If you’re a regular reader, you have probably noticed that I’m not doing this deslobification thing according to a well-laid-out long-term plan. Because whenever I try a well-laid-out long-term plan . . . my mind starts to wander.
Basically, I choose something that bugs me and/or boggles my mind about my house, work on it until it becomes a habit, and then I add something else.
It’s working for me. I’ve figured out what it takes to keep my house clean, and to keep it from morphing into a flea market right under my nose.
It has been a slow process, and there are still plenty of times when it gets chaotic, but I am no longer completely clueless about how it gets to that point, and I don’t feel doomed to live that way forever.
My weekly cleaning tasks have made a huge difference in keeping my house from getting . . . ummm . . . how do I put this . . . gross. But I didn’t even start them until after about six months of simple daily tasks, and lots of decluttering.
LOTS of decluttering.
So what does this have to do with my wood floors?
Well, pre-blog, I put them in the “someday I really need to get into a routine of cleaning them regularly” category. Alongside scrubbing toilets and changing sheets.
See, wood floors have advantages, but they can also be overwhelming.
An advantage is that messes can be wiped up fairly easily. When my second son rammed his head into a cabinet around the age of 4, he amazingly managed to only drip blood on the wood floor, missing the 8×10 area rug completely. After the stitches, we wiped it right up, and I praised him for being so considerate.
But wood floors are overwhelming because rather than vacuuming and saying you’re done, you also need to “clean” them.
Ugh.
You need to clean them . . . but I didn’t. I tried mopping a few times, but was scared to have too much water on the floors, and “damp mopping” didn’t seem to make any difference at all. The spots that were there when I started were were still there once I was done.
I bought one of those “mopping systems” which worked okay, except that I didn’t like the smell of the wood-floor-cleaner that came with it, and once the disposable pads were used up, the batteries went out, and the cleaning fluid was gone, I never thought to buy more.
Every few months for the next two years, I would decide I needed to clean the wood floors.
I’d then:
Go look for the mopping system.
Realize that I needed to buy more pads, cleaning solution, batteries, etc.
Think to myself, “Oh, I should really make a grocery list.”
Head to the kitchen to find a scrap piece of paper.
Dig around in a drawer.
Find something way more interesting . . . like a bunch of random box tops that needed to be sent to school.
And never think about whatever should have gone on the list until three months later . . . when I got the urge to mop again.
When I started the blog, one of the things I figured I would eventually work on was a routine for mopping the wood floors. But then, I had a party. A little afternoon get together for some moms. And one of them asked me, “What do you do to take care of your floors?”
My heart sped up, and I replied, “Why?”
She responded . . . “Because it looks like you polish them every other day!”
Note to self: Only invite people over at that exact time of day. Because that’s how it works. If the light shines in my front window just right, my floors look fabulous, but if you wait 2 hours, it will hit at a different angle, and every spot or drip will stand out and look horrible.
I was honest, and told her, “Nothing.”
While it was nice to receive totally undeserved praise, it wasn’t so nice that her comment completely removed all motivation on my part to figure out a routine for cleaning my wood floors.
Well, I still haven’t found a routine, but I think I may have found a tool to clean them that actually works.
I mentioned a few days ago that I’m now a brand ambassador for Libman. They sent me the Freedom Spray Mop. Notice how beautifully white the pad looks. (That’s important for later.)
This is the spray mop for me. Everything is re-usable. The cleaning pads are washable. You fill it with whatever cleaning fluid you want. There are no batteries.
You may be thinking, “Wow, I didn’t know Nony was so green!” Let me assure you that while I’m good with being green, I mostly like these features because they eliminate my excuses!
I can no longer put off cleaning the floors with the excuse that I can’t get to the store, because I have everything I need! Throw the pad in the washing machine (normal people probably would do that immediately after using it, but knowing how my brain works, I’ll probably do it just before I need it the next time), and my excuses are gone!
Hate the smell of cleaning fluid? I just filled mine with a vinegar/water solution. My house smells a little like pasta salad, but I’m okay with that!
(I did stress a little about what cleaner to use, because there is so much contradictory advice on the Internet about what to use or not use on wood floors.)
But are my floors clean?
Since using it, I’ve been checking all day, in the various lights, and I’ve decided that the Freedom Spray Mop worked really well! Most of the spots are gone, and the ones that are still there are ones that I’m pretty sure I didn’t see while cleaning, so I didn’t work very hard on them.
That’s just one more example (of thousands) of how important it is for me to clean consistently. If I did this regularly, there wouldn’t be so many spots, and each time would eliminate a few more!
Here’s a picture of a few spots before I started:
And here’s the same area when I was done:
And just in case I thought my floors probably weren’t that bad, here’s the after picture of the mopping pad:
I know. Gross.
And as promised, I’m also making this my first Giveaway Post!!! Libman will be sending one reader his/her very own Freedom Spray Mop!
**************Edited 12/16 – The giveaway is now closed! I’ll post the winner later today!
All you have to do to enter the giveaway is leave a comment on this post. Nothing special is required in your comment, but make sure that you include a way to contact you. You may want to avoid the spam-robots by spelling it out like this: aslobcomesclean at gmail dot com. Some of you with google accounts have it set up where I can email you through your profile when you comment, but if you’re not sure, leave your email.
If you would like some extra entries, you can:
Subscribe to A Slob Comes Clean
Subscribe to A Slob Comes Clean by Email
Become a follower over on my sidebar.
and/or follow me on twitter.
For each of those things that you do, leave a separate comment, so that it can be counted as another entry.
Example:
Comment #1 – Would love to win! aslobcomesclean at gmail dot com
Comment # 2 – I followed you on twitter! aslobcomesclean at gmail dot com
Comment # 3 – I already subscribe to your blog! aslobcomesclean at gmail dot com
Please be aware that if you already subscribe, you need to click through to the actual post to comment, as responding to the email can’t count as an entry. This giveaway will end at midnight Pacific time on December 15, and then I’ll use random.org to select a winner.
Sorry, but this giveaway is only open to U.S. residents.
And don’t forget that Libman is having a HUGE Money Mop Up Sweepstakes on their Facebook page, giving away great products and 500$ cash!!!
I received no monetary compensation for this post, but was provided with the Freedom Spray Mop by Libman. The opinions about it are all mine!
____________________________
