Scrubbing the floor

In every job that must be done
There is an element of fun
You find the fun and snap, the job’s a game.
– “A Spoonful of Sugar” from Mary Poppins

When we were little my mom would take large rectangles of nylon netting and tie them in the middle with yarn to make scrubbies. We each got two of them. Then she’d splash some soapy water all over the kitchen floor and we’d get to “ice skate” all over the floor with our bare feet and scrubbies. After we’d scrubbed the whole floor she’d give each of us an old towel and we’d get down on all fours and “bunny hop” over the whole floor, pushing the towels between our hands to dry the floor. I remember scrubbing the kitchen floors to be a LOT of fun.

We have a mop. It’s a sponge mop I bought when I moved out of one of my apartments because they are real handy to scrub walls with. But they really aren’t that great at scrubbing floors, especially after several uses. It’s pushing dirt around because the sponge isn’t exactly washable and rinsing it after a use just doesn’t do a good enough job. Then there’s the whole bucket of water you have to haul everywhere. Mopping just doesn’t work. And I don’t have the back and knees to bunny hop all over the floor like I did when I was little.

But I can still skate all over the floor. 😀

Now I use a squirt bottle and squirt the floor ahead of me. But I still skate around in my bare feet, only I’m using two washcloths. Our floor is a lot cleaner when I skate around it than when I mop it. Every so often I’ll stop and rinse out the wash cloths before continuing on. No sense just moving the dirt from one part of the floor to the other.

Mopping the floor with wash cloth “skates.”

I could probably do the same thing with a swiffer mop thing. But then I’d have to buy the swiffer mop thing and the swiffer mop pads. Plus I get better spot scrubbing action with my big toe then I’d ever get with something else.