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Find cleaning advice from other Mumsnetters on our Housekeeping forum.

Find cleaning advice from other Mumsnetters on our Housekeeping forum.

Housekeeping

Best way to mop a lino floor? Money no object.....

23 replies

fustilarian · 06/11/2009 13:13

.....but time is of the essence. I have 3 under 3 including 3 month old twins. I allowed myself the luxury of a cleaner for the last 3 months but am now going solo again on the cleaning.

Is there a really easy, effective, quick way to mop lino floors that anyone knows? I would happily spend £100 on a magic mop that would make this twice-weekly task really quick and simple, and actually get all the yoghurt crust off the floor...........

Ideas or product recommendations please

OP posts:

Report

Knickers0nMaHead · 06/11/2009 17:32

erm.... A mop and bucket. Boiling water and a bit of bleach

uberalice · 06/11/2009 17:40

Sorry, don't know the answer, but I love the thread title.

Northernlurker · 06/11/2009 17:43

The best way is to get someone else to do it!

Failing that I think your problem may be in doing at twice a week. It's probably better to give it a quick sweep over every day. I don't though - but I'm lazy and not troubled by a slightly grubby floor!

mellifluouscauliflower · 06/11/2009 18:00

Mopping wisdom according to Margaret:

get one of those mops with strips of J cloth, soak in water/cif combo, then squeeze out using one of the special buckets so use only a teeeny bit of water is on the mop. Then dry off using a duster mop. Takes no tima at all.

Here is said bucket:
international.vileda.com/com/products/show/33/3

Here is said duster mop:
international.vileda.com/com/products/show/158/3

I showed this to my own mother, who was duly impressed (as she loathes housework but has no cleanr).

It must be said that Margaret usually scored higher in the tea companion/gossip department than the cleaning department. But this was her tour de force. We moved away but I still miss her!

MrsJohnDeere · 06/11/2009 18:22

this Lakeland mop is pretty good. I use mine on tiles and lino.

fruitshootsandheaves · 06/11/2009 18:24

stick hundreds of coins on the floor to hide the dirt. No mopping needed and people will always comment on your expensive looking flooring.

bloss · 06/11/2009 18:27

Message withdrawn

herbietea · 06/11/2009 18:27

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

ChilloHippi · 06/11/2009 19:42

Hot water (never boiling as it will make the lino shrink) and a squirt of washing up liquid and a drop of lemon juice.

Waswondering · 06/11/2009 19:45

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

fustilarian · 06/11/2009 19:46

thanks all, lots of food for mopping thought here.

in answer to northern lurker, I am not a cleanliness freak, but just to keep things basically bearable, I end up sweeping at least twice a day, but this does nothing for the residue of 101 sticky things that are hurled around day after day.

my current arrangement is a mop and bucket that have both seen better days, and I clean with vinegar and lavendar oil ( a bit of a bleachophobe). It may sound silly but the whole filling and emptying of the bucket palaver just seems to take forever when I only have about an hour's free time at the end of the day before I flop. And the floor always seems stickier after mopping than before somehow. Maybe its the vinegar.

Herbietea- perhaps this is the answer- to blind people with bling so that they don't see the filth.

I have actually had a longstanding fantasy of a rotating floor in the dining room and kitchen with some kind of permanent underground cleaning system in place.

I'll investigate all suggestions and let you know. I bet you can't wait.

OP posts:

ChilloHippi · 06/11/2009 19:47

Yes it's the vinegar that is probably making it sticky. Put some lemon juice in too.

fustilarian · 06/11/2009 19:48

Does Martha Stewart (whoever she may be) have a brush made of steel wool? My brush sounds far too wimpy compared to hers.

OP posts:

ThisTooShallPass · 06/11/2009 20:08

Nah, it's probably the lavender oil that's making it sticky. Vinegar, water and a drop of washing-up liquid would probably be better.

I've got a flat mop with a water and detergent reservoir, it's as fuss free as sweeping. You pull a trigger-thing and it squirts in front of the mop. You are supposed to use special disposable cloths but I just use jay cloths and chuck them in the wash. It's made by Vileda but I can't find it on their site

It doesn't clean as well as a good string/jaycloth mop but it's fantastic for keeping things livable. I use it as and when and mop properly (with a real mop, properly hot water and multi-surface cleaner) once a week.

If you can't track one down you could always use any old flat mop and put the cleaning solution in a plant sprayer. The spray holes in my mop do tend to clog...

ThisTooShallPass · 06/11/2009 20:18

It works like this one, but the cloths attach like this.

BeehiveBaby · 06/11/2009 20:22

Has anyone used a fancy steam mop?

ThisTooShallPass · 06/11/2009 20:26

I've a steam cleaner on floors (amongst other things), but not an actual steam mop IYSWIM. Steam cleaners are great but the one I used took an age to heat up and was the size of a hoover...

Booyhoo · 06/11/2009 20:43

mop and bucket, drop of fairy liquid and splash of white vinegar.

dont make it more than it needs to be.

MrsBadger · 06/11/2009 20:56

we have the lakeland one MrsJohnDeere linked to
scrubby strip is fab for dried on yoghurt and no bucket necessary

get teh spare pad so you can chuck it in the wash immediately

halfcut · 06/11/2009 21:02

If money was no object I would pay someone else to do it

dreamteamgirl · 10/11/2009 22:30

I knwo what you mean about filling the bucket! It just seems so irksome for some odd reason

I have a mop thing that you attach clothes- either disposable floor wipes or microfibre too, and it has a thing on it that holds cleaning fluid, then you pull the handle and it squirts a little out in front. It is great and I can do whole downstairs in 10 mins then just throw the cloth in the wash

It looks a bit like this one

Flibbertyjibbet · 10/11/2009 22:43

Money no object?

Well then the answer is pay someone else to mop it

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Greatgoing · 16/11/2009 16:21

Use a wet cloth/wipe on hands and knees. Miles quicker, miles more thorough, can exert 'scubby' pressure for stubborn bits and much more effective than 'moving' stuff around with mop.

I have thrown my mop away.

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