How & When do you MOP?

[~ Zarava Flutterby ~]

OK so DD is 11mths and has 2 naps a day sometimes only 1 if she is being stubborn (like today)

How often do you mop and when do you do it if you have a little one?

The problem i have is our house is mainly floorboards (pic in my blog) and it's hard to keep DD occupied and not needing things from the kitchen etc.

I am thinking i should mop once a week before i got to MG and just hope the floors are dry by the time i get home.
The other issue i have is it's hard to leave our doors open to dry out the house as we live on a property and it can get quite dusty!

Any other ideas would be great, i can use the outside doors to get b/w the lounge and the toilet etc if need be but as the lounge is half carpet half floorboards i can't do the lounge at the same time as no way of stopping DD from crawling on it.

[murraysmum]

steam mops are life savers they dry so quick i bought one then left it at my mum so devo i mop 2 times a week when ds is at daycare lol much to dps annoyance but ds likes to stick his hands in the mop bucket and lick his hands so its a saftey issue for me lol

i really do sujest a steam mop lol

[Bathsheba]

Mop? what's that? Ah! It's something my sister does when she comes to stay! No jokes! All our living/kitchen areas are wooden floorboards too. It hides the dirt REALLY well. I used to mop every 2 days when we lived in a townhouse with white tiles but 6 years later (that's how long we've been in this house) I'm still having a break from all that.

Seriously though... I just get down on my hands and knees and wash specific areas with an old cloth and a bucket of suds now. Bit like my avvy LOL

[~Trish~]

My mum actually comes and mops for me once a week

But when she's done she puts an old towel over the squeezy mop and dries the floor with it straight away

[~ Zarava Flutterby ~]

Just wanted to mention aswell i have a Dyson with the hard flood head and i use this atleast once or twice a week to vac all the dusty crap up, but obviously there are still those stubborn marks that can only be mopped off!

Vacing isn't an issue as DD loves to chase the vac around (odd child i know) so i get this done no problems!

Unfortunately DP does not like the steam mop idea, he thinks they leave too much water behind and ruin the floors ????

Would love to get away with not mopping but as we get so much dust out here DD's clothes tend not to hide the mess and DP thinks i am nuts for vacing and not sweeping (yeah right) and he insists we mop!

[murraysmum]

my mum is a cleaner and i know as she works with the age wet floors are an issue and steam is an ohs issue so she has those orange mops u see em at the shops and bunnings they are fluffy well she does what trishs mum does and hooks a towel over it dries it fast that or u can stand on a towel and rub the floor dry the old fashion way

i hate moping with a passion we have lino so im lucky wood floors are a pain in the ass

[Sequoia]

I mop before I go to bed, that way DS is asleep and I wake up to sparkling tiles!

[Rach75]

umm once a week or so now but when Jack was younger every day, I have 90% timber floors as well, I use boiling water and bleach I also have ceiling fans so it dried very very quick I would vac while he was awake then when he went down mop then HTH

[Jewel]

I mop at nighttime when the boys are in bed asleep, not that I really mop that often though.

[Cassius2]

i mop once a week and tend to do it on my way out to MG. If DD is awake i whack a pair of clean socks on her and she can quite happily follow me around without mucking up my floors too much.

if i think that they'll take ages to dry i grab a towel from the bathroom and 'walk it' across the main areas for a quick dry.

HTH!

[Laranna]

I mop twice a week and use an Enjo mop. It uses minimal water. I just fill one of those plastic sports drink bottles with water and a splash of lavender or eucalyptus oil. My entire house except the bedrooms and study has white tiles and it dries within about 15 minutes. I do it when DS is sleeping and I start at one end of the house and finish at the door to the study then I sit down on my computer and check BB, FB, etc while the floors dry

[[M]umma[M]ia]

i have mainly tiles throughout and have the same problem. I have restored to getting everything ready (eg, mop etc) just before i go to bed. On my way to the bedroom i mop. That way, u know u dont need to walk back over the floor and i leave the bucket at the end of the hall till the next morning.

[Tan2705]

We have wooden floors that are constantly dusty too so I know how hard they are to keep clean! DS was an early walker and never much of a sleeper so finding the time to do it was nigh on impossible. I would do it while he was awake with him trying to pull the mop out of my hands slip slidding all over the shop UG so i ended up buying a 2nd mop and he has happily helped me clean since he was 11 months!

Oh we use enjo too so no concern about chemical cleaning products..

[Fleur]

I mop whenever I can...once every couple of days...once a fortnight
I use hot water & vinegar, a dash of lemon oil, ceiling fan & an old towel if I'm really in a hurry for it to dry.
Doing it before bed is great, the kids don't get a chance to muck it up before morning. Either that or on the way out of the house.

Dh helped me last night, I mopped, he dried with a couple of old towels & it was all done in 15 minutes

[STARRYSKY]

I am another mop hater! but with our black and white lino in the kitchen its a necessary evil that must be done at least twice a week now DS is commandoing across it, otherwise his front gets pretty grubby real quick!
with regards to the wooden floors, my SIL used to have a friend who would do hers for her, she used one of those swish mops (like the brooms they use in shopping centres) but she once told me she added some amount of methylated spirits to the water, for shine and to speed dry time? not sure how much though?