The Best Hack for Cleaning the Floors {Especially with Toddlers Underfoot!}

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If cleaning the floors is one of your biggest housecleaning challenges, especially with a baby or toddler, there’s a way to make it SO much easier!  Read on to see what has become a game-changer for me!

Top of the Most-Hated List

Maybe it’s just me, but I feel like every woman has that list of chores she hates doing – you know, the ones you would pay someone else to do if some Monopoly money fell in your lap. Spring cleaning just brings out all the feels, doesn’t it?

I happen to have several on my top most-hated list.  Cleaning the tub is up there on the list – for grimy, obvious reasons. Washing the dishes is another. Before I had a dishwasher, I despised washing the dishes.  It felt like such a waste of valuable time after every. single. meal.  When we finally had our dishwasher installed (which I insisted upon after the twins were born. Which had been sitting in the basement for months), I felt like the fanciest girl on the block. I had a dishwasher!

But the chore I hate the most, the one that tops my list, is cleaning the floors.  Here’s my litany of reasons why:

First, it’s so frustrating because the floors get dirty again so fast.  It seriously seems like the floor stays clean for –  a few hours maybe? Less than that is probably more realistic, and then it’s time for another mop.

Second, it’s such a project to get everything ready – pulling out the buckets and mops, measuring the cleaner, lugging said buckets and mops from room to room, sloshing dirty water behind you as you go.  It’s not one of those chores you can kind of sneak in during a few spare minutes when the kids are distracted with Paw Patrol.

Third, the timing is never right: If it’s snowing (and we have seen a TON of snow in our area this season), we are trekking in sludgy snow and sand. If it’s raining, then you are tracking mud in the house.  If the kids are outside playing, they bring in every kind of dirt you didn’t know you had in your yard. If my husband is mowing the lawn, then it’s mulch on his shoes and across the kitchen floor.

Then… there’s the pets. Don’t get me started on this one.  Our 4 indoor/outdoor cats were super-cute and endearing before we had kids…now, it’s just 4 cats too many.

During the weekend, during the week – there just never seems to be an optimal time.  I spend so much time waiting for the perfect moment when the floor will stay clean the longest that I usually end up putting it off until it’s pretty hazardous to live with.

Plus, if you have babies or toddlers, the conundrum grows: you need to clean those floors because those little guys are all over it.  You can’t clean it while they are awake because of all the attention mopping requires, and there’s no keeping them off those wet floors and away from all those chemicals. Then, you have a million other things to do during those sacred nap time hours, and by the time they go to sleep at night, you are exhausted.

Have I convinced you to hate mopping yet?  🙂 To me, it was just The. Worst.

Or so I thought.

Enter the Bona Stone Tile and Laminate (STL) Cleaner Mop System.

The  Bona Stone, Tile and Laminate Cleaner (really the whole system with the mop and all) was a total game changer for me when it came to cleaning my floors. This totally felt like an answer from heaven coming down in golden light on a puffy, white cloud. Maybe you already knew things like this existed, but I’ve been buried in twin-dom for quite some time now, and I did NOT. I was actually giddy when it arrived, as if the Publisher’s Clearing House people had just knocked on my door.

 

It was super-easy to assemble, and my boys were enamored with it – they thought it was a new toy!  For now, it’s Mommy’s new toy, but just wait until they are old enough to really mop! Have at it, boys! Play all you want!

Let me tell you why this is a game-changer for me and has become my favorite cleaning hack:

First, Bona STL Cleaner is QUICK DRYING.

If you have little ones, you know how important this is.  This is one of the reasons I would never attempt to mop when the boys were awake.  There was no way I could get the house mopped without getting tiny footprints across my wet floors. With this system, there’s no waiting for the floor to dry. Once you spray, you mop it up, and it dries within seconds. All done in one step.  I can squeeze in a quick floor-clean when the boys are busy getting into trouble elsewhere. This is huge!

Second, Bona STL Cleaner is a spray mop system.

The cleaner attaches to the the mop itself, so there is no mixing the proper ratios of cleaner to water.  There is no lugging around a bucket of soapy/filthy water. There’s no disgusting mop to wring out or otherwise swoosh dirty water all over the floors in the guise of cleaning them.

Just spray the cleaner from the trigger on the handle and mop it up. Sooooo easy!

Third, Bona STL Cleaner is effective.

This cleaner really works. With very little effort, my floors look great!  There is no filmy residue left behind. It is made with a specially designed degreasing formulation that gets rid of dust, dirt and grime.  If you have kids and pets (and humans, really) living in your house, you know how easy it is for grime to build up and how important this is!

Fourth, Bona STL Cleaner is so convenient!

I cannot tell you how often I mop my floors now.  No joke.  The amount of times I clean my floors has increased exponentially! I pull this out all the time now! I’m cleaning my floors almost daily. If you knew me, you’d know this is truly amazing.  Any time I need to clean the floors – for a big mop session or for just a quick spot clean-up, this baby comes out.

And, (I love this part), you can do this while the littles are awake and watching.  You can even let them help (well, they might not be much of a help, but they can participate – which, gets your floors cleaned and keeps your children entertained. Win for everyone!). You don’t have use up a whole nap time on prepping and mopping the floor.  This can be done in a fraction of the time it takes to traditionally mop.

Fifth, Bona STL cleaners is green and safe.

The Bona STL Cleaner comes with the GREENGUARD GOLD certification – it’s safe for use in your home and around your family. I wasn’t so aware of using green cleaners before I had my boys, but that crosses my mind now ALL THE TIME!  Just about everything they touch ends up in their mouths, so I’m very concerned about the safety of the products I use to clean.

The End Result

The Bona STL Cleaner did a great job on all my floors. {That was another reason I also procrastinated cleaning my floors – I was worried about the which product I could use on all my different kinds of floors: tile, laminate tile, and Pergo flooring}.  I used Bona on all of them, and they all came out fantastic! Bona works just as well on hardwood floors and really, any floor surface.

 

 

I honestly can’t descibe the relief I feel now that I can clean my floors so easily.  It’s that same euphoric feeling I got when we finally had our dishwasher put in – like a fancy girl who has clean floors all the time!

If you are looking for a simple cleaning hack to get your floors done, especially with little ones underfoot, check out the Bona Home page – and sign up for their newsletter to get some great deals!  They offer lots of seasonal deals and coupons! The whole mop system is about $40, priced perfectly and worth its weight in gold and clean floors.

If cleaning your floors is a struggle for you but you know it needs to get done, get your hands on the Bona STL Cleaner System!

What are your least favorite chores? What are your favorite cleaning hacks? I’d love to know!

Looking for more ways to get our life in order? Check out these 21 Free Printables to Help You Organize Your Life!