The Secret to Squeaky Clean Wooden Floors

One of my best friends, Diona of Mommy Ways to Win, has super squeaky clean wooden floors. I forced her to spill her secret to clean wooden floors in today’s guest post. This girl takes her mopping seriously! Enjoy!

I’m one of those that wants to hear that squeaky clean. Be it rinsing the dishes till they squeak, all the way to the squeaky clean of freshly shampooed hair. I love the sound of clean. However, my floors were not bringing any music to my ears.

Oh, I’ve tried different mops over the years. Remember the mops you could buy from the Lions’ Club? I started out using the traditional mops you wring out by hand and it is absolutely awful on your cuticles! Good thing I had gloves about half of the time I needed to mop.

Then there was a new-fangled mop with the micro fibers; and the mop head promised no more touching nasty mop water. The mop head itself was connected in two places, on the end of the handle and a plastic disc that when you turned it the mop head fibers would twist out the excess water. Our hands are saved from the yucky dirty water! It worked OK, until all the little fibers got tangled up in a huge knot and then wouldn’t twist the water out of the mop head.

Raise your hand if you jumped on the Swiffer bandwagon. I used the original model and had the dusting pads and the wet pads. The wet pads lasted for a minute before drying up. I would try to get my money’s worth by flipping the pad over and mop like crazy till time ran out.

I almost gave up on the idea of squeaky clean floor.

I saw a commercial singing the praises of a steam mop. I was intrigued and checked it out. Whoa, sticker shock! $150?!?!? For a mop? Do you know what I could buy with $150?

Fast forward seven months and I was still eyeballing this steam mop that refuses to go on sale. My husband finally calls my cheapskate bluff and buys us this new and improved steam mop that has a detachable hand held steamer. That’s right… I said a detachable hand held steamer.

We get it out of the box expecting to have to read a long instruction sheet and learn all the different buttons. Instead, my husband poured water into the reservoir with the little cup that was provided with the mop. He pushed the button and it immediately started steam mopping the floor and we were done 10 minutes later. It was that easy.

We have hardwood floors in our living room extending into our dining room and linoleum in our kitchen with a half bathroom. I figured it took one cupful of water to generate the steam long enough to mop each room. I only used water to clean the floors of the whole downstairs and my floors were clean… squeaky clean. No chemicals were used to achieve this.

My first thought was: no more headaches from chemical fumes! I have made the switch from harsh cleaners to vinegar and baking soda with the idea that it’s safer with my toddler and more cost effective too. Not getting a headache every time I clean house is liberating.

We’re saving money by not buying any harsh chemicals to clean our floors.

Bleach is about $2 – $3/ bottle around here and Pine Sol was around $3. I also found some Murphy’s Oil Soap for hardwood floors priced at $4. Now if you are loyal to Swiffer you can expect to pay a whole lot more for the privilege of Swiffing. I’ll never buy any of that stuff again though.

No need for a bucket or using a kitchen or bathroom sink to mop. I don’t have to wear gloves or an apron because I’m not using harsh chemicals. No worries about getting bleach on your favorite pair of yoga pants which I’ve done before. It’s also one less thing you have to worry about storing in the garage because you can keep it inside the house, with no fumes.

If I haven’t convinced you to ditch your old school way of mopping yet, then let me tell you about another benefit. Your floor will dry in minutes. Seriously, it took maybe 3 minutes and my toddler was walking around on a completely dry floor. Over are the days of hiding out in another room or making your kids stay in their rooms for 30 minutes to allow the floors to dry.

How much will I save with my steam mop?

One gallon of bleach or pine sol per month is about $3 and Murphy’s Oil Soap for $4 every 6 months comes to $44 a year. I’ll made my money back in 3 years.

Time spent NOT cleaning with a mop and bucket… priceless!

My steam mop is the Shark Steam Professional. We love it but there are other good ones out there. Other front runners are…

Bissell Power Fresh Steam Mop ($80-$100 Range)

Shark Steam Pocket Mop ($60-$80 Range)

How often do you mop your floors?

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