I have a lot of things to complain about about having children, and I bet you're eager to hear about them. If you'll allow me to tell you one, I promise you'll have a fruitful time reading this story.
My three kids have never been able to eat like normal people (whoever installed their inner compass put the magnet in crooked), so my kitchen and dining room floors are covered in crumbs and littered with sticky substances. Keeping our floors clean has always been a losing battle.
If you’re like me and wish the drudgery of cleaning your floors was easier, faster, and more fun, pull up a chair…you’re among friends. As a resourceful mom and writer, I took matters into my own hands to solve this persistent dilemma: What’s the best way to clean my floors? I reached out to cleaning experts for an answer and got the same response from everyone.
The cleaning professionals I interviewed
Simple Recipes / Photo illustration by Wanda Abraham / Retailers below
The Best Mop, According to Cleaning Experts
Professionals agree that the best mop for cleaning your kitchen floor is the O-Cedar EasyWring Rotating Mop and Bucket System.
Whitney and Ashley highly recommend O-Cedar because it provides the best deep clean without any hassle and is super easy to use. It's everything you could want for cleaning sticky floors and muddy footprints.
The O-Cedar is a mop and bucket combo. The mop features an extendable handle that can be adjusted for storage or extended to fit your height. The removable microfiber mop is effective at scrubbing stains and absorbing spills. The bucket has two compartments: fill one side with water and the other side has a built-in wringer that spins with a foot pedal.
Ashley points out that “the O-Cedar bucket separates dirty water from clean water, which I love: who wants to put dirty water on the floor?”
“The built-in wringer is controlled with just the touch of a foot,” Whitney says. Not having to wring water out of a dirty mop with your hands or with an awkward lever wringer is a big plus.
Other benefits of the O-Cedar mop? “It’s not just for floors. Try it for cleaning showers, walls, baseboards, doors, windows and more. I highly recommend it,” she adds.
Hailey says she likes rotating mops like O-Cedar because they're relatively inexpensive: The mop and bucket combo with three mop head refills costs about $43 on Amazon. You can machine wash and dry the replaceable mop head up to 100 times.
Tips for Cleaning Floors with the O-Cedar Spin Mop
Hailey adds, “You can use any floor cleaner with the spin mop by adding it to your bucket with water, or you can just use water. I pump my spin mop eight to ten times after dipping it in water so it’s barely damp before mopping. Less water is more when it comes to mopping, so your floors stay in great condition!”
Kendra agrees: “When wrung out well, the O-Cedar mop holds just enough water to get the job done without saturating the floor. You don’t want to use too much water on floors.”
She recommends adding a few drops of mild dishwashing liquid (effective and affordable) or a non-abrasive all-purpose cleaner to the water. However, there are so many different types of flooring available these days, so check what you have to make sure you don't accidentally damage it.
Ashley says, “You should definitely clean your floors at least once a week in high-traffic areas, like kitchens, dining rooms, etc. If you have children or pets, you may need to increase this frequency.”
Which brings me to the last, and arguably most important, benefit: The O-Cedar bucket is light enough for my kids to lift off the sink and carry from room to room. That fact alone sold me, so I'm adding this mop to my shopping list and cleaning to my kids' weekly chore list.
BUY IT:O-Cedar EasyWring Spin Mop and Bucket System
