Mopping tiled floors

[Zaphodsotherhead]

New house, never had tiled floors before. It's tiled throughout downstairs, which is great and very practical.

But I am currently cleaning by sweeping the floors and then mopping (rubbish brush too, can't get out to buy a better one, but it works!). I used to hoover first but the hoover didn't cope well with the tiles.

What do I do about the 'bits' that the mop finds? I've got dogs and cats and I'm in and out a lot; the brush takes up most of the stuff but there are always 'bits' (the odd cat biscuit, bugs, bits of dog hair) that I haven't noticed and haven't brushed up. The mop finds them and wets them but then just sort of swirls them around and leaves them wet and stuck to the floor. They're too wet to sweep up and too 'bitty' to lift.

How do people clean tiled floors? (Please don't say 'steam mop' I can't afford anything just yet - recently moved!)

Ummm, I lift up bits with the wet mop, swirl mop in clean water. Continue to mop with solution from other bucket of water/cleaning product. You need to empty and replace the rinsing water if floor is very dirty or if you're doing at lot of floors.

What @Cynderella says.
Or use a lint roller, as strange as it might sound!

Long term solution would probably be to buy a hoover that is suitable for use on tile floors (surely they must exist).

i wipe them up with a bit of kitchen roll

I'm guessing the best soloution would be a Hard Floor cleaner but the price is just ridiculous

I do have a hard floor cleaner, and it is very good (the Bissell Crossswave), but I still do proper, grown-up mopping when we've been in and out all day or the white on the floor tiles are looking stained. The Crosswave is great for daily cleaning, but I still feel the need to mop with a bucket of hot water and detergent.

Cordless hoover

Swirling the mop doesn't work though, the bits just stay on the floor. It will pick up some of the bits, but not the little ones or the ones that stay stuck to the tiles.

Cordless hoover is what I am using. It just doesn't really like the tiles, no idea why.

I think the kitchen roll idea is probably the best, chipsandpeas. I got the long handled mop to try to stop the back breaking bending down but I am realising that it's probably inevitable!

I can only aspire to a hard floor cleaner!

If your mop won't pick up bits off a wet floor, maybe you have the wrong sort of mop? I've never used a mop that doesn't pick up small bits from a tiled floor. Or, if you mean that the bits are stuck to the floor and don't move with mopping, you might need to use something more abrasive. If I am just mopping quickly, I spray stains and anything sticky with vinegar/detergent before starting.

Also, what do you use to mop the floors? If they look OK, but I'm doing a quick clean, I use a slosh vinegar/detergent and peppermint oil in hot water. I suppose that's the equivalent of Flash. But if they are dirty, I use bio washing powder dissolved in hot water. That shifts just about anything.

I use this flat mop. www.johnlewis.com/e-cloth-deep-clean-mop/p183920

And just tip small amounts of boiling water from the kettle as I go along. If you mop in 'C' shapes you can gather up all the bits (esp hair). Once I get to the door, I detach the cloth and scoop up anything that's collected

I use a Vileda mop and a mixture of Zoflora, hot water and detergent.

Flat mop looks interesting but how do you dry the floor? Currently I do an intitial wet mop, then I rinse and squeeze (using the strainer thing on the bucket) and do another pass over with the drier mop. I then usually shuffle over the main trafficked areas with a towel under my feet, to dry the tiles and get rid of any 'stuck on 'bits. The floor is lethal if you leave it too wet.

And it's loose bits. The mop head is lots of fibres and little bits just seem to get between the fibres and not get picked up. It tends to be just a few bits in each room - cat biscuits I've missed with the brush, gritty bits of stone, stuff like that.

It's one of these www.robertdyas.co.uk/vileda-supermocio-micr-ctn-mop

Oh dear Lord, I've just realised what lockdown has reduced me to...

I hoover first then mop our brick hall floor. So no bits. But thinking of getting the bricks varnished as they look lovely when they're wet.

I take the attachment off the end of the hoover (it's one of those snakey ones with a tube) and then just use my hoover hose to suck up the big bits of dirt before mopping. Sounds like your hoover is different though.

Use the vacuum then mop.

The hoover doesn't get to all the places where the bits get. Which is why I sweep rather than hoovering.

This is a house of many nooks and crannies.

Get a robotic vacuum and schedule it to clean every day before anyone gets up. That's what we've done and it's been a life saver.

I did consider that, twilight, but this is a very old cottage with a lot of very narrow 'nooky' little spaces that a robot hoover wouldn't get into. This is one of the reasons I gave up the hoover in favour of a small narrow brush. If I've got to sweep all the nooks out, then there's no point in the hoover, might as well sweep the whole floor.

vacuum then mop with warm water & soap.

what nooks and crannies? sometimes furniture needs to be moved.

Another vote for e-cloth mop. I got a mini one as my kitchen is small. We have a black cat that seems to generate endless fluff.

Thank for telling me that, bluefox - and there's me been just going round the edges all this time...

I second the e-mop. I go around first with a spray solution of vinegar and water to soften any bits that are stuck to the floor. Then I mop in an s shape, this collects all the bits the hoover missed.

Nice lovely shiny tiles, and very quick.

I used to do a second sweep after mopping to get the bits up or use the hoover hose with the brush attachment to hunt out the left fluff and bits.

Rubber broom - I own a group of vets surgeries a rubber broom is best at removing hair. This is what we use.

I vacuum with cordless dyson animal one & then take the brush off to get into the corners. Then mop.

I have a problem with our bathroom though as we have non slip floors & they just shred the mop!! Bane of my life.

The hoover just doesn't cut it, and it's not just hair - although thanks for the rubber broom tip Lonecat, that may be useful elsewhere.

I think most useful tip is to mop in a shape that collects the bits in one place and then to kitchen roll them up. There's a lot of grit/gravel that seems to collect in some of the nooks (NOT under the furniture!). It's such an old cottage that there's crannies under the fireplace that the hoover hose is too wide for, and bits where the skirting board doesn't quite meet either in corners or the floor, also doors that aren't quite level.

I like the Vileda mop because I can put the head in the washing machine when it gets skanky. A lot of mops seem to rely on 'disposable wipes' which I'm keen to get away from.

Having (sadly!) thought about this lots, tried loads of things and I think even posted on here, I've found it easier to make sure all hair and bits are swept prior to mopping. I use a swiffer mop but with those micro clothes rather than disposable wipes. After brushing over then I wet mop, then rub over with another dry cloth on the swiffer head.