This might sound a bit crazy but I like to mop the floor. I haven't done it for awhile, my kids have been doing it, but really, I like it.
I have a Swiffer and I think it was made for mopping floors that don't get dirty. I use it for when something gets spilled on the floor the same day that it was mopped. Otherwise those pads just seem to made mud. When I run out of pads I use a rag on the Swiffer but that hasn't impressed me either. The Swiffer is going to be de-cluttered one of these days.
I have used those sponge mops before, those are OK but they also have a tendency to make mud.
The best mop I have owned is the one in the Don Aslett catalog. It has different kinds of heads you can put on and it swivels really nicely. But you have to bend down and wring it out. If you're bending down, you might as well bend all the way down and just mop it with your hand. With his mop you still have the problem of those dirty spots that are dried on, or someone stuck a sticker to the floor. The answer to that is to let it soak and come back to it but I have a lot of those spots on the floor. Am I supposed to flood the whole floor and come back in 10 minutes to mop it?
Mopping the floor has to be on a time frame anyway what with keeping the children out of the room. Counting the mudroom, kitchen, and dining room there is quite a bit of hard floors that get really dirty. And it's all on the middle floor, so the kids downstairs want to come up to "get something" and the kids upstairs want to go down and "get something" and the wet floor gets walked on. So, naptime is the most logical time of day to mop of course and then the rest of the children can gather their things, visit the toiet, find their "spot" and stay parked for the mopping time.
When I do the mopping, and remember I said that I like to mop, I put on some relaxing classical music and fill a bucket with soapy water, I use Wood Wash from the Don Aslett catalog, a terry rag, and a dish scraper for the stickers and other things that need scraped up. I get down on my hands and knees and start mopping at one end and finish by the toilet in the mudroom then I dump the dirty water down the toilet.
To do it more perfectly, according to Don Aslett is to have 2 buckets, one for rinsing the dirty rag, the second for the soapy water that you wash with. But I think this is more hastle than neccessary. I guess I'm not that much of a perfectionist. When the floor is really really bad I do use the 2 bucket method and even change the rinse water because it turns black so quickly. That happens more in the summer. I live on a farm and have a mudroom that is called a mudroom for a reason.
I find mopping relaxing because the house is quiet with everyone doing an activity elsewhere or sleeping, the music is relaxing, and I just mop and think. I like to have that quiet time to think. (I like mowing the yard for the same reason.) Mopping is over before I know it. Then I find a quiet spot to read until the floor is dried.
Now, in my quest to multi task and teach my children how to work, my method lately has been to have the big kids mop while I Read Aloud. With 4 of them mopping it gets done in a flash. They start at one end and race each other. They also point out to each other when they miss a spot. The mop bucket is behind them and they go from it to their spot on the floor moving backwards towards the bucket. I sit in a chair on the carpet and read. This system has been working great.
Then there is the Spot Mop method. When someone spills something, nearly every day at our house, sometimes more than once a day, you mop not only the area that was spilled on but everything you can reach within an arms length. Using this method you can keep the floor mopped pretty decently for awhile. Another version of this method is to walk around with a spray bottle of soapy water and a wet rag looking for the dirty spots. That's a good one to have a kid do when you are getting surprise company! : )
