Do you use a mop to mop your floor? Take a moment to read the following facts. Floor mops are well-known and significantly cheaper than cleaning machines. They are widely used not only in households, but also in cleaning companies, offices, public buildings and, unfortunately, also, which is the worst, in schools and healthcare. Spend a few minutes on this article and maybe it will convince you that it is time to find a better method of mopping floors.
3 and 1 advantages of mopping, respectively
- lower purchase price
- Unlike traditional wiping with a cloth, you don’t have to wet your hands
- Everyone can learn to use a mop.
“When you put down the mop and buy a floor cleaning machine, you end up with only one of the three benefits listed above.”
5 disadvantages of mopping
Have you ever thought about the disadvantages of mopping? You might be pleasantly surprised. The information we offer you in this article is not just an assumption, but is based on our more than 20 years of experience in the field of cleaning services .
- Mops spread dirt.
- Working with a mop is difficult and slow.
- The mop leaves the floor wet.
- The mop is a home to bacteria and spreads diseases
- a mop never cleans the floor perfectly
Let’s take a closer look at the individual disadvantages of mops.
1. Mops spread dirt
A mop does not remove dirt, it only spreads it around. It has been proven that traditional mops leave around 30-60% of the dirt behind. It is important to remember that when you take a clean and damp mop out of the bucket, wipe the dirt on the floor with it, wash it again in the bucket and continue mopping, you are still using dirty water. So you are constantly wiping the dirt from the floor into the bucket and from the bucket back to the floor. However, there is a way to reduce the return of dirt from the bucket to the floor – after each wiping and wringing the mop, you change the water in the bucket. In this case, however, you will run a lot and mopping the floor will be completely ineffective.
2. Working with a mop is difficult and slow
Mopping the floor with a mop is not a very popular job, let’s say. You have to use both hands and exert a relatively large amount of force not only when mopping, but also when wringing out the dirty mop. Mopping is most often done by women, and they would certainly confirm this fact. In addition to the fact that working with a mop is difficult, you also need to remember that you have to wet the mop, wring it out and then wipe it. Depending on the size of the area being cleaned, you have to do this several times. When cleaning the floor at home, a housewife does it 5-10 times, but when cleaning in public buildings, she does it many times.
3. The mop leaves the floor wet
The big disadvantage of mopping is that it leaves a wet floor behind, which poses a significant safety risk. The most common risk is slipping, which is especially true for older people and children. Injuries due to wet floors most often occur in public buildings, halls, schools and, unfortunately, also in hospitals. However, wet floors are also dangerous in another way – they significantly increase the potential for mold, especially in floor joints.
4. Mops are home to bacteria and spread disease
The germs and diseases that can spread through the use of mops are probably the worst thing you can expect from this would-be helper. Admit it, how often do you remove the bottom part of the mop, i.e. the fringes that you use to mop, and wash them in the washing machine on the highest temperature? You probably never do it or only rarely or very occasionally. If that is indeed the case, it is likely that your mop may still be full of dirt and dangerous bacteria, which then spread dangerous diseases such as jaundice or the flu.
A 2004 study titled “ Household cleaning and surface disinfection: new insights and strategies” published in the Journal of Hospital Infection found that a mop used to wipe one surface is often used to wipe another surface, meaning cross-contamination of bacteria occurs.
Going back a few decades, to 1971, another American study, “ Hospital Sanitation: The Massive Bacterial Contamination of the Wet Mop, ” examined the microbial contamination of cleaning cloths and their potential to spread disease. The study found that mops that are stored wet support very high levels of bacterial growth and cannot be adequately decontaminated even by chemical disinfection. The study also found that to effectively decontaminate mops and prevent bacterial build-up, mops must be changed and disinfected daily.
5. A mop never cleans the floor perfectly
You can find a lot of positive reviews on the Internet, which say that mops are a great helper in floor maintenance, how they make your work easier, and how they clean your floor perfectly. It is known, and often you can feel it directly from the text, that such reviews are paid for by the mop sellers themselves. Of course, this is a marketing strategy and the seller cannot be condemned for this. Mops are suitable perhaps for home use, where the level of pollution is not as high, such as in industrial sectors , schools or healthcare facilities . Since we have experience with cleaning since the nineties, we participate in various conferences around the world related to hygiene and cleaning, talk to hygienists and study professional publications, we know very well that a mop will never clean the floor perfectly. A mop only spreads dirt, is completely unhygienic and full of bacteria, and working with it is highly inefficient. We will bring you practical and concrete proof soon in one of our next articles, which will deal with hygiene monitoring using the ATP test.
What to use on the floor if not a mop?
So now you might be asking what to use to mop the floor, if not a mop. It’s quite simple – get a quality cleaning machine, ideally for dry or wet mopping. Such a machine can remove up to 99% of all dirt and clean the floor without the risk of cross-contamination and, in addition, it leaves the floor dry. The cleaning machine does not rub the dirt, because it sucks it straight up.
Someone may argue that such machines are very expensive and inaccessible, but that is just a myth, or rather a relic from ancient times. That is no longer true. Nowadays, you can find very high-quality and affordable machines on the market for households. Cleaning machines for commercial and professional use are also in many cases not as expensive as they used to be. Technology is constantly improving and competition is increasing. This is also the reason why cleaning equipment is much more accessible today. For example, take a look at our offer of top-of-the-line American KaiVac floor machines , which are a third cheaper than commonly available competing machines.