Cleaning your kitchen doesn’t have to be a nightmare. Dare we say it could be fun? Welcome to BA’s Cleaning Week: Consider this your trusty guide to the nooks and crannies that you definitely are not scrubbing often enough, plus the pro-approved tools and products to get the job done.
Every Saturday when I was growing up was designated as cleaning day. I was in charge of cleaning the floors. But there’s a catch, reader: We didn’t have a mop. The tools of mass disinfection were my bare hands, some dish soap, an old T-shirt shredded into rags, and an empty trash can. It was a challenging task. With this rudimentary set-up, I scooted around our Moscow apartment, folding my body perpetually forward while rinsing and wringing the T-shirt mop, which didn’t really pick up much dirt.
Now that I’m an adult living independently, I still clean on the weekends. It gives me a sense of security and a deeper connection to my surroundings; it’s self-care and routine that direct the rest of my week. But I’ve mostly given up and stopped seeing the flooring (and the bottoms of my white socks). My back is not as strong as it once was, and who wants to deal with the trouble of washing and drying their garbage can? The rag-and-trash-bucket method is no longer effective for me.
I recently told myself, “I don’t have to live like this.” I did some research on mop. The Swiffer mop with disposable pads was pricey and wasteful when I tried it. It also couldn’t clean up a spill. So I purchased a mop with a removable, flat, rectangular microfiber head. It was touted as being extremely absorbent, capable of snatching dirt from cracks and crevices, and machine washable. Yet, instead of soaking up the water and dirt, it ended up pushing them around the floor. After that, I purchased a mop that was advertised as having an easy-wringing squeezing mechanism and a sponge bottom. There was an improvement, but because of the porous nature of the material, it also became highly soapy. To keep the floors from being sticky, I would need to mop them twice with new water. Moreover, it was cumbersome and difficult to fit into smaller areas. I told myself, “Well, maybe I can live like this,” as I positioned my “FREE” sign next to my collection of mop heads on the sidewalk. I changed into black socks.
Until I came across #CleanTok on TikTok, I really believed I would never clean the floors again. I spotted accounts advertising the O-Cedar EasyWring Spin Mop & Bucket System while being mesmerized by the satisfying videos of people organizing their houses or cleaning them. The commenter who asked “Can you kindly disclose the name brand of that mop!?” received a lot of support from viewers. The TT is covered with it.
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The O-Cedar spin-mop-and-bucket combo is a simple contraption: The bucket features a foot pedal that spins a built-in wringer, giving us the gift of hands-free squeezing and moisture control. The mop has an extendable pole, which is easy to tuck away and can be adjusted to different sizes as needed. The microfiber mop head is triangle-shaped, making it a breeze to steer and clean hard-to-reach corners. It’s also detachable and machine washable so you can reuse it again and again—a win for the planet, my wallet, and my sanity.
With 1.3 million followers and 6.6 million likes, Gabrielle Vigneault, a stay-at-home mother who goes by the TikTok handle @cleaningwithgabie, is a full-time content developer for cleaning and organization. She was having the same motivation issues I had when it came to cleaning until she discovered #CleanTok and this trending mop. This is my favorite mop for a variety of reasons, she says, including the fact that you can remove the microfiber mop head and toss it right into the washing machine. She believes that “the mechanism that spins the mop, allowing it to drain the surplus water,” is the most notable aspect.