To wash and dry the string mop every time I use it?

[Mallorie]

Idle work chat, I was moaning that I'd had to put the string mop on the radiator because it wouldn't dry on the line (riveting, I know). Both the guys I work with were like they're supposed to stay damp between uses. They also claim that they never wash them, just get a new one when it goes too black.

They're both completely convinced this is normal behaviour and that everyone in the UK knows this but me. This is nonsense, right? Please don't tell me that everyone I know has a disgusting, damp disease vector hidden behind the pantry door.

What exactly do you mean my wash it? I just squeeze it out and leave in the bucket to dry.

Yabu to use a manky string mop

(If it's not clear, I wash the mop head every time I use it - I chuck it in with bleach on a boil wash with the dish cloths, which are used one per day and then collected in a little bin next to the recycling until washing time)

No, you're right. Always rinse it out and dry it between uses otherwise you're spreading mould spores over your floor. 🤢

If you don’t want it to smell grim, and to wipe your floor with a mop that’s got more growing on it so it makes the floor dirtier not cleaner then YANBU.

I used to work somewhere where I was the only one who thought mops and tea towels should be clean. I dread to think what it’s like there now that’s eww not envy!

Bleach doesn't clean anything

I agree with you. I hate using mine as it’s such a phaff to wash it.

I wash it every time I use it. You'd not never clean a flannel or change a dishcloth, would you? I imagine the floor mop has seen more germs and dirt.

Bleach doesn't clean anything What an idiotic comment. Of course it does.

Yep I wash mine out properly every time it's used

I've never washed a mop in my life, I just wring it out and make sure it dries between uses.

I have the vileda mop and have 6 heads for it. I change the head several times whilst doing the floors and wash them in the machine afterwards.

Yuck and trying to wash floors with a dirty mop.

At*

I rinse, wring it out, them leave it spread out in the basket bit of the mop bucket where it seems to dry fine. I wash it in the machine with bleach every few weeks.

Bleach (which is an excellent detergent) or not, I wouldn't put it in with the dishcloths. Mine goes through with the shower curtain.

yanbu
I don't have a string mop but the mop head/pad goes on a rinse/spin after each use.
if left they go musty and disgusting.

YANBU OP.
Having said that, I have a pathological hatred of mops generally, and prefer to get down on my hands and knees and scrub it by hand. Obviously it would be VU to ask my cleaner to do this, and I do supply her with a mop which is washed and dried between uses. In winter I dry it on the radiator but in summer I like putting it in the sun outside.

I'm glad that (most) of you are washing your mop! That's why I use a basic string mop, because sponge mops can't go in on boil wash. My mother never used a mop, for her it was towels and hot soapy water, on her hands and knees until the day she died (literally).

The weirdest part of this conversation at work though is that both guys thought that the mops were supposed to STAY damp between uses because they're "ruined" if they dry out and get stiff. Apparently the floor cleaner you mix with the mop water keeps the mop from turning into a mildew bomb between uses.

Obviously they are both seriously deluded but they nearly had me convinced they were normal and I was the oddball.

I don't use a mop. I'm with your mother (sort of) I have a very small area of 'mopping areas' which is just the bathrooms and kitchen. I get on my hands and knees and just clean with a bleach floor cleaner using a cheap clothe which then gets put in the bin...