Monday, January 09, 2006

Floor 1, Environment -37

I need to apologize to the environment for all the products I used over the weekend to combat a crappy old kitchen floor. In the end, it came down to Windex, a new mop and a Scotch Brite scrubbing pad. It wasn't pretty.

Problem is, the floor is 4o or 50 years old. It might as well be made of adobe. It absorbs whatever touches it. It mocks the Hoover Floor Mate I purchased a few years ago. The Floor Mate has finish-friendly scrubbers. Those have no place here, in a world without finish.

So after busting out the Floor Mate & thinking No problem, we'll be done in no time, I was crestfallen to see the dirt coming up, but not the stains. More work would be required, you bitch of a floor. I wasn't going to do that entire thing on my hands and knees. I'd have to take a week off work to recover.

A trip to BB&B proved worthless. All the mops & "scrubbers" they sell are guaranteed to not destroy your floor. I needed a destroyer. I was off to the drugstore. At Long's I found a new mop with a standard spongy pad but with a very sturdy metal handle. Took that home along with more Windex, prepped to go to battle.

Dampen the mop, squirt the floor with Windex, drop the scrubby pad on the floor, put the mop on top and GO! It was sort of a Pilates/cardio/strength training session all in one, with a clean floor as a result. Clean in a totally stripped sort of way, but at least it's finally clean.



Funny thing - this is the actual pattern of the floor - it's handy in that it's designed to look like it's splattered with paint, egg yolk, blood and ink.

I challenge anyone trying to reduce their "footprint" to come live here and clean that floor without using a ridiculous amount of caustic, non-enviro-friendly products.

Stupid floor.

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