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September 10, 2008
How do you clean your floors?
Pergo is the easiest surface to clean in the world. Nothing sticks to that stuff - I swear I could probably let glue dry on it & just wipe it up, not that I would try that. But nevertheless, I'm having a horrible time trying to clean mine.
The first problem is having so many pets and the thousands of hairs they deposit on my floors every day. Prior to Mandy, I would sweep, but I can't keep her out of the dirt pile and it wasn't perfect anyway as half the hairs would get airborne just to fall back down & leave that lovely "dirt line" as I mopped. So I bought a little cordless stick vacuum, but it's not powerful enough - the battery doesn't even last long enough for me to cover the whole house, the dirt chamber has to be emptied several times during one vacuuming - it's just worthless. So we tried the Kirby - in regular mode, it just doesn't work. When I attach the bare floor attachment, the thing becomes a clumsy piece of aggravation because it attaches at the very bottom of the unit, so every time you try to pull it forward, the whole thing just falls backward. Then we bought a little Eureka bagless. Nightmare - surely this thing is nothing but a cruel engineering joke. It has this tightly pleated filter at the top of the dirt chamber that collects most of the dirt. I take it outside and bang it with all my strength against my deck & the dirt still doesn't come out. As if that wasn't enough aggravation, the rest of the pet hairs gather around the brush roller completely clogging the unit from that end. It's very time consuming to pick those hairs back off. As if that wasn't enough to make me send it to the curb, the exhaust is also located at the front & bottom of the unit. It doesn't take a degree in engineering to realize this means the unit is blowing dirt away about as fast as it's sucking it up. I've seen a Cheerio go all the way to the ceiling. Strong exhaust. We've also tried a dust mop, but that's worse than sweeping.
So, after I take one of these imperfect methods & get at least most of the loose dirt off the floors, I still have trouble mopping. I can't just fill a mop bucket because Mandy's favorite substance is water - there's no way I'd keep her out of it. Plus, Pergo becomes an ice rink when wet, so I can't let her walk on the floor until it's completely dry. I've tried the little swiffer type mops, but it's still too much water - down she goes. So I've resorted to using my kitchen sink as my mop bucket and hand washing the floors with a rag - all 1,500 square feet of them!! I simply don't like cleaning that much.
Mandy will go into a play pen for a little while, but not long enough to mop & let dry all the floors. That's literally hours - no way is she going to allow that. So I have to find some way to clean my floors with her around. So if you have hard surface floors, lots of pets, and a toddler - I'd really love to know how you clean your floors.
| By Wifeepoo | 6:35 AM
Comments
well, it's a little different for the time being b/c ian is not walking...he is crawling, which was a bit more difficult when i mopped last week. so, i vacuum....we have hardwood, and chris got me a bissel bag less for pets. i LOVE it! it also has a hand attachment so that we can get in corners, etc. the other thing i do, is turn all the fans that i have to high and let them dry the floor for me. again,,,,,my child is not walking yet. we do have 1 dog and 3 cats and hair is a daily thing with us...i HATE it!! you know, if you were going to be out sometime for about an hour, i'd be happy to come over and clean your floors for you...that way, they would be dry when you came home!! :)
Posted by: erin at September 10, 2008 8:27 PM
I may look at that Bissel - I remember seeing it when we got the Eureka. My mother-in-law cleans houses for a living, so that was my thought exactly - just leave & let her do it! It's just too hard right now.
Posted by: Lisa at September 10, 2008 10:11 PM
I would have suggested using Snickers to dry your floors.... but I guess that's probably classified as animal cruelty... not to mention you'd get the very same hairs you were trying to clean right back on your floors! :D
muwhahahaha!
Posted by: tobias at September 11, 2008 2:51 AM
Despite lots of thick, super soft fur, he's really not that absorbent.
If any of you are confused by Toby's comment, Snick chewed thru his laptop's power cord a few years ago & Toby has never forgiven him. Despite - and I have photo proof - letting Snick sit in his lap multiple times this last visit. I will post that proof if I need to.
Posted by: Lisa at September 12, 2008 7:34 AM
*GASP* You wouldn't! .... I mean.... he tricked me! He really did!
Posted by: tobias at September 13, 2008 10:03 PM
