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Daycare Center and Family Home Forum>Keeping floors clean
Baby Beluga 01:53 PM 06-25-2015
My entire house with the exception of the living room and bedrooms is tile. I have a separate DC room - that is all tile with rugs. How in the world do you keep your tile clean?!

My floors look visibly clean, but if I were to run a swiffer cloth over the floor it will turn burn in a nanosecond. I sweep after each meal/snack, vacuum the living room/playroom rugs after lunch and after dinner and use a swiffer wet jet in the evenings after dinner. Every single day. On the weekend I use a mop and bucket and mop the entire house and my floors are still dirty! I bought a shark steam mop and it didn't work at all.

What am I doing wrong
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AuntTami 02:52 PM 06-25-2015
I have hardwood and I'm still looking for this answer. Hardwood plus 2 giant dogs. Ugh. I sweep and vacuum and mop multiple times a day. I even bought a fancy vacuum. It cut my time in half but I still gotta vacuum! Lol
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jenboo 03:34 PM 06-25-2015
I had the same issue!! I mopped the Daycare room after lunch. I used a old school braided rag mop thing. I would mop, rinse, mop, rinse etc until the water was clear. Once I finally got to the bottom of the dirt, it didn't take as many repeats to get clean water.

I had the worst tile ever for cleaning. It had a rough, non slip texture and black grout. It was perfect for the Daycare but so hard to clean.
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Unregistered 04:02 PM 06-25-2015
I use a bissel floormate with my wood floors and I love it!works like shampooing carpets but for wood and tile floors. It is a pain to clean out the "dirty" water bin (I have a collie mix)but I can vacuum, wash, disinfect and dry my floors inless than 10 minutes
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ColorfulSunburst 04:09 PM 06-25-2015
https://youtu.be/TO_0vRvukUI
floorMate
I have been using it more than one year. It really safes my time and my back.
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TXhomedaycare 04:11 PM 06-25-2015
What cleaning solution are you using? (Maybe it's not the tool that you are using) I have 60% tile floors in my home and I use a Libman mop and a bleach and Dawn (blue) cleaning solution that works great. I never felt my floors were clean when I used a Swiffer.
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AuntTami 04:16 PM 06-25-2015
Originally Posted by ColorfulSunburst:
https://youtu.be/TO_0vRvukUI
floorMate
I have been using it more than one year. It really safes my time and my back.
Ohhhh I'm sold! Is this a vacuum too or just a cleaner?
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nanglgrl 04:24 PM 06-25-2015
Roomba for sweeping and Scooba for mopping. I'm not kidding. My roomba that I bought about 10 years ago still picks up dirt after I've swept. They are expensive (they weren't as expensive when I bought mine years ago) but they are so worth it. My kids track in a lot of sand from the sandbox so I either run them during nap or at night when my family is sleeping and we are good to go. About once a month I will clean the floors myself to get in the spaces that the roomba doesn't (there's not many). We have hardwood in most of the house, carpet in the bedrooms and slate in the bathrooms.
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Unregistered 10:25 PM 06-25-2015
Originally Posted by AuntTami:
Ohhhh I'm sold! Is this a vacuum too or just a cleaner?
It vacuums, cleans, and dries the floor there is a squegee on the bottom and just sucks all the dirty water into the dirty tank, you have another tank that holds water and cleaner. Bissel makes a cleaner but I run a few drops of lysol or bleach so the floors get disinfected there's scrub brushes that spin when you have it on wash. it cleans up glitter
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Rachel 12:07 AM 06-26-2015
I got a roomba for my birthday and I'm in love! It gets everything my tile floors are CLEAN. I don't have a scoomba, but I just use a microfiber cloth on a squeegie stick and clean up the floor really quick. Since everytihng is off the floor, it takes 5 minutes top to run the rag over it go get anything that is stuck on.
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childcaremom 02:01 AM 06-26-2015
Originally Posted by Unregistered:
it cleans up glitter
Sold!
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Baby Beluga 07:32 AM 06-26-2015
Originally Posted by TXhomedaycare:
What cleaning solution are you using? (Maybe it's not the tool that you are using) I have 60% tile floors in my home and I use a Libman mop and a bleach and Dawn (blue) cleaning solution that works great. I never felt my floors were clean when I used a Swiffer.
I use a lysol multipurpose cleaner or pine sol. I tried blue dawn and hot water once (bleach scares me!) but it left my floors with a film. I have travertine tile - not sure if it is the type of tile I have or maybe I needed to rinse after I mopped with the dawn?

It sounds like I need to get the hoover floormate - especially if it cleans up glitter. My littles have recently discovered the fun that is glitter glue
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ColorfulSunburst 04:28 PM 06-26-2015
Originally Posted by AuntTami:
Ohhhh I'm sold! Is this a vacuum too or just a cleaner?
I do not use it for rugs for hard floor only.
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Paisley 07:15 AM 06-27-2015
Please check into mixing bleach with dawn before using it. I believe dawn has a warning not to mix with bleach. From what I have read/heard mixing these two produces a chemical gas.
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BabyMonkeys 08:34 AM 06-29-2015
Originally Posted by ColorfulSunburst:
https://youtu.be/TO_0vRvukUI
floorMate
I have been using it more than one year. It really safes my time and my back.
How frequently do you use it? Is it small enough to drag out for daily use, or is it something you would really only bring out on the weekend? I'm struggling with keeping my tile clean too. I sweep + swiffer multiple times a day and I just can never seem to keep up with it!
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Sunshine74 08:57 AM 06-29-2015
Originally Posted by Unregistered:
It vacuums, cleans, and dries the floor there is a squegee on the bottom and just sucks all the dirty water into the dirty tank, you have another tank that holds water and cleaner. Bissel makes a cleaner but I run a few drops of lysol or bleach so the floors get disinfected there's scrub brushes that spin when you have it on wash. it cleans up glitter
Originally Posted by childcaremom:
Sold!
That's what I was going to say!
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AuntTami 09:06 AM 06-29-2015
Originally Posted by ColorfulSunburst:
I do not use it for rugs for hard floor only.
Awesome. That would be what I wanted then!
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Leigh 09:12 AM 06-29-2015
Originally Posted by TXhomedaycare:
What cleaning solution are you using? (Maybe it's not the tool that you are using) I have 60% tile floors in my home and I use a Libman mop and a bleach and Dawn (blue) cleaning solution that works great. I never felt my floors were clean when I used a Swiffer.
Dawn and bleach creates a chlorine gas. I would find something else to clean with.
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hope 10:43 AM 06-29-2015
Have you tried a steam mop? I like to use that so there are no chemicals on the floors to leave a residue on babies skin.
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Blackcat31 11:44 AM 06-29-2015
Originally Posted by Rachel:
I got a roomba for my birthday and I'm in love! It gets everything my tile floors are CLEAN. I don't have a scoomba, but I just use a microfiber cloth on a squeegie stick and clean up the floor really quick. Since everytihng is off the floor, it takes 5 minutes top to run the rag over it go get anything that is stuck on.
My DH and I were just discussing getting a Roomba. Do they "really" work well? Worth the cost?

We have a new lab puppy (yellow) and I can't believe he isn't bald considering the amount of hair he leaves everywhere!

Originally Posted by Leigh:
Dawn and bleach creates a chlorine gas. I would find something else to clean with.
Did not know this..... about killed myself cleaning my bathroom a few years ago. Now to this day if I smell Dawn dish soap, I gag and get an instant headache.
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Rachel 12:04 AM 07-07-2015
Just saw this. Yes, it works really well BUT, you have to be able to get the stuff off the floor. My house is divided, so I put up the chairs in the kitchen, put up the "wall" move the garbage out of the kitchen, and it cleans the whole thing. You can touch the floor and there is not one speck of dust. Then I just run a microfiber cloth with a bit of floor cleaner over it and it's all clean. Do the same in the LR. Shove things in the kitchen (I'm lucky, it goes under my couch), put up the dining room chairs, and run it.
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ColorfulSunburst 05:48 PM 07-07-2015
Originally Posted by angelw2babies:
How frequently do you use it? Is it small enough to drag out for daily use, or is it something you would really only bring out on the weekend? I'm struggling with keeping my tile clean too. I sweep + swiffer multiple times a day and I just can never seem to keep up with it!
It is not big and isn't heavy. I or my assistant use it every day. I have 7 boys here everyday (you know what I mean ) The floor looks clean constantly.
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