A few days ago, Emma asked for your suggestions on the best mop for the kitchen. You all gave a lot of good opinions, but I have one more. See, the mop I use most frequently is attached to my arm.
I get down on my hands and knees with a sponge to clean my kitchen floor, and I have several reasons why. First is my own persnickety nature. I like to get eye to eye with the dirt. I want to see the nooks and crannies up close and make sure they're getting clean. (FYI, have you ever looked at the kickplates or baseboards under your cabinets? Sometimes people neglect them, and they get pretty gross. If you're down on the floor, you can't miss them.)
Second--and this depends on how big your kitchen is--I don't think doing it by hand, with a sponge, is that much more labor intensive than using a mop. I'm still pushing and scrubbing; I'm just closer to the ground. A few of you commented on Emma's post that, even if you use a mop, you get down on the floor with a sponge to tackle tough spots. I'm already there.
A few tips:
• Vacuum first. You don't want to be wiping up food and hair while you're scrubbing, just dirt. I quickly run the vacuum through the kitchen before I clean, so I'm starting with a crumb-free floor.
• Have a bowl or bucket of soapy water on the floor with you. You can rinse your sponge more often if you don't have to get up and walk over to the sink. I use a squirt of Method dishwashing liquid, and I usually dump and refresh the water once.
• Squeeze out a little water on the floor. Don't hold me to the science of this one, but I find it helps to squeeze out a tiny puddle and then spread and scrub from there. It seems to work better than a barely-damp sponge.
• Use an old dish sponge. I've written before about my love of these pop-up sponges (and thanks for the great tip on a cheaper version at Trader Joe's! They don't hold up quite as well as the ones from Williams-Sonoma, but they're half the price.) When one is finally ready to be tossed, I save it under the sink and wash the floor with it before I throw it away. You could of course use a washable microfiber cloth, too. I just like the sturdiness of a sponge.
Overall, I prefer the precision I get from my own two hands versus a mop that, to me, can leave residue as it moves. But what do you think?
Related: Kitchen Cleanup: Looking for One Good Mop
(Images: Elizabeth Passarella)
How To Cook Fluffy, Tasty Quinoa
How to Make Buckwheat Soba Noodles from Scratch
Good Food to Share 
The Big Book of Small, Cool Spaces 
Apartment Therapy Presents 
The Eight-Step Home Cure 
Martha Concrete Lam...
Dirty Little Secrets of Tidy Families
Hillary & Michael's Refined Roost
I do this around the sink and stove, and in the bathroom too.
I agree 100 percent. Of course, my kitchen is barely more than a U-shaped galley: fridge, dishwasher, sink, (turning the corner with pie-slice-shaped bit of counter top), stove, another turn and a stretch of pass-through counter the length of the appliances side. So there really isn't much floor, and you're right about the kick plates. In fact, I nearly gagged when I moved into this supposedly clean apartment. If it's MY mess, I can live with it occasionally, but someone else's? Blech! BTW, I use sudsy ammonia in water, a rough Chore Boy pad and hefty rubber gloves. I do pass a Swiffer pad or something like it over the floor to "dry" it.
I agree too -- nothing gets a floor as clean as elbow grease -- though when I lived in a house that was 100% tile and hardwood throughout I used a Star Mop in most of the house, but anything that needed to be deep cleaned got my personal hands-and-knees attention.
http://www.starfibers.com/mops.php
I grew up scrubbing our family's kitchen and bathroom floors by hand, using old kitchen towels cut into washcloth size. I like these better than sponges because of the texture - I think it's easier to get sticky residue or spots off of the floor.
It's definitely the best way to get it really clean - but my kitchen is way too big and I'm way too lazy to do the whole thing this way!
I used to do that--I even scrubbed between the tiles with a toothbrush--but then with the dog and everything else, I stopped trying to make my floors perfectly clean. I do have a deep clean of the floors on our bi-annual chore list, though, and that includes the baseboards and everything else that gets neglected by just using a mop.
totally agree. here's an additional idea: if you have any friends who are disabled, cleaning their kitchen or wood floor this way, by hand, is a true act of spiritual grace.
I'd like to know how people do this without absolutely destroying your knees. I've done it once, and was in pain for days afterwards. And I'm just not sure I'm ready to wear kneepads for cleaning. It's not a contact sport.
@ Laura elk: It can be done sitting on your bum, or buy knee pads that designed for gardners.
At my age I am content that my floor is "clean enough" with sponge mopping. Cleaning on your hands and knees is a job best done by the relatively young or the relatively limber. While I have no problem with you, or anyone else, doing that, no one could pay me enough to follow your example. I tried it one time. My knees were painful for days, and my chiropracter was very happy to schedule extra visits for my very sore back. There is a reason that there was formerly a condition called "housemaids knee"...
To "clean" my floors, I will vaccuum, sweep, and spot clean the floors; to CLEAN my floors, though, I get down on hands and knees once or twice a month. I keep a bucket with sponge, scrub brush, and floor cleaner under the kitchen sink. Like Elizabeth, I wring out the sponge over the floor to spread a little water. Then I go back and scrub. Finally I clean up with the sponge. While down there, I will catch the footboards, the baseboards, and the bottoms of the fridge, oven and dishwasher.
I would love to be able to just use a mop, or for that matter, just a sponge. But... my condo came with white linoleum that was designed with pock marks. The only way to get those little pock marks clean is to scrub, scrub, scrub. Otherwise, the floor appears gray. And I was blessed enough to have those same floors in each of my two bathrooms.
God no.
I sweep the floor every night or so and will occasionally use a steam mop, but there's no way I'm getting down on my hands and knees.
It's a floor, not an eating surface, and I know that my dog will run through in two minutes and begin the filthy-ing process all over again.
@avianmission, what a lovely, kindhearted, and compassionate idea.
I agree! My apartment kitchens tend to be small (except my current one, which is ... well, generous in comparison), and it seems really stupid to get out a big, wooden-handled mop to scrub a whopping 25 square feet. I use a rag, though (sponges are not green!), so that I can wash it when I do a load of towels, and it works fine.
When we first moved into our house a couple months ago, we did this to all the vinyl floors. They looked amazing! We mop most of the time, but it doesn't ever turn out looking as good as it does when we get down on hands and knees to scrub.
@Shellbell - our floors are the same downstairs - white with pock marks. Impossible to keep clean longer than a day!
Sounds nice but 80% of my house is slate tile. And 20% is the kitchen alone. I think I will stick to the mop.
I absolutely get down on a my hands and knees to scrub the floor. I see every tiny nook and crevice that needs to be cleaned. BUT I only do this four times a year for a deep cleaning in the kitchen and bathrooms. Other times, I use a mop with a scrub brush to tackle the floors. I enforce a take of your shoes before entering but it's easy because I'm Asian and grew up with that habit.
Old sponge, wrung dry, reach over from the waist. Keeps me limber and saves my knees. Bent knees are acceptable. And yes, sweep or vacuum first.
I despise my rental's kitchen floor - mostly because the old, chipped, dull, probably-asbestos tile that NEVER looks clean. I considered this last time I mopped. I think I'll try it this weekend. It's about 6 feet by 4 feet so you're right, it won't take much time. And then I'll know it's truly clean as can be.
Hahaha. I do all the vaccuuming and my roomie does all the mopping, soooo I never mop. Do you think I should tell her to do it this way? :)
Really though, We are in and out all the time and our kitchen is a main thoroughfare for EVERYTHING. The hands and knees thing may stay reserved for before Tgiving when the whole fam is over.
I live in an RV, which comes in at about 140 square feet, so I wash all the floors on my hands and knees. It takes less time time than would hauling out a bucket and I think the floors end up being cleaner.
I find the Eureka floor steamer to be most effective and easiest to use. This one
here.
I have galley kitchen, entryway, and bathroom all adjacent to each other, and they are all covered with the same piece of pocky vinyl (mentioned by someone else). It's small (about 170 sq ft total). I regularly sweep and spot-clean the entire floor. Every few months, I do a hand-scrub.
I use a rag and/or a scrub brush, and an old toothbrush for hard-to-reach spots. My garbage pail is a small under-sink sized plastic one, and I use that as my container for holding the cleaning water (cleans the garbage pail this way, too). I clean with an ammonia/water mixture because ammonia removes build-up from other cleaners. I go over it twice, the first time with a generous amount of ammonia-water and scrubbing, the second time just to make sure I got everything. When I am done, I dispose of the water by dumping it in the toilet and giving it a scrub with the toilet scrub brush.
I usually sweep beforehand, but going to start vacuuming first. Good idea.
I never move the stove and refrigerator, but I usually move everything else (baker's rack, table, chairs, etc).
I do this every 2 weeks, and I use rags - one to wash, and a dry one to wipe dry and buff. It works great, and doesn't take much longer than using a damp mop.
I started scrubbing in a plank pose. Core workout and no sore knees! Everybody wins.