General Hard Surface Care

First, throw away self-wringing mops, wet Swiffers and microfiber mops. Why? 1) You don’t wash your face with a dirty washcloth. Don’t expect a clean floor using a dirty, self-wringing mop. 2) Swifter pads are expensive and take enormous amounts of energy and oil to manufacture and ship to the stores. Even worse they have a history of damaging floors because of the caustic cleaners.

3) Microfiber is made from 80% polyester, which is plastic. Plastic scratches and eventually scratches the finish off any sealed, painted or finished surface including floors. Mary recently had a school teacher tell her that they were handed microfiber cloths to clean their dry erase boards in their classrooms. She read on Mary's website about Mary's precautions concerning microfiber and used a terry towel instead. By the end of the year the other teachers had problems cleaning and writing on their boards. Janet did not have this problem. The other had to be replaced at great and unnecessary expense to the school.

100% Cotton Terry Towels provide a fast, thorough, inexpensive way to safely clean any floor. You need a good mop like Mary Moppins Best Home Mop to hold it in place.

Disinfecting floors: Do not use disinfectants or detergents to clean floors as they can ruin the finish. You walk on your floors - right? Unless you know how to fly and your feet never touch the ground, then your feet have far more germs than the floors.

Kick the disinfectant habit and save your health, the health of Mother Earth and extend the life of your flooring. Nature’s Miracle found at pet stores is an all-natural enzyme product that kills bacteria and odor. Keep it handy for times you drop an egg or spill milk or the pet has an accident.

Sweep or vacuum hard floor surfaces before damp mopping. You can vacuum tile, slate and linoleum floors but not wood or laminated floors. Use a 100% cotton dust mop to dust wood, laminated, marble, granite, cork or bamboo floors. Janitorial supply companies carry wide cotton dust mops for larger surfaces. Just do not let them talk you into microfiber mops.

Be sure to read my book “The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Green Cleaning” for thorough floor care.

This article may only be copied giving full credit to Mary Findley and her website www.goclean.com