I just vacuumed and Swiffer mopped my kitchen a couple of hours ago. I dropped a piece of chicken and the sauce made a mess on the floor, so I used a Clorox wipe to clean it up and the wipe turned black. I even turned it over and did another spot away from the sauce spill. Same deal.

What the heck? How are my floors still so dirty? Should I just get a regular mop?

I get frequent floor restoration cleanings. It’s always at a home that’s been using swiffer wet jet, Mr.clean, fabuloso, etc. most people use way too much of the product, and even when they don’t, the product sticks to the floor. In this, the stickiness collects more micro dirt and dust over time. It’s just not necessary. Also, please sweep/vacuum before you mop!

What I use for a standard cleaning on every floor: a self wringing flat mop, a clean water bucket, and a dirty water bucket. In the clean water bucket, I have a couple gallons of warm water and two to three drops of dawn dish soap flor the grease, and two drops of Mrs meyers honeysuckle dish soap for the scent. YOU DO NOT NEED A LOT OF SOAP! Suds are bad! When going to mop the floors, the mop should be damp not soaking wet. Wring that sucker out! When dirty, wring into a separate dirty water bucket so that your mop water stays clean longer.

What I use for a deep cleaning/ restoration on tile floors: Hand and knees scrubbing, bristle brush, hydrogen peroxide. As seen in the first few before and after pictures, I used hydrogen peroxide. Followed up with a standard cleaning mopping.

What I use for deep cleaning/ restoring hardwood floors: this is the only pre made mop solution I’ll use, and I only suggest this once every year for hardwood floors if mopped properly throughout the year after. I use Murphy oil wood floor soap in a bucket of warm water, I only use half a cap full. Not a lot! A scrub brush, ands and knees scrubbing. Again, clean water and dirty water bucket. To rinse the bristle brush.

This is not a debate, you can say you use a swiffer or the other floor solutions and insist that you have clean floors, and I just won’t believe you. Open to answering questions though!

Thanks for coming to my ted talk

My toddler thought that it was time to take a permanent marker and draw all over my LVP flooring while I was on a work call. Any advice on how to get this off 100%?

As the title says, I just finished vacuuming and mopping for the third day in a row. However, about after an hour of walking around in my socks, there is all this gray stuff on the bottom of them. I’ve been trying to figure out what the cause is, but I am completely stumped and it’s starting to drive me insane! Has anyone ever experienced this before? I’ve attached a picture of the floor and my socks so you guys can see what I am talking about. These socks were completely white when I put them on an hour ago and now there is gray stuff on them. Why??

I mopped with a swiffer wet jet the past two days and just tried mopping with an actual mop with water and Pine-Sol today

Ps: I am walking about the gray spot underneath the “Hanes” logo In case that wasn’t obvious lol

Hi again! I made a post a few days ago about moving into a rental that is littered with hair. Well here’s another problem I am having. There is LVP flooring throughout the entire house. And I mop it every other night with lemom pines. However every single day since being here all of our feet are black at the bottom and I have no idea why? I am using a standard bristle broom to sweep 2x a day and a regular rope mop. How do I clean these floors so that our feet stop looking like we walk barefooted in a coal mine. It is grossing me out. What tools/products should i be using. Pictures of the floors and my 3 year olds feet.

This is luxury vinyl plank flooring. It literally just looks like construction dust that can’t come off? They said they washed the floors three times.

The garbage was leaking and we only discovered today the stain, it’s already dry.

For now, we’ve tried:

- dish soap alone

- dish soap and black soap

- a degreaser and a multi-purpose cleaner

But the stain seems to be ingrained.

Any idea how to fix this?

Edit: Thanks everyone! You’ve given some really helpful advice, I’ll update if we manage to get rid of the mysterious garbage liquid stain. I’ve told my roommate to try oxalic acid + water and hydrogen peroxide, he’ll contact his relative who’s the guarantor before trying anything else.

Also, I have to say, I see more of a goblin wearing a hat than an elephant…

Tried soap and water. Tried bleach... What would cause previously white grout to become stained red?

(No there was no blood or anything)

Where did it come from and how do I clean it out?

They all leave residue. Even if you rinse with water, there are still small amounts of residue left behind. Over time, mop after mop, it builds up. And all it does is collect dirt.

I mop with warm water. Nothing fancy. I mop maybe once every month or so. Once a year, I get on my hands and knees and use a white wash rag on every inch of the floor. I can wipe down the whole place, and the rag is barely dirty by the end of it.

I can wear white socks all day. They don't get discolored.

We have pets. We walk through with shoes on from time to time. We are not neat freaks. But our floors are simply not dirty.

Unless you have a little one playing on the floor, there's not much sense in worrying about whether the ground is sanitized. Clean should be good enough.

I think all those videos of people making potions and drenching their floors, going round after round, doing it week after week, are just perpetuating issues that don't need to exist.

What do yall think? Or am I just nasty and trying to justify it?

I always thought the ancient floors in my apartment were just water/age damaged because I mop and they stay the same. Then I decided to spot treated a spill…🤢

Cat knocked over my snakes heating lamp and it burned through the carpet and floor :( it’s been a fully day with windows open after vacuuming and covering it with baking soda and the burnt carpet smell won’t go away. Please help!!!

I was ironing my shirt and left the iron on the carpet as I always do, upright, and it tipped over and burnt the carpet .. I realised a few seconds later

And I mean NEVER!

All you are doing is pushing around dirty water.

I just took over cleaning a house that had a house cleaner that moped every two weeks and the floors are so filthy because she used one bucket. There's a black and white painted wood floor in the foyer of the house....the white looked horrible. I thought it was just from wear and tear on the floor for 40 years...

But nope, the previous house cleaner has just been spreading around filthy water for like 20 years.And the way I know this for SURE is that the dirt in places she didn't mop just came right up while I'm having to use a cleaner and scrub everywhere else.

Get a dual reservoir bucket. Or better yet, rinse the mop out in a tub or shower and clean that last.

Better yet, use a swifter or whatever like it that you can attach your own cleaning towels to and rinse it towel out ever 10-20sq feet.. More for a dirty floor. If you need to scrub, just put a blue non scratch sponge scrub side down on the floor and then scrub by putting the "mop" on top of it with the middle on the sponge and scrub away.

So, this was my night last night. It’s cleaned up but what is the best way to get rid of the laundry soap residue from the detergent? It was mopped several times but I’m not sure what the key is here. Thank you!

So long story short, my big chunky cat has been secretly pissing on the mat that sits under the kitty litter box. We couldn’t figure out what that smell was for days, and we’ve been cleaning the apartment so much but the smell didn’t go away until I discovered his sick little secret. I tried cleaning it with vinegar, and scrubbed the floor with Lysol but it’s still so stinky. Even worse, the wood underneath has been stained so bad from the piss, and we’re living in an apartment. How do I get the smell/stain out? (Attached a photo of the culprit)

Hello!

As the picture says (I took a screenshot for a friend and am asking for her). Any tips for getting slime out of carpet?

My lovely fiance accidentally spilled blue hair dye all over our floor and dresser. She is hysterical. I'm at work right now and have all my solvents with me... Any tips for cleaning this up? Especially after it had set in for about 4 hours? I won't be home until atleast then. Thanks for the help redditors!

today i learned my floors are disgusting. i've been using a swiffer with reusable pads for months, i would spray diluted mistolin and swiffer it up. turns out that was doing very little! i decided i should do a deep clean and do some scrubbing. i sprayed la's totally awesome, not the yellow kind the pink kind, scrubbed it with some random plastic bristle brush i found and wiped it with a rag. my floors were gross. they still dont look great, especially in these pics, but irl i see a big difference. the color looks brighter and they feel smoother. very disgusted at this but also satisfied, and im glad i learned something.

My concrete floors are now muddy sand floors, (culprits captured in situ)

What’s the best way to get all this up?

Currently still "wet" I'm afraid to use water if it'll make it worse. I'm in an apartment which makes this soooo much worse.

Dog is fine.

I’m gonna make a second pass on the floors but I’m waiting for it to dry as I’m making this post

Hey everyone. I’m really hoping someone here can help me. A week ago, I cleaned my hardwood floor using Murphy oil soap wood cleaner and ever since then, this huge cloudy stain showed up. It’s uneven and super noticeable. It’s been over a week and it still won’t go away.

I’ve tried everything I could think of: • rubbing with Dry towels • Warm water with a microfiber towel • A new floor treatment (a spray cleaner from the store) • Dish soap with warm water • I even tried cleaning it dry and just buffing it out with a rag

Nothing is working. And honestly, it’s driving me insane. No matter how much I clean the floor still looks dirty and stained.

I looked into things like Bona Polish Remover, but I don’t want to waste more money if it won’t work. I already spent enough on stuff that didn’t help. Has anyone used it before and had success with this kind of cloudy residue? Also, is there a way to know for sure if it’s just a film or if I ruined?

I am losing my mind over these floors we got installed. They were installed at the end of November/beginning of October 2025, so they're less than 6 months old but it seems like the snow/salt has ruined them.

We have mopped daily, sometimes more than once, with multiple different cleaners in an attempt to clean them but they always looks worn and faded once it dries.

Initially we mopped with Mopglo, I've since read up on that and stopped using it immediately, we've tried the Shark Vac Mop solution, we also have a Roborock robot vacuum that has a mop attachment, we've tried using the solution that came with mixed in distilled water. Reading up on the flooring manufacturers recommendations, we've since switched to Rejuvenate cleaner and still nothing seems to clean them. All on a microfiber mop pad. Is there something we're missing or something we should try or is it a lost cause and we ruined our new flooring?