Any high-traffic areas in your home should be wet mopped once a week. Rooms in your home that are not frequently used—such as a guest room—do not need to be mopped weekly. Mopping every other week or monthly should be sufficient.
How often should you mop? To put it simply, you should mop when the floor looks dirty. For small households, this may be every other week; for households with kids and pets, it may be once a week or more. Aslett suggests using doormats at entry doors to keep floors cleaner for longer.
Bedrooms and home offices probably only need once a month, he says. This assumes you're sweeping and vacuuming regularly, so keep up with those tasks in between mopping. Pallares prefers mopping all hardwood floors — with an appropriate cleaner only — once a week.
Believe it or not, there are a few types of flooring that cannot be cleaned with liquids, so you better not get them wet! In addition to this, it's generally fine to clean floors with just water, if the surfaces in question are only slightly dirty (a bit of dust or some light soiling).
Mopping Sanitizes Your Floor
As such, the germs accumulate and build up quickly, especially during hot weather and flu seasons. Thus, regular mopping is crucial in keeping your home sanitized. A clean floor translates into a cleaner house, and a clean house means a healthier and happier home.
Using excess water
A common mistake is thinking that wet is clean! On the contrary, when cleaning a floor, you should try to use the least amount of water possible! After dipping the mop in the bucket, wring it out until it's almost dry!
Cotton string mops are full of germs.
Microfiber flat mops paired with dual compartment buckets are an effective way to clean for health and sanitation. Together, they prevent surface and mop head re-soiling. The dense microfiber blend promotes deeper penetration for cleaner surfaces.
You'll want to use a barely damp mop, because too much water can easily cause warping, on both finished and unfinished wood floors. Be sure not to leave any puddles or standing water while cleaning. Alternatively, any pH-neutral soap, such as dish detergent, and water combination will suffice.
Just rinse the mop again, and leave the floor to dry. Try to avoid walking on it for 15 to 20 minutes, or until it's dry to the touch. If you do have to walk on it, wear clean socks. You can also help your floors dry faster by using a floor squeegee.
Overall, microfiber mops have more pros than Swiffer mops. Microfiber mops can be used as a two-in-one to both sweep and mop at the same time. However, a Swiffer mop can typically only clean after the sweeping has already been done.
Once a week at least.
Tetro says your bathroom is the ultimate bacteria host; E. coli can be found within six feet of the toilet and in the sink. To keep it at bay, disinfect the toilet and sink at least once weekly, and the bathtub every two weeks — more if you shower often.
Because hand mopping is the most thorough approach in floor cleaning, you'll notice that your floors will feel cleaner for longer. This is because you're thoroughly lifting the layers of dirt. Your floors are the largest continuous surface at home.
Mop Frequently
High-traffic areas, like kitchens, bathrooms, hallways, and entryways, require weekly mopping. Infrequently used rooms, such as formal living areas or guest rooms, can be mopped every other week, or even once a month, so long as they're vacuumed once every seven days to remove dust and grit.
But as a rule of thumb, you should mop your floors at least once a week—especially in areas that are more likely to get stains from drips and spills, like the kitchen and bathroom. “Of course, you need to vacuum or sweep the floor before mopping,” explains Leiva.
Playing it Safe
In this case, we recommend giving your floors sweep and mop sessions once a week. Dust and dirt can accumulate over time if no one is going in and out of different rooms. Use a day off or the weekend to sweep floors so that your floors don't absorb this material and lose its prime condition.
There are a few reasons why it happens: Using Too Much Soap: When it comes to cleaning, using more soap does not mean getting the floor extra clean or cleaning it faster. Using more soap leads to a residue build-up that can actually attract more dirt to the floors instead of getting rid of it.
At this point, your floor should now be quite clean, with little or no detergent residue left. But for an extra cleaning step, you can mop over the entire floor a final time using nothing but fresh hot rinse water. If your rinse water gets at all dirty or sudsy, you will know the final rinse has been necessary.
Using a dry mop first will make wet mopping easier and ensure a cleaner floor.
Vacuum, dust or wipe with a lightly dampened mop – never use soap-based detergents, as they can leave a dull film on the floor, and avoid over-wetting. Don't use wax polish either, as this will make the floor slippery. To remove marks and stains, use a dilute solution of water and vinegar.
26. Mop up dirty vinyl, linoleum, or tile floors. You can mop these types of floors with a simple solution of one to two tablespoons of Dawn and a gallon of warm water. Your floor will look good in no time!
Vacuuming every day is a great way to avoid a buildup of dust and dirt on your floors, especially in high traffic areas. Removing the dirt daily will prevent it from spreading elsewhere in the house, and keep your floors cleaner.
Make sweeping a part of your everyday chore. This prevents the accumulation of dust and keep the floor clean all the time. Make use of a specialized broom with short bristles so that it can get in between the grout and clean the floor. Mopping regularly helps to prevent dust accumulation on the floor.
Floor Mopping
Mild dish soap is a surprisingly good floor cleaner. All you need is 1 to 2 tablespoons of dish soap mixed in with a bucket of water. Floors will be clean and shiny in no time. Dish soap is very effective on resilient floorings, such as linoleum and vinyl, and also works well on ceramic tile.
One of the best reasons to use a floor scrubber, is that floors are drier. Using a mop allows floors to stay wet for a time, causing a safety danger. Slip-and-fall lawsuits cost companies millions of dollars each year. Floor scrubbers completely suck up all the dirty water and helps prevent this.