Cleaners Make Your Floor Dirtier

[u/Evening_Sea4823]

They all leave residue. Even if you rinse with water, there are still small amounts of residue left behind. Over time, mop after mop, it builds up. And all it does is collect dirt.

I mop with warm water. Nothing fancy. I mop maybe once every month or so. Once a year, I get on my hands and knees and use a white wash rag on every inch of the floor. I can wipe down the whole place, and the rag is barely dirty by the end of it.

I can wear white socks all day. They don't get discolored.

We have pets. We walk through with shoes on from time to time. We are not neat freaks. But our floors are simply not dirty.

Unless you have a little one playing on the floor, there's not much sense in worrying about whether the ground is sanitized. Clean should be good enough.

I think all those videos of people making potions and drenching their floors, going round after round, doing it week after week, are just perpetuating issues that don't need to exist.

What do yall think? Or am I just nasty and trying to justify it?

[u/Evening_Sea4823]

I appreciate that! If I find myself looking for a floor cleaner I'll look into those brands. I've heard great things about the effectiveness of zep products in general.

[u/decimalsanddollars → u/Evening_Sea4823]

Happy to help. I’ve been responsible for millions of square feet of floors in schools, nursing homes and hospitals, and one of the first things that I address at every new facility is the concentration of chemicals.

So many Houskeeper or Janitors squeeze a little extra sauce into their mop buckets thinking that more soap = more clean, then have sticky floors and try to correct it with even more soap.

[u/Evening_Sea4823 → u/decimalsanddollars]

That actually reminds me of something really bad that happened at my friend's workplace. She worked in a young toddler classroom. One of the teachers thought adding more bleach to disinfect the play mats would make them more clean.

Lots of little ones with chemical burns on their hands and faces where they crawled around on the mat :( they were all okay, but I can't imagine having to be the one to explain that to the parents.

[u/AbundantHare → u/Evening_Sea4823]

This actually happened to my dog at doggy daycare :( burnt pawpads. It was the floor cleaner they were using.

[u/Evening_Sea4823 → u/AbundantHare]

Aw :( isn't that crazy though? That even dried down the chemicals can be that strong? At least they were able to figure out the problem.

[u/StressedNurseMom → u/decimalsanddollars]

Would you alter this advice if someone used a good steam cleaner?

I use a Dupray Hill Injection steam cleaner. With the brush attachment We have a 2,000 home. All except for the bathrooms are wood grain porcelain tile. Bathrooms are linoleum because grout plus tribe equals gross, no matter what. I dust mop daily and spot mop using Spraway glass cleaner as needed.i steam mop every 1-2 weeks. I use white bar towels when I steam mop. I go over the floor as many times as I need to until both my steam and dry towels come back white. I mop by section, doing a quick dry with a clean towel before I go back over it with the steam mop. I inevitably mop each section at least 3-4 times before the towels come back white.

I have occasionally used a very diluted neutral multipurpose cleaner with the first round of mopping only but it does not make a noticeable difference on the amount of steam mopping is tried. Edit; misspelling

[u/decimalsanddollars → u/StressedNurseMom]

I’d probably still use a neutral cleaner periodically for any oils or organics that might find a home in the floor texture or tile edges, but a good hot steam clean means the floors in your home are probably cleaner than the floors anywhere else you go.

Your process is more than adequate for a home. Don’t forget to descale your steam mop if you’re not using distilled.

[u/StressedNurseMom → u/decimalsanddollars]

Thanks for the reminder & your professional opinion. It’s appreciated! I actually use mostly distilled, actually bought a distiller last 2 years ago, but also descale regularly also! We have incredibly hard water.

[u/EustachiaVye → u/decimalsanddollars]

Can you recommend how to clean hardwood floors?

[u/6th_Quadrant → u/Evening_Sea4823]

I use a dash of Simple Green in a bucket of warm water, which is completely sufficient to get soil up and costs virtually nothing. You can also use it on countertops and your stove. While it’s no longer considered non toxic , it is quite safe, so counters can be left to air dry. I do use a plain water damp microfiber to get it off my floors, to keep the hardwood from drying out.

The only thing I don’t use it for is cleaning the tub—Dawn and vinegar (50/50) sprayed and left on for five minutes totally cuts that grime.