I have hardwood floors on the main level of my home. I also have two little boys, one big boy (aka my husband), and a dog. These things do not mix. My wood floors are scratched up and while this isn’t something I can easily fix, I can at least try to keep the floors clean so that they shine.
A couple times a month I do the whole wood cleaner treatment on my floors, and almost daily I Swiffer, but I needed something for more frequent cleaning that does not use harsh chemicals. Introduce the Shark Steam Mop
It comes with 2 shaped heads, rectangle and triangle (for corners) and 4 washable cleaning pads. I personally only use the rectangle attachment and 2 of the 4 terry cloth cleaning pads. While one is in the wash, the other is on the mop. All you have to do is add water to the chamber on the body of the mop, plug it in, and within minutes there is steam. Every time you push the mop forward, the handle pumps to release the steam onto the floor. You know all those water spots (or milk or juice in my case) on the floor that seem to laugh at you when the sun shines on them? Gone! And there’s no fighting the kids or dog away from the floors to let it dry, because within about a minute or two, it’s dry. See why I love it?
As a side note, I promise I do not work for Shark, nor do we get any sort of kick back from them. This is just an honest opinion on a great product that’s safe for the environment and safe for us. I don’t know if I’ll ever totally get rid of store bought cleaning chemicals (if I did my friends may never visit again!), but when there’s a warning or caution label on a cleaning bottle, it does make me think twice about the effects on the environment, breathing in the fumes, getting it on my skin, or the risk of it being ingested by the kids or the dog. Why not keep it safe by just cleaning with hot steam as often as I can?
I’ve seen the commercials and it looks great, but I’m scared it will hurt wood floors. How long have you been using it and did you do any kind of research on long term use?
Thanks!
Hi Kate – I have had my steam mop for about a year now and have had no problems using it on my wood or ceramic tile floors (my floors are about 7 years old, just fyi). The instructions do say to only use it on *sealed* wood floors. I know water is not suppose to sit in puddles on any wood floors because that will ruin them, but the steam mop does not leave a lot of water residue behind and it dries very quickly. I am personally comfortable with the use of my steam mop on the wood and figure I’ll be ready to replace my floors long before the mop would do any damage to them!