Another one bites the dust

You may remember a while ago when my beloved Dyson broke - well it remains broken and for the most part I haven't really missed it. I do sometimes hook up our central vacuum (which I detest) to clean the baseboards and corners, but mostly I am happy with my trusty broom.

Last week my hard floor steam cleaner broke. When I first got it - I loved it and thought it was the best thing since... well since my last small appliance purchase. It worked great on the stone tile we had at our old house which seemed to suck dirt in like a sponge and regular mops just didn't cut it. Without thinking, I continued using my steam cleaner at our new place which has nice smooth tile.

While cleaning the floors one day last week, I noticed something missing - steam! I was basically just rubbing a cold wet toweling pad across the floor spreading the dirt. I was momentarily in a panic. How would I get the floors clean? Would I have to buy a new steamer with money we don't have? Then I remembered that somewhere in the depths of the laundry room closet - there should be a MOP - a regular mop with no bells and whistles, no hissing when it's ready to go, no toweling pad to attach, no not-long-enough cord, no annoying handle part that keeps falling off... It was at that moment I began to wonder what I ever saw in that electrical piece of crap and I reaquainted myself with my old mop, pulled out a bucket and filled it with hot bubbly water and set to work. I started with the floor that I had steamed before the steam ceased to exist and instantly the water in my bucket turned grey - ewww that steamer hadn't even been properly cleaning when it was working.

Each day since, I have pulled out my mop and bucket and although I still detest cleaning the floors, I really have enjoyed the slopping of bubbles and kicking my bucket to the next place I need to mop. I am once again reminded of how I don't need gadgets and gimmicks - they don't necessarily do a better job and at the end of the day cleaning the floor is cleaning the floor - it's always going to be a sucky job but bubbles definitely make it more bearable than steam!