There! Now I have also thoroughly cleaned the bathroom floor. There were a few areas I’ve found frustrating over the years: I wash them but they don’t LOOK clean. This time, from the dim recesses of a mind that doesn’t tune into cleaning information (“No one TOLD me!”), came this: “In old books, the housemaid is always down on her knees cleaning the floor with a scrub brush. It’s never a wash cloth or a paper towel.” Well, all right then. And the housemaid’s skillz were indeed mad, because the brush took the grungy-looking stuff right off. Right off!
I realize this may seem extremely dim to those of you as skillzed as the housemaid. “Wait. What were you…what were you using BEFORE?,” you may be thinking. I think that people who are good/experienced at something like cleaning can forget what a skill it is, like cooking or using a cell phone: it only seems easy and natural when you’ve had a ton of practice. Like, there are people who can taste some simmering food and say, “Hm, needs celery/garlic/thyme,” or whatever. And there are people who see you squinting with confusion at your phone trying to send an attachment, and they sigh and do it for you. And because I worked at a pharmacy, I finally understand the trinity of doctor-pharmacy-insurance and what error means what.
But maybe my cooking friend can’t figure out how to text someone a photo, and maybe my friend who can text someone a photo thinks that if the insurance won’t cover her prescription it means the pharmacy won’t give it to her, and maybe I can explain to her how that pharmacy stuff works but I didn’t know to use a scrub brush to get grunge out of the floor pattern. We all have our areas of interest and expertise because we can’t ALL master ALL of them or we’d be no use in a post-apocalyptic crisis (“Crud, we ALL understand pharmaceutical insurance but NONE of us knows how to make wine??”).
I know how you feel. I always ask myself “how would a professional house cleaner do that ?” and if I can, I do the same. Did you ever use a steam cleaner ? As efficient and less tiring than crawling on the floor with a scrub brush, in my opinion… (can’t help but visualizing Cinderella and her apron).
At the risk of seeming dim….but what do you use WITH the scrub brush, cleaning-solution-wise?
I used a bucket of hot water with Pine-Sol in it. I’d dip the brush in, then use it to scrub, re-dipping periodically to rinse the brush and/or get more water. I also had a wrung-out washcloth I used for the parts of the floor that didn’t seem to need the brush, and for wiping up the water the brush left behind: a brush is a more PUDDLY method than I’m accustomed to, and also the brush does a good job at dislodging dirt but not at picking it up.
See, this where those Mr. Clean Magic Eraser (melamine foam sponges, generic work just fine) save me. Because there is no bucket to find/fill. Much less testing of cleaning methods. I use them all over, and if I want some sanitizing to happen w/ the cleaning I follow it with my preferred cleaning spray and a cloth.
At first I felt embarrassed over the places I THOUGHT were clean, when I first started using them .
This also simplifies things for my husband, brings down the complexity to the level where he will ACTUALLY clean.
My mom cuts the Magic Erasers into chunks before she uses them so she doesn’t have half used grungy ones laying around somewhere.
My mom is also cleaner than me.
While I adore magic erasers I have run into a little trouble with them before depending on the surface. Too vigorous use can leave holes in paint and whatever tile was on one of my floors they took the finish right off. My love affair with them has dimmed a bit, sadly.
We discovered this too because we had one spot that looked particularly bad, and then when we applied that technique in a wider area – VOILA! Clean! (By the way, I love it in a HAHAHA way when people use “VIOLA!” because that’s what my daughter plays.)
We have moved to a steamer now and I love it. The floors feel super clean on my bare feet.
For your consideration: as a huge fan of scrub brushes may I suggest that rather than using a bucket, use a spray bottle with diluted pine-sol, myers, lysol, pick your poison and/or non-chemical alternative. Spray the floor, then scrub with a brush, then wipe with a rag or paper towel. It works wonderfully.
I’m on the same team as the first poster–steam mop all the way for bathroom and kitchen floors. Cinderella should have had one!
I second the steam mop. They are amazing! And easy.
Also, thank you for the “we can’t all be good at everything.” I need a reminder sometimes. I tend to feel badly that I’m not good at cleaning. Actually, I will not be useful at all in a post-apocalyptic crisis. I’m afraid my skill set (if I actually have one) is seriously limited.
I like to think that in a crisis I might DISCOVER skills previously unrealized. Who KNOWS which of us might be NATURALLY GIFTED at milking cows, for example? Or building log cabins! Some of us might be positively AMAZING at looting!
Oh, oh, oh, I can milk a cow! By hand! Who wants to be on my post-apocalyptic team? (Assuming there are still cows around at that point…)
Also, I have a book recommendation: My Boyfriend Barfed in My Handbag . . . and Other Things You Can’t Ask Martha by Jolie Kerr. It’s all about how to clean things, yet the information is presented in an entertaining-enough way that I read it cover-to-cover.
I got a steam mop and it didn’t do as good a job as I hoped. Perhaps my floors were dirtier than other people’s but I went back to a rag mop.
I also keep the cheapest counter wipes I can find in my bathroom and wipe around the edge of the floor whenever I notice it getting hairs.
Yes, I think I stole that idea from the Fly Lady – one of the few I’ve been able to consistently do. I always keep a roll of paper towels under the sink and wipe the counters, or part of the floor, etc., after I take a shower, when it’s nice and steamy in the bathroom. It really helps, since I almost always manage to keep moving “clean the bathroom” further and further down my list.
In the examination room, a doctor said to me “You didn’t think to gargle salt water for your sore throat?” {and aren’t there a thousand ways he could have conveyed that without shaming me?]. I didn’t even KNOW about salt water for a sore throat, and every single person I have shared this with says their mom used to do that when they were little. But I didn’t KNOW. And honestly, I have never used a scrub brush on my bathroom floor. So you have educated me without shaming, thank you!
Boy, don’t questions phrased like that make you want to lie awake thinking of pert replies?
And I didn’t know about gargling salt water! I will remember that for next time.
Yes! Wonderful reminder that we are all good at different things. And this made me think that I am actually pretty good at cleaning stuff and now I am feeling better about myself. Because the cooking thing I just don’t get. I cooked spaghetti the other night and my dad (visiting us) asked if I had any onions to add. I looked over at the pot of sauce bubbling merrily away and realized that a lot of people actually just kinda know to sauté onions before adding sauce, and then they taste the sauce and improve on flavors. That honestly never even occurs to me to check.
Those of you with awesome steamers, which ones do you have? And what is your cleaning process with those?
I have this issue with my shower. It’s not gross, but there are a couple spots I just cannot get clean (and let’s face it, I don’t try that hard). I need to get in there and scrub but meh. Maybe this will inspire me to try this weekend.
That’s me (and I should after five decades of cleaning). I have the skills but I am sorely lacking in the inspiration department. Used to be I would get inspired by my son’s monthly visits but lately not even that.
I am pretty good at making my home look clean-ish, though, but it’s just that.
I am very good at cleaning- it all just makes sense in my head. But. Cooking makes zero sense to me. Not a natural. And baking’s even worse. I have had to have SOOOO many cookie making tutorials from my sister before I could manage to not burn ever single effing batch I made. When we got married I couldn’t make grilled cheese or pancakes even- just no idea how to regulate temperature and just, you know, PAY ATTENTION to food before the I burned it. I didn’t know how to cook meat thoroughly without drying it out completely, I couldn’t bear to touch raw meat period so everything had to start out frozen… I was kind of clueless. Ten years later I am a waaay better cook and am beginning to have fun with it but more out of necessity than natural instinct. My instinct is to to… go out to eat.
Swistle, thank you for this, you’re always good at making me feel like “oh, other people have trouble with things that feel like they should be easy around the house too”.
I would like to offer a suggestion that you may or may not know about. Many years ago I asked my mother about getting a wall clean of kiddy fingerprints, and told her about how I’d tried this cleaner and that one and also sponges and hot water and blah blah blah. She said “have you tried a cream cleanser?”
I use Jif http://www.unilever.com.au/brands-in-action/detail/Jif/304614/ a LOT. There are other brands too but this was the first I found on Google. If you scroll down to Jif Cream, that’s the one I use. Magic erasers are great too! But if I’ve only got Jif plus a sponge, that’s often more than enough to get fingerprints, crayon, pencil, etc. off walls. It’s also good for things that need a bit more scrubbing in the bathroom or around the kitchen too. I sometimes use it with a scrubbing brush.
This is coming from someone who freaking hates cleaning and does the quickest sloppiest job possible by the way, so that may be useful information!!!