't clean up stains like the box suggests...but I'm finding I only have to do it about once a week downstairs and every other week upstairs and that is a HUGE difference to the almost once a day I was doing before. I still wipe up things really well as soon as they spill, but knowing that my floors are truly clean is wonderful!


Best of all, I am saving money on wet floor wipes, saving my trash from piling up so quickly, and I know that my floors are clean without cleaning chemicals all over them.



So, am I the only one that hates wood floors? So many people love them...is there anyone like me that isn't a fan?

9 comments:

  1. Interesting! We've always had carpets, which were a pain when the babies were crawling and one would always put the carpet fuzz in his mouth and then gag. Yuck. I cleaned the carpets twice a year and vacuumed daily, but they just never really felt clean. Plus, half our family has allergies, and carpets love to hold in all those allergens! A year ago we moved into a house with all wood floors and I've never felt so in love! I have a steam mop (a different brand - Haan) that I used to use in our old house in the kitchen and bathrooms, and now I use it on the wood floors and I'm so happy. Reallllly happy. I use mine twice a week as we live at the beach and right next to a park and track in a lot of sand/dust/boy germs! Glad you found something you like!

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  2. I have one and it gets the gunk off my bathroom tile floors like magic!

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  3. That looks so functional and useful! I've never seen it before. Thanks for sharing.


    Have a great day!
    - Stephanie

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  4. I would love to have wood floors (don't punch me!:P)

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  5. We have wood floors throughout our house and I got the Shark Steam Mop last year on a black Friday sale. I LOVE my mop but I hate how long it takes to do the floors, partly because we have rugs to vacuum and move and partly b/c I have to do them while my 14month old is napping or he gets burned from the steam :(. Someday we'll move to a house with Carpet, and then my allergies will go nuts and I'll miss my wood floors, oh the irony . . .

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  6. In August, we moved from a small, old apartment with all (yucky) carpet into a house with all wood floors! The carpet in the old apartment was the number one reason we moved!! We have a cat with long hair, a dog with long hair, and my husband has terrible allergies so wood floors was a big step up! Our animals do shed, however, and it was frustrating seeing those balls of hair rolling around the house, often just out of reach of my fingers and the broom. Finally, we were so fed up, we bought a Shark Vac-then-Steam and we LOVE it! I can run it through the house sucking up all the little fur balls and then run back over it with the steamer. My floors shine and actually FEEL clean when walking around in bare feet. The Shark has been an answer to our prayers!

    I just proof-read all that and I sound like an infomercial! Ha!

    Sorry for the long post, but enjoy your wood floors! Much better and now much cleaner than carpet! :)

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  7. I hate my tile and carpet so much I could scream. I would do almost anything for wood floors. I have that same steamer and I love it too, Melissa!

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  8. I've read the other comments and I also love my wood floors. I vacuum and my husband mops, so I can't say exactly what he uses. I wouldn't want to go back to carpeting.

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  9. Another thing you can do is to refuse entry to your home by people wearing shoes. In our house, no shoes are allowed inside. Unless its dead of winter and the guest isn't wearing socks, no shoes. Period.

    You can go barefoot, in socks, or in slippers but no outside shoes. Keeps my floors cleaner and my landlords happy as they've paid for the new floors we put down. ;)

    Try it. Have a spot outside your entry for shoes and teach the littlies (and biggies) that you take yer shoes off before you enter. Print off and stick up a sign saying "Shoes off please!" right near your doorbell. It works well for us.

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