To Mop, or Not To Mop ?-- that is the question.

I do a different household task each day, and Thursdays are my "hard floor" day. That means on Thursdays I Swiffer the tiled parts of the house and then wet mop them. I wet mop using a flat cloth diaper wrapped onto the Swiffer pole, wet in a mixture in my sink. The mixture varies -- either vinegar and water, Pine-Sol and water, or bleach and water -- depending on what I think the floor needs. This has become my least favorite housekeeping task of the week, not because I dislike mopping, but because I must do it while Caroline naps. It's too hard to keep her off of the wet floor, and she slipped a few months ago on the wet tile and freaks out now if so much as a drop of water is on the floor. When she took two naps a day, doing housework while she napped was the plan. Now that she naps once and enjoys helping so much, I do my housework while she is awake (and while away the hours reading blogs and such during naptime).

Apparently my floors don't get too dirty. I hosted my Tuesday playgroup here last week. Keep in mind, this would be two days before "hard floor" day, so five days since I'd mopped last. I was outside with some of the kids when a mom came out laughing saying I had to see something inside. I walked in and another mom was holding up a wad of white papertowels. Somebody had spilled some water on the floor, so she grabbed some papertowels to wipe it up. When she looked at the papertowels after wiping, they were clean. The moms were amazed, and I have to admit I was pretty surprised myself (and so thankful!)

So yesterday, I skipped wet mopping. I went over all of the tile with my new favorite gadget, The Shark, my Christmas present. Then I Swiffered. I guess I should keep this my dirty secret, but I'm going to try just mopping every other week. I can give up twenty minutes of "me" time every fortnight to mop, I think. Is my house going to become a stinky pig sty? I hope not.

I'd love to hear how often others mop. (I'm betting that at two of you mop daily -- RS and EW.) Leave a comment and let me know how often you mop.