2.09.2010

The internet has ruined my decision making abilities.

I've recently become obsessed with keeping the house, and especially the floors, clean. I think there are probably three main reasons for this:

1) I now have the time and energy to do something about it. The floors sorta bothered me at our last place but I had to let it go. Obsessing about something when there is no fix is just torture.

2) The floors/carpet here are light. This means when they are clean, they look great. But when they aren't clean, you can tell. There is something good about brown floors, they hide dirt very well.

3) The whole nesting thing again. I know Nigel won't really be crawling around on them for a while but whenever someone walks on the carpet with shoes I cringe thinking about how they are dragging in germs that I won't every be able to get out! Yuck! (The irony is that in general we are not anti-bacterial people, I won't use antibacterial soap, never Lysol anything and think kids need a good dose of dirt in their life. I often complain about germ obsessed parents but this is one place where that fails me. I don't want my baby on a dirty floor!)

The carpeted area isn't so bad. We got a new vacuum for Christmas and it works so much better than the old one, I love it. It also is clear so I can see the dirt whirl around. It's a good thing I vacuum during the day because then it is only the cat who hears my raving about all the dirt I got out! Zeeba doesn't ever seem that impressed but at least she doesn't mock me.

Plus, I've now banned shoes from inside the house which helps a lot although Craig said I wasn't allowed to make a sign like I wanted too.

The problem is the non-carpeted areas. I've given up on cleaning them with a mop and bucket a while ago. I kept buying mops then realized all I was doing was pushing around dirty water and making a mess. I had been cleaning them Cinderella-style with a rag and a bucket of vinegar/castile soap water. It worked but was well, a lot of work. And getting down on my hands and knees for 30 minutes is sounding less and less appealing.

My solution - I think I need a steam mop. No yucky smelly cleaners that could leave residue, no hurting knees, a nicely sanitized floor - sounds great right? So I turn to my friend the internet to do a bit of research. The tend to run between $60-100 which is not bad if I remember that I have probably spent at least $60 buying mops over the last three years.

The problem is which one? I read reviews on the Shark but they all say the Eureka Envirosteamer is better. Most of the reviews for the Envirosteamer are great, except the ones that say the Monster and the Shark are vastly superior. And then their are people that love the Bissell....except the ones that don't. Ahh! I don't know, it's all so confusing.

So now what? I turn to you dear readers. Do any of you have a steam cleaner? Which kind and do you like it?

Or maybe the real question is, how did I ever make a decision before I had the internet to offer me 10,000 options when I really only want one?

2 comments :

  1. I got a steam mop for Christmas! It's the greatest thing ever!

    My parents did exhaustive research and got me the EnviroSteamer. Some of them apparently have the reservoir on the handle instead of at the base; the ES has it at the base, which makes it easier to push around. I haven't run into any problems with it and, again, it's the greatest thing ever. Highly recommended. Seventeen stars.

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  2. That's great. I was leaning towards that one but really wanted confirmation from an actual user and you can't really beat seventeen stars. Thanks!

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