Clean floor tips - please!

[pitterwoo]

Especially @justdairy and anyone else who deals with a lot of tracking in.  

H and the dog track in so much and I'm starting to get really frustrated.  There are mystery spots on the rugs and just a lot of dirt to sweep and vac.

One door has a heavy duty mat, the other has a regular one plus a towel in case it's really bad which I wash often.  There must be a technique.  It's not practical for H to take off his boots because he's in and out to the garage and basement and would never go for it.  Also, do you really make an effort to wipe shoes off or just walk across the track mat?  I think H needs to wipe his feet more.  The dog walks across a towel and that helps.

How often do you vaccuum and mop?  I've started putting old throw rugs over the high traffic areas and just pick them up when people come over because I can't get the carpet to come clean anymore.  I hate it though and wish we didn't have to resort to this.

Is it just me?  How do you keep the outside out?

[boiler717]

I think your rug idea sounds good.

When DH is working on projects that have him going from the basement to the garage a lot, he'll often wear shoes that he can quickly slip on and off and he carries them in between. Or he'll keep one pair of shoes in the garage and one in the basement. Sometimes he just tracks it in and we clean the floor when he's done.

As far as the dog goes, we have a Boots and Barkley towel thing that hangs on a hook in the Mudroom. Eli's paws are wiped when he comes in and out.

I have a weekly cleaning lady. I use the Neato daily or 2/3 days. I touch up with the Swiffer sometimes too. It's definitely a lot to do but I'm kinda obsessed with clean floors.

[pitterwoo]

dup

[pitterwoo]

oh boiler717, mr boiler gets a gold star.  (star)

What you said makes sense.  I think it's because we are always in 'project mode'.  I wish it wasn't, but we are still doing house stuff and H works out of the garage workshop.

[magdala]

I have found that Resolve spot shot works well on rug stains. My biggest challenge is plaster dust/saw dust. I run the Mint robot vacuum every Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday to keep up with project dust.

[pitterwoo]

ugh, yes we often have that kind of dust to deal with too. I've never gotten the hang of Resolve. I will look at the spot shot one.

I wonder if it's time to get a robo vac since it's a constant issue. Is Mint just for floors? I have a mix of HW and rugs.

[SusanBAnthony]

My dad has to go through his basement family room to get into his shop. Like your h, he would refuse to take off his shoes. When they recarpeted, they got long strips of scraps, and ran a runner from the door to the shop, so that he isn't walking on the rest of the carpet. Then whenever people are over, they roll up the strips and stash them in his shop.

I am just a meany and make DH take off his shoes every time! When we had a dog it was tough. I used lots of baby wet wipes or hand towels that I got wet to wipe his paws. Summer was fine and dead winter was fine, but spring and fall were awful.

[Deleted]

There are a million people in and out of my house all day long. We take off shoes if it's feasable to do so. Sometimes it's just not, plain and simple.

Here's my best advice for you:

Embrace it. It's your house it's made for living. While you don't want it wrecked, dirt is just a fact of life.

Get good rugs at all your doors. The black ones that absorb water and have those little fibers for scraping. You don't need the high end LL Bean ones, even the decent ones at Lowe's are fine. Get them as big as you can and not have it look weird. That way you have a place to stand and wipe and nothing ends up on the floor in the turnaround process. They're not pretty, but they work.

Keep a broom handy. Just get the spots you see a couple times a day on the busy days. Helps a lot and prevents the rest of it from being tracked all over. Vacuum a few times a week as well. Prevents the ground ins.

Resolve and the like is fine for the really big visible, super nasty spots, but don't use it more often than necessary. I like it fine, but it has a tendency to attract more dirt. I actually every month or so, baking soda my bigger rugs and carpets...use a stiff but soft brush on the dirty parts and vacuum. Works really well.

I scrub my hard floors with dishsoap and vinegar in the hottest water my fingers can stand once or twice a month. Otherwise, the more soap I put on the floor the stickier it gets and the more dirt it holds.  The rest of the time It's hot water and dishsoap in my Freedom mop.

**Note** I do my best to get this done often and with regularity..but it doesn't always happen. I often have better things to do than worry about the bit of dirt clumps on my floor.

That's what I got for you.

[Deleted]

I also wanted to add: I hate throw rugs, rug remnants etc. everywhere. Great idea in theory but really, they're always in the road, someone trips over them and it's just more stuff to keep clean as more times than not you have to clean the layers underneath anyways too.

[pitterwoo]

this all made me feel better because I really have a lot of dirt to deal with coming in.

we went to lowes today and I went ahead and got a big, black entry mat. hoping it helps!

and, I added the Roomba to my Amazon wish list. Don't know when that might happen, but I think I could really use a hand around here.

[Deleted]

Ha! Don't feel bad. My house is pretty organized for the most part and it's liveably clean.

As long as you don't look at my floors. I give up on that somedays. Even tonight I sit here and see dirt clumps. Drives me insane and I want to get up and mop..but meh..it'll be there tomorrow and the day after and the day after.

I used to be really uptight about perfectly clean floors more so than other things...but with our lifestyle I just can't.

Also, I had Chemdry come do my carpets last winter. No mess, no fuss, in and out and definitely affordable. My less tracked in carpets still look new. My main one isn't look so hot these days. Trying to decide if I should chem dry that little space again or borrow my mom's carpet cleaner...after summer is over. Fall is always a little cleaner around here.

[boiler717]

Feb 3, 2013 12:59:33 GMT -5 pitterwoo said:

oh boiler717, mr boiler gets a gold star.  (star)

What you said makes sense.  I think it's because we are always in 'project mode'.  I wish it wasn't, but we are still doing house stuff and H works out of the garage workshop.

He does!