What's the best method for cleaning floors?

what kind of floors? wood? wood with Swedish finish? vinyl? bricks? or...

This is for my kitchen; it's fake-linoleum-tiles.

I should add that the floor gets _pretty_ dirty.

My favorite is Murphy's Oil Soap:

The wet swiffer is actually pretty awesome. Just make sure that you sweep up well beforehand.

What about mopping?

Swiffer, Swiffer, Swiffer. They make a mop that has a removable pad. Liquid squirts out the front of the mophead and then you mop it up. Super easy & works very well.

Swiffer sounds appealing, but I'd rather not throw stuff away. How about this: I'm looking for mopping techniques.

The old-fashioned way works for me. I like to use Murphy's Oil Soap, and I'll just use an old rag on the floor. (you can use old t-shirts for this purpose if you don't have any rags on hand.) Either you can just use the rag, in which case you'll have to get down on your hands and knees, which apart from the requisite sexual connotations can be uncomfortable for your back, or you can just wrap the rag around a broom or swiffer you already have. When you're done mopping, throw the rag in the washing machine. It's much less wasteful than the Wet Swiffer.

This is more to do with kitchen floors...

Isn't Murphy's Oil Soap for wood?

As for techniques, you want to start at one corner of the room and mop backwards, so you don't end up stepping on wet floor you just mopped. Try mopping in circles.

Circles... great idea.

Yeah, Murphy's Oil Soap is great on kitchen floors.

Doesn't the water in the bucket get filthy?

You can get oil soap that's already diluted. You squirt it directly on the floor, and so you don't need a bucket.

Ahh... and do you clean out the mop mid-job?

What I do is, I squeeze the rag out every once in a while in the kitchen sink.

No bucket. Buckets are a mess.

I know!

Then you just quickly wash the sink.

Thank you!

I'm telling you, get the Murphy's Oil Soap in the squirt bottle and an old t-shirt. It's all you need.

Murphy's Oil Soap IS for wood floors. You need something with more OOMPH for your kitchen floor, and, possibly, disinfectant. You need to use Mr. Clean or Fantastic or pine cleaner. To do it right, you need a double bucket--one side for detergent-water and one side for clear, rinse water. Get yourself a mop with a self-wringer. If you have a real problem spot, let the wash water sit on it for 15 minutes or so. But don't put too much water on it or the tiles will start coming up at the edges. The most important thing for your kitchen, Andrew, is to vacuum it really WELL before you start washing. Especially around all the edges and up against all of the appliances. Use the wand tool to get the stuff stuck around the edges. Otherwise, you will be slopping the cleaning water into those edges and washing out all of the unvacuumed crap.

Murphy's Oil soap does nothing about germs.

the israeli method (a country obsessed with floor washing) is to pour a bunch of water on the floor, scrub with a long handled brush, squeegie all the water out (this assumes it has someplace to go) and then put a rag on the squeegie head and go again to dry. this way the yucky water goes away and you are not just pushing dirt aroudn.

A Tibetan Terrier that really likes tug-of-war.

I do have to say the Murphy's Oil soap, while great for wood, will clean just about anything (paintbrushes too!). You don't need your kitchen floor sterile (it won't be), if you need something stronger than soap (which will mostly clean dirt and germs off the floor) for the germs, try a cup of bleach in a gallon of water.

However, you need to let the bleach solution sit on the surface for 5 minutes, and then rinse it off

I would use the two bucket system or the sink system. That way you are always the dirty water out of the mop. It takes a bit more time until you become used to it, however once you learn what works best for you and your surface it will take you less time and less cleaning, not to mention less mop refills, but everything takes time to learn.

I have a Bissell steammop. With 3 thick pads that are washable. I Love it. I will never use anything else. You pour distilled water in the little tank , put the cotton thing on the bottom, plus it in and instant steam. It slides around easily ; then you take off the pad and toss it in the washer when it’s dirty. I use it on oak flooring and tile.

Now a days, there are several floor cleaner liquids available in market that are quite good. But I always prefer wet swiffer as it is best that keeps my floor clean and attractive.

Well, I fill one side of the sink up with soap and water, and I get on my hands and knees and go around the perimeter with a wash cloth. Every so often I’ll rinse the rag out with water from the tap on the other side of the kitchen sink, then get more clean water from the soap side. Then I just use a sponge mop for the rest, employing the same method…every so often rinsing / wringing it out with tap water, then loading up with clean soap water.