Magic Cleaning Gizmos

As an old fashioned housecleaner with a mop and a brush and a vacuum cleaner, I am always on the lookout for equipment and processes that will make my job easier or make my results better.

Disappointment abounds!

There are combination sweeper/squirter/moppers. They supposedly clean all floors with relatively little effort. The ones I have seen are flimsy and have limited capacity in their squirter/mopper picker-upper tanks. For occasional superficial cleaning by the homeowner, when some mess happens between my visits, they may be of some limited use – until they break. Ha!

Waving a light weight gizmo over a dirty floor can pick up the most visible dirt, perhaps. And it is easy enough to use that it might actually be used. But the effect is not serious cleaning.

Real cleaning requires either a seriously strong cleaning machine, that most homeowners would never buy, or seriously strong arms wielding the brushes and mops that get the dirt up and out. High powered carpet cleaning machines actually deep clean carpets. Brushes and mops actually clean wood and tile floors. Pressure and friction gets the dirt out.

I’ve seen room ionizers that claim to attract and remove dust and pollen from the air. The concept seems sound. But where does the ionized dirt go? Unless there is a strong fan and effective filter, the dirt will just fall. And it will fall on to every horizontal surface – furniture, windowsills, floors, counters.

So that dirt just adds to the usual amount of dust we have to deal with. Not a bad thing, but something that the buyer of the ionizer might not have contemplated.

I’ve written about robot vacuum cleaners before. Now there are robot moppers, too. To me, they are just automatic versions of those sweeper/squirter/moppers that folks use in between my visits to really clean. A ten pound or so wandering gizmo can collect surface litter, but is no match for the elbow grease I expend with my mops and brushes. And I have remarked that robot vacs seems to just scatter pet hair.

Then there are the newer, better wonder cloths and sponges. And the newer and better cleaning chemicals. These are not gizmos, but they are often just as disappointing. Paper towels and cloth diapers clean most surfaces. Soap and water and elbow grease clean most surfaces. There are degreasers and even acids for the truly heavy duty cases. Some of these are not ‘green’ but they are time proven and effective.

If there is a choice between trendy and clean, I will choose clean. That is what I am paid to deliver.