Am I the only one?
Posted by Gullible-Apricot3379@reddit | Xennials | View on Reddit | 89 comments
Do y'all ever have a moment where you're staring at a cleaning closet full of bleach wipes, disinfectant wipes, stainless still wipes, furniture wipes, swiffers, swiffer wet jet, swiffer for hardwood, steam cleaner for hard surfaces, steam cleaner for carpet, expensive vacuum, cheap vacuum for dirt that you use before the expensive vacuum...
And wonder why you don't just have a good old-fashioned mop?
Seriously, did y'all learn to clean with just a broom, mop, sponge, dusting cloth, and a couple of spray products? I did. How did it get this complicated?
JDRL320@reddit
I still use a bucket & rag to clean our floors. My mom is 79 and is still doing it this way. You live what you learn.
I’m sure a swiffer is way more convenient and easier on the back and knees but I just like doing it this way.
Apprehensive_Hat8986@reddit
Couldn't tell you. But I can tell you I don't buy all that shit. Disposable is the death of our planet.
ketamineburner@reddit
Seriously
zambonix@reddit
Rampant capitalism and greedy marketing. Nobody needs ANY of that crap, all it does is make piles of trash and money for shareholders.
Those products cost a premium but are either A) only marginally more convenient than vinegar and dishsoap B) not actually needed because the special surface they’re meant to “clean” isn’t a meaningful source of harm in the first place C) both A and B.
Our generation got so deeply hoodwinked it is comical. They consumerism and advertising got nuclear-powered with gen X, then laser-guided with Millennials, and we landed right smack in the sweet spot. I feel like such a massive sucker for lapping it up as long as I did.
Coraline1599@reddit
This post from r/cleaningtips was quite illuminating for me.
zambonix@reddit
Nice.
“Less is more” is counterintuitively true for many cleaning applications.
I listened to a laundry expert on a podcast explain why using too much detergent in your washer actually leads to dirtier clothes, which lines up with observations in your link. I cut back to using very little soap and saw the results right away. I even did a no-soap load of towels (which I used to put “extra” soap on) and they came out cleaner and softer!
Puzzleheaded-Sky3141@reddit
I got a steam mop with washable pads. I hear you! Mops, though they can be smelly and gross
Shinespark7@reddit
jizzmaster-zer0@reddit
supplies!
chawrawbeef@reddit
Scary-Ad9646@reddit
HEY! THESE FLOORS ARE DIRTY AS HELL AND I'M NOT GONNA TAKE IT ANYMORE!
thebarnacleez@reddit
It’s a good mop. My friend George gave me this mop. It’s not as good as my old mop.
joshuastar@reddit
this is my mop. it’s not as good as my old mop…i miss my old mop. but it’s a pretty good mop. my friend george got it for me
shmiona@reddit
Did you just assume I have a closet?
shinysquirrel220701@reddit
I still clean the “old fashioned “ way. I can’t stand the perfume-y smell of most products, so bleach, vinegar, blue dawn mixed with vinegar, and windex make up the bulk of my cleaning products.
EricRShelton@reddit
Throw in some Simple Green for the stuff in the garage and I’m right there with you.
guyincognito121@reddit
Why only in the garage?
EricRShelton@reddit
…because I don’t know where else to use it? lol
guyincognito121@reddit
Everywhere?
truefriend29@reddit
LoL same.👦🏾👋🏾😊☺️😉😃🙂🧽🧹
Old-Piece-3438@reddit
Just don’t mix the bleach and vinegar together…unless you want to make chlorine gas.
PetMonsterGuy@reddit
It’s admittedly wasteful but I much prefer Swiffer pads over having a gross mop and bucket I’d have to rinse out in the bathtub
Lulu_42@reddit
I used an old-fashioned mop recently. It sucked.
Plane_Chance863@reddit
I find mops in general are just good for a fairly light surface clean. If anything needs good scrubbing (thinking of kitchen floors here), I use a rag.
Lulu_42@reddit
I also like a stuff cleaning brush.
General-Reserve9349@reddit
Hands and knees is the only way to really clean shit
MLAheading@reddit
I do hands and knees as well. It’s faster and cleaner.
Mia_Belle_V@reddit
I bought comet for the first time in at least 20 years. I don't know why I stopped. It really is the best for showers
MLAheading@reddit
I love the spray Comet for the shower.
PickleFlavordPopcorn@reddit
I soak orange peels in white vinegar and use that for almost everything. We do buy Clorox wipes but a 3 pack from Costco will last a year, because we only use them for things that truly need disinfectant
boogs34@reddit
I have a home in Mexico. They don’t have swiffers and all that jazz so you have to use a map. But swiffer would be way way more efficient
picklepuss13@reddit
All I had growing up was a rag, 409, pine sol, and a mop. Maybe some windex.
burnitdwn@reddit
I have a mop. They are cheap at Ace Hardware or various other places that sell mops.
Gullible-Apricot3379@reddit (OP)
I know they're cheap. I'm just not sure how I got to a place where I don't have one.
Coraline1599@reddit
If you are like me, you hate cleaning and the idea of “hacking” cleaning - making it faster, easier, better feels endlessly appealing.
But I’ve learned there is no such thing. Cleaning is cleaning, you can only exchange one type of cleaning for another. Like automatic kitty litter box - yay, no daily scooping, but then you have to spend way more time maintaining it - same with robot vacuums.
ExampleMysterious870@reddit
Well not everything can work on everything 🤷♀️ I can’t use a regular mop on my wood floors since they aren’t supposed to get wet. I can’t use leather conditioner on my upholstered dining room chairs. You can’t use corrosive chemicals on granite like you would in a toilet. It’s just chemistry..
Stevie-Rae-5@reddit
Your wood floors aren’t supposed to get wet? How do you clean them?
ExampleMysterious870@reddit
You use anything that’s lightly damp or moist to clean it and then need to make sure it’s dried after. There are ways to treat some wood floors to be a bit “heartier” but that’s not an option with this flooring.
loosedloon@reddit
I ditched the mop for rags under both shoes and cleaner of choice. Great leg workout with high pressure and corner accuracy.
LemurCat04@reddit
You can get slippers for exactly this.
Jasmirris@reddit
When the floor wasn't too bad or it needed to be quickly cleaned my mom would do some like this. She called it A Lick and a Promise. Lol
Character_Bend_5824@reddit
You fell for the marketing and bought it is the answer. First of all, I am against wall to wall carpeting. It's like a rug you can't easily take up. My house has a combination of very old wood floors and good condition tile. Throw rugs go in a front load washer and the floors get vacuumed. Canister vac with various attachments including mini power head for sofas. Or mopped with Spic n' Span. Windex for glass. Pledge for tables. The only new age one is an "electronics spray" for carefully cleaning TV and monitor screens.
blacktrufflesheep@reddit
I have a Libman tornado spinning mop. It's fun to spin it, and it reminds me of the Sit n Spin I had as a toddler.
Easy_Independent_313@reddit
I just buy the supplies I want to use and use them. I don't buy any of the extra stuff I don't use.
I have glass cleaner, all purpose spray, disinfectant, wood polish and toilet bowl cleaner.
I have rags, sponges, scrub brushes and paper towels.
I have brooms, a vacuum and mop.
ordinarydecree@reddit
In college we discussed how expectations of cleanliness increase with new cleaning technology. Just stuck with me.
LineImpossible3958@reddit
Mops are gross, at least to me. I like the swifter. Having better options for cleaning now is a good thing. I don’t see it as any more complicated, cleaning is still cleaning, we just have a wider variety of tools now.
guyincognito121@reddit
You do realize that you're repeatedly dunking the mop into the substance that's supposed to clean stuff, you can clean it more thoroughly between uses, and that the Swiffer doesn't clean nearly as thoroughly?
Also, virtually nobody was plagued with infections from basic household bacteria 50 years ago. Is your ultimate goal to live in a cleanroom? Or should we maybe consider the possibility that a lot of this newer stuff is just marketing targeted at germophobes who then make the rest of us feel unclean even though we're not at significantly greater risk of harmful infection?
Fickle-Forever-6282@reddit
mops are so nasty and spread all that shit into the floor 🤮
Aqueous_Ammonia_5815@reddit
Because mops suck ass
Fickle-Forever-6282@reddit
this
Gloomy-Moose-4367@reddit
Because aholes like me sell them to you for commission.
tasukiko@reddit
Mop? Nah, we hands and knees-ed those floors. I wish I could still do that, it's clearly the best way to clean them, but my body won't take that anymore.
lecoqmako@reddit
I prefer scrubbing my floors with a toothbrush for the nostalgia of childhood abuse. I have to go wash my mouth out with a bar of soap now.
Amy_Macadamia@reddit
There's a saying: You can clean a floor or you can mop a floor, but you can't do both.
I clean my floors with several rags and a bucket of water with a bit of dishsoap
tarravin@reddit
I have a steam mop, no chemicals or weird smells. Pads are reusable, I love it. It also doubles as a handheld steamer on the rare occasions that I need one.
PhantoWolf@reddit
I was in the Army, so yeah... I know a thing or two about mops. And Simple Green. To smell that now would probably give me an unpleasant flashback.
PhantoWolf@reddit
I was in the Army, so yeah... I know a thing or two about mops. And Simple Green. To smell that now would probably give me an unpleasant flashback.
PhantoWolf@reddit
I was in the Army, so yeah... I know a thing or two about mops.
TechnicalEntry@reddit
Just today my wife and I saw an ad for Swiffer and we were making fun of it like, “Who buys these stupid things? Just buy a mop!”
Guess we know the answer now…
RoundTheBend6@reddit
Libby still makes a real mop. Great mop.
irelandm77@reddit
Here in Costa Rica, they sell these heavy duty microfibre cloths with a small reinforced hole in the centre. So first you sweep your tile (the only floor type here with only a handful of exceptions), then you mop it using the cloth that you've slipped over the broom handle. Many folks just use laundry detergent with a splash of vinegar. It smells nice and cleans great. You may or may not need to rinse with tap water to prevent streaks. That's it.
Drcornelius1983@reddit
I use a mop and murphys oil soap. The only other thing I have is a wet jet for when I don’t want to fill up a bucket and all of that.
lavasca@reddit
No. I had tons of allergies. My parents would clean when I wasn’t home per my allergist. My allergist also told me to get a housekeeper when I grew up.
I had to start figuring it out in my twenties. By then, there were Swiffers and Magic Erasers.
pink_faerie_kitten@reddit
I love my O-Cedar steam mop. Like love love. I don't want to deal with a heavy bucket of water and a wet mop. The steamer doesn't clean corners correctly and I do need to do those by hand, but it's still easier for me.
andiepandee@reddit
I used to work at a place where we had to use an old fashioned mop to clean the floors, and it always smelled so bad! There was no way that thing was actually making the floors clean. But I also hate swiffers and anything else that you can only use once, because it feels so wasteful. So I bought a Hizero power mop, and it’s fantastic. It was expensive, but it makes my hardwood and tiles shine like nothing else. I would eat off the floors after using that thing lol. I use Pledge Multisurface Cleaner to clean/dust most of the surfaces in my house (glass, metal, plastic, electronics, wood) except the granite counters, which have a special cleaner. That’s about it!
diypizza@reddit
I only use a Swiffer (both wet and dry) on my floors. Mops are disgusting and filled with bacteria.
BlacksmithThink9494@reddit
My floors are 100% cleaner with a mop. The swiffer just moves the dirt around. Swiffers are disgusting.
BlacksmithThink9494@reddit
I switched to a mop a while ago. Its so much cleaner than those wipes and honestly its not any harder than a swiffer.
strongcoffee2go@reddit
I have a steam mop, but otherwise I'm old fashioned and use a few spray cleaners with rags
KingCarnivore@reddit
I use a rag over a push broom as a mop
epidemicsaints@reddit
I am spartan about this stuff. I use Lysol concentrate or citric acid in a spray bottle, blue Scotch Brite pads, and I love my mop. It has that foot pedal to spin the water out of the head. I can mop my house like a boat. Flood it, scrub it, and then pick it all up.
America's Test Kitchen did 3rd party tests on all this stuff and citric acid was as effective as all the other disinfectants, and it doesn't stink like vinegar.
The new fangled thing I love are these silicone Scrubit pads though. SO much better than a sponge for dishes, dough rinses right off, they don't get stinky, and they last almost a year.
Consistent-Ease6070@reddit
Those silicone scrubbers are amazing!
Frosty_Cloud_2888@reddit
Thom_Jero1213@reddit
👀 for silicone Scrubit dish pads now! I just bought a 2pack of sponges the other day. Now I notice my current one shedding huge amounts of blue plastic scrubby pad everywhere. It’s not that old either.
BrucetheFerrisWheel@reddit
I just have a vacuum, a mop and a window vac. The washable cloths and a spray bottle of cleaner and floor cleaner. Thats it.
I'm trying not to kill the planet with disposable crap and mass consumerism.
johnvalley86@reddit
Things used to be so simple. I'm ashamed to admit I got really excited when I bought my first Dyson
bjgrem01@reddit
There is no carpet in my house. It's all stone tile and hardwood. So I have a mop, a polishing mop (i dont know the real name, its basically a stick with towel on the end to get what the mop left), and a broom. They work great.
Shortbus_Playboy@reddit
Found Stanley Spadowski’s burner account.
Ok_Breakfast5425@reddit
Got a mop for the floor and a bottles of all purpose cleaner and windex and paper towels for the rest.
Stonetheflamincrows@reddit
Nobody is forcing you to have all that
Spartan04@reddit
I keep it somewhat simple. If I need to mop I use a Swiffer Wetjet mop. Mostly because it puts much less liquid on the floor and is much easier than getting out a bucket and mixing up cleaner with water.
Most of my floor cleaning is done with a vacuum. I have a hard floor head and a carpet head for it and it works great. For surfaces like counters I just spray them with cleaner and use paper towels.
red286@reddit
I do have a mop, though. I've had it for 20 years. They still use the exact same mop heads.
Although I prefer my electric mop these days. Way less headache, just put in the soap, put in the hot water, and then 5 mins of work later, floor is sparkling.
brandi_theratgirl@reddit
I have a Swiffer left over by a roommate, but I bought reusable terry cloth pads off Etsy and my floor cleaner of choice, like lavender Simple Green (and rechargable batteries to not have to go out and get more). It's more convenient to use that than a mop for me.
Smurfblossom@reddit
I don't know what anyone with that much stuff is doing. I have vinegar, baking soda, and hydrogen peroxide for cleaning. A mop, vacuum, a dish scrubber, and some sponges for the bathroom is enough.
Lucky_Louch@reddit
I never left, one vacuum, a Swiffer mop and a broom/dust pan are my daily drivers. take cleaning supplies from the hotel I manage so got that covered on the cheap as well.
ODB247@reddit
I clean with vinegar, soap, or I have some bleach if absolutely needed. I have a broom and dustpan, and a mop. I bought a stick vacuum but went back to my shopvac because the stupid thing dies before I am done. I recently learned that I don’t have to sweep the back porch, I just vacuum.
DeadheadCaniac@reddit
Well no, if I had a closet full of all that nonsense I'd be thinking that 1) My house is still messy so clearly more is not better, and 2) If I got rid of it all I'd have that much more space for something actually useful. Still no clean house, but what can you do lol
Gullible-Apricot3379@reddit (OP)
lol I think this is where I am. I think I really keep hoping one of these gadgets will clean my house so I don't have to
Reasonable-Wave8093@reddit
Oooh ooh watch the youtub channel “field of focus”!! She bacteria tests all types of cleaners & wipes. spoiler: The Force of Nature (hypochlorus acid) is the ultimate for anti- bacteria, just use it after a basic dish soap cleaner (i love mrs meyers). Hypochlorus acid can also be used for some skin conditions!