12
votes
I need a good mop for my floors at home. What would you recommend?
I got a cheap mop at the grocery store last year thinking that would be enough, but it broke like a month ago and always left smudges all over my floors anyway. I never really liked it. It was one of those fixed sponges with a handle to squeeze it out rather than one that looks like Medusa.
I have wood laminate floors throughout my house, not true wood floors. Unfortunately, they're dark brown and show a ton of crumbs and smudges, so I'm looking for something sorta in the buy-it-for-life category. I.e. willing to shell out a little more if it makes a difference. I've had a vacuum for a year that has been good for all the crumbs (Miele), and I really love it.
Also what soap should I be using for best results?
Thanks, all!
I second the microfiber mops over the traditional "bucket of water" style of mops, especially for newer laminate floors.
I have this mop from Bona and like it a lot. The cleaning pads being removable and machine-washable is really nice. I have two, when one gets dirty I toss it in the laundry with a load of towels/rags and put the clean spare on.
Bona also makes a mop with a built-in spray bottle. I had a Swiffer mop similar to this before and wasn't a fan. They tend to operate on an "inkjet printer" business model where the container of cleaning fluid is difficult or impossible to refill, and the path of least resistance is to throw the empty bottles out and buy a brand new one each time.
What I did instead was to buy empty plastic spray bottles, fill them up with my own cleaning solution, then go around with spray bottle in one hand and mop in the other.
When I lived in a place with real wood floors I used the venerable Murphy Oil Soap. It's extremely concentrated so a single bottle lasted me for years. My current apartment has laminated floors, and Murphy's is supposed to work on them but left a sort of sticky residue that I didn't like. I ended up switching to cleaning my floors with the same Puracy cleaner I use for almost everything else in my house. I've become a huge fan of Puracy products and now use their laundry soap, shampoo and body wash in addition to the surface cleaner.
A final protip I'll throw out is that if you're buying concentrated cleaning supplies like this and then diluting them before use, it's really handy to make them a gallon at a time, rather than trying to measure out just the right amount for a single spray bottle. I rinsed out the gallon plastic jug that my car's windshield wiper fluid came in and use that to mix up a batch periodically. A bottle of the cleaner concentrate is ~$15 on Amazon and makes a gallon of cleaner once diluted (which is very convenient - just pour the bottle of concentrate into the empty gallon jug and fill the rest with water). That gallon of cleaner then lasts me probably 3-4 months, using it to clean everything from my floors to my stove to my toilet.
The best mop I have ever used is a bog-standard commercial-grade mop. I think Rubbermaid is the company that makes the one's I've used, but it's a fairly generic design that I'm sure others make as well. Here's the example.
It's got a big thick wooden handle which is ideally heavy so that it helps you scrub the floor, and that handle is replaceable so you can use it with other tools or replace it if it breaks. The head is a simple plastic (or sometimes metal) piece that clamps onto the mop head. And the head is simple fiber braids that are sewn onto a piece of fabric to make it easy to clamp on. The braids are extremely absorbant, so if you have heavily soiled floors, it will help you distribute your water/cleaning fluid quickly, and it'll also help to pull away the moisture to ensure that the floor will dry quickly. And when you combine it with the bucket with the wringer it makes things dramatically easier. Having these tools actually makes mopping enjoyable for me; everything else makes it into a chore.
Depending on how often you clean your floors and how stained they are, water is typically enough. If you've got heavily stained floors, I typically just add a tiny bit of generic pine-sol or fabuloso to the water, but it depends on the type of floor. I'd imagine they're both fine for artificial wood, but there are many formulations of it so you might want to do a bit of research (by which I mean check the back of the bottle). I wouldn't worry too much since it's going to be heavily diluted, but at the same time you really don't want to ruin your floors. Nice floors are expensive.
I've been using a Rubbermaid Reveal floor mop for years now, and my parents have been for years before me in their house with hard surfaces throughout their first floor. The washable pads are nice (and easy to find replacements/extras for if you need ones for different floor surfaces), and being able to have a refillable cleaner bottle on it instead of dealing with a bucket is also awesome. Haven't had any issues keeping the wood and tile floor in my current apartment clean, and did great on the laminate in my last one. Sadly they're running about $60 on Amazon right now, but I bought mine for $35, and I've seen them for around $40 at Lowe's before. Money well spent, in my opinion.
As far as cleaners? Laminate doesn't require specialty cleaners like wood can-- I'm partial to lavender scented Fabuloso myself, but any floor cleaner that has a scent you like is fine.
EDIT: So it looks like it's the same style of mop (microfiber cloth with spray bottle) that was recommended upthread. My bad for adding to the noise in here.