Dana K. White

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A Love/Hate Relationship With My Wood Floors – And a Libman Freedom Spray Mop Giveaway!

By | 151 Comments

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.

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.

Libman sent me the Freedom Spray Mop. Notice how beautifully white the pad looks. (That’s important for later.)

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.

Like Me on facebook,

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.

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!
____________________________

Comments

  4. Elizabeth says

    This sounds like a perfect mop for my family's wood floors. Like you, we never clean them because, um, it's overwhelming.

    anakaatba at gmail dot com

    Reply

  10. Raina says

    I just started cleaning my wood floors with vinegar and water and am using a spray bottle along with my swiffer wet jet. This would be perfect to skip the spray bottle and the throw away pads. Thanks for the giveaway! I subscribed by e-mail.

    raina at earls dot net

    Reply

  15. LynC says

    I want this! I want this! I want this! I have wood floors and have this mop on my Xmas list. I want it!!! lynseyw_310 at hotmail dot com

    Reply

  20. Melody says

    Hi Nony I would love to win this mop thanks so much for the chance…Love your blog too 🙂 email: littlebirdy3 at verizon dot com

    Reply

  29. Shannon says

    I love this! With three cats, two kids and a husband, our floors get rather filthy. Oh, did I forget to mention that we live in the country? We have no sidewalk, driveway(well, ours is red dirt), or nice walkway to our door. We must truge through the grass and dirt. Then we enter the house through the back door which leads right into the kitchen. Everything that we picked up gets dropped on our kitchen floor. Ugh!

    Shannon

    Shleviner204 (at) hotmail (dot) Com

    Reply

  32. Anonymous says

    Would love to win! I have all hardwood floors in my house and it's such a struggle to keep them clean. My regular mop puts too much water on the floor so I end up cleaning them by hand. But the problem with that is I only clean them every few months! kristydenney (at) hotmail (dot)com

    Reply

  33. Julie says

    I am officially your newest reader after reading this post. Your writing style is funny and honest and I can relate (I too love/hate my wood floors) and I'd love to have one of these mops.

    drunkitty2000 at yahoo dot com

    Reply

  45. Anonymous says

    Would love to win! phillygirl06 at the-opposite-of-coldmail.com.

    heather 😉

    p.s. love the dirty mop photo, would probably have the same!

    Reply

  54. Anonymous says

    I would love one of these! That's so great you can use any cleaner. 🙂 Danielle
    kdmoody2000 at yahoo dot com

    Reply

  57. TSC says

    This would be awesome. My wood floors don't get cleaned very often at all – all the same reasons! tscorcoran at aol dot com

    Reply

  72. Anonymous says

    I love your blog and am happy you get your first give away!!

    I have a question…so many of these things have such short handles that my back is killing me when I'm done… Would you say that this one's handle is the same size as the swiffer sweeper (not wetjet) or larger?

    thecartledges at hotmail dot com

    Reply

  74. Anonymous says

    I just signed up to follow you by e-mail. Not sure why I hadn't done that before since yours is the first on my blog list!!

    thecartledges at hotmail dot com

    Reply

  82. Anonymous says

    Just finished reading your blog and have appreciated seeing your journey/process. I would love a mop like this because like you I rarely cleaned my hardwood floors. This looks like a great way to make it a part of the routine.

    Thank you for hosting the give-away,
    Michelle
    savingmoney.info at gmail dot com

    Reply

  96. lexerdax says

    Would love to win this! I need to update on BlogFrog – I did hire a professional organizer! I'll tell you all about it soon. 🙂

    ascc AT lexa DOT xar DOT us

    Reply

  102. pinklady says

    I've been on a mission to find a way to clean wood floors. They have been driving me crazy!

    2liv2laf2luv at gmail dot com

    Reply

  110. Janelle says

    I subscribe to this RSS feed via Google Reader so I don't miss a thing!
    Thanks for a chance to win this giveaway!
    Best wishes,
    Chanticlear1atgmaildotcom

    Reply

  114. Amanda H. says

    I would love to win this! Winter in WI is hitting, so my kids and dog think they need to go outside — ugh! Whatev! — just to track everything back in. Thanks!

    enahors (at) yahoo (dot) com

    Reply

  119. Anonymous says

    oops just wrote that I'm a subscriber with google reader and forgot to add my email address
    Rlandau1 At bezeqint dot net

    Reply

  122. Sweetpea101506 says

    I subscribe via email as well

    Again, my email addy is sweetpea101506 at aol dot com, I forgot this in my comment.

    Reply

  123. Sweetpea101506 says

    I already "like" you on Facebook and I would totally follow you on Twitter too if I knew how to work it LOL

    Again, my email addy is sweetpea101506 at aol dot com.

    Thanks for the giveaway, it's really nice of you to do!

    Reply

  148. Amy says

    I love reading your emails. It is amazing to me how many times I can completely relate to what you post! I'd love to win the mop as I am hostting a christmas dinner and need help 🙂 ncsweetie at gmail dot com

    Reply

  151. Debbie says

    I know the giveaway is closed but I am a fairly new reader and wanted to comment on this post. I have wood floors in all 3 bedrooms. We have lived her 14 years. I think I have cleaned them 2x. This goes along with the post I just read about NOT cleaning something because I have no idea how to do it. We are wanting to rip out the carpet covering hardwoods in front room, dining room and down the hallway. SO, I am seriously happy to learn of this cleaning tool. We are also in the processs of installing laminate wood floor in the family room and kitchen area.
    Thanks again for your advice!!
    Debbie

    Reply

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