Mopping is a daily routine to ensure your floor is bright and clean. Most parts of a house get dirty, but the kitchen floor stands out as it’s the most rampant place that acquires dirt and dust quickly.
This shows that you’ll spend the most time cleaning the kitchen floor, nine out of ten times.
However, we often make common mistakes that render the floor sticky even after thorough mopping. When you walk on the floor, you’ll feel a sticky irritation under your foot.
If you’re in this situation and don’t know what to do, this post is for you. You’ll understand why your kitchen floor might be sticky after mopping, how you can deal with this situation and a few other things you need to be wary about.
Let’s cut to the chase. Shall we?
5 Possible Causes of Sticky Kitchen Floors After Mopping
1. Stubborn Residue
Stubborn residue had to top the list as it’s the primary cause of floors being sticky even after mopping. The residue leaves behind adhesive substances like glue, grease, and sometimes soft drinks that make your floor irritatingly sticky.
In your home’s culinary floor, grease is generally released through pan-frying, released as tiny drops on the floor. Grease then merges with other chemicals and creates an oxidizing reaction that eventually makes the floor sticky.
However, winter has its particular conditions and challenges. During this period, calcium chloride and salt dissolve in water, making the dining or culinary floor sticky. In this case, regular mopping will not eliminate the stains but instead turn them into a stubborn residue.
2. Bad Cleaning Methods
Even though cleaning your house, especially your kitchen, is not easy, it still doesn’t justify the actions of those who just dip their mopper into their cleaning chemical or water and casually move it on the floor.
Your wrong cleaning methods and habits can also be a source of your kitchen floor stickiness.
It might be that you usually don’t squeeze your moppers head effectively to do away with excess water before you place it on the floor to clean. Your floor’s wet part will take a significant amount of time to dry, and as a result, your floor will be rendered sticky.
3. Using The Wrong Cleaner
Just like applying a wrong cleaning technique, a wrong cleaner can mess up your floor by making it sticky. The wrong cleanser often leaves residues on the floor that can be dealt with quickly if you have a proper cleaner.
Identify and know your floor type and then get a cleaner that will work well with your floor to avoid any inconveniences or damages.
4. Using Vigorous Floor Cleaners
By now, you’re aware that different cleaners come with their unique set of instructions that entail applying them effectively.
If you use too much chemical cleaning, you’re setting your floor for the ultimate stickiness. If you’ve acquired a soapy element cleaner, get ready for gradual drying that leads to residue forming.
Sometimes we use solid chemical cleaners that won’t come out from the floor by just one mopping session. Moreover, the chemical cleaners reduce the firm nature of the floor, reducing the floor’s durability.
5. Cleaning Using Dirty Water
Regular mopping goes hand in hand with using a lot of water, as it’s evident that if you continuously mop, the water in the bucket becomes dirtier.
When the water in your bucket becomes darker, that’s an indication to pour it out and refill the bucket continuously until the floor is relatively clean. Repeated use of dirty water renders the floor sticky.
An alternative is to use a spin mop which does away with the dirt accumulated by the mop head. The spin mop also reduces the effort and time you use in mopping and changing the dirty water.
How To Get Rid of Sticky Floors After Mopping?
Luckily, the culinary floor’s sticky nature doesn’t last forever as it’s easy and can be removed. But how do you draw the floor’s stickiness? Let’s find out:
1. Do Extra Mopping
If you notice sticky parts of your kitchen floor, act quickly by re-mopping your floor as many times as you need to deal with the sticky situation. You only need to take up a bucket, fill it with water, and re-do the floor. If water doesn’t help, then apply other cleaning solutions.
Don’t use too many chemical cleaners. A Little bit of baking soda or vinegar will just be enough to deal with your kitchen’s sticky floor.
2. Use a Steam Mop
Other than using the traditional mops that aren’t effective, take up a steam mop that is highly reliable and effective in destroying dirt or stubborn stains. The steam mop softens the stubborn stain and removes it within seconds.
However, forgetting to check your floor’s user instructions will be an aggravating mistake as it might lead to costly damages: you’ll have to adjust your steam power depending on your floor to avoid breaking down the ground lines.
3. Get The Right Cleaning Residue
Securing the suitable cleaning residue is one step in the right direction in ensuring you get rid of sticky floors. Acquire a residue-free or a less-residue household cleaner to do the work effectively.
However, if you decide to clean your residue floor with moor mopping, then you would have solved the sticky situation temporarily. Instead, just know your floor type, select the right residue-free cleaner, and permanently deal with the problem.
4. Incorporate Dilution Control
The use of excess cleaning products can leave sticky residue on your floor. Use the required amount of cleaning product by abiding by the manufacturer’s instructions.
5. Wash the Mop
Yes, it’s a surprise solution, but you have to rinse and wash your mop and ensure it’s dry before you store it. Dirty mops don’t clean the floor effectively, and if anything, it worsens the state of your floor.
If you’re dealing with a relatively clean floor, you’ll only need one water bucket to clean the entire floor. However, if the water gets dirty, pour it out and refill the bucket until you finish your cleaning task.
Is It Better To Use a Mop or Swiffer?
Invest in a mop and a Swiffer, as they both have unique attributes that will come in handy in cleaning your floor. Mops generally thrive in cleaning large messes, while swiffers are well equipped to deal with small cleanups.
Be prepared to deal with any cleaning situation by having both.
Let’s briefly look at them.
Mops
Mops, especially steam mops, are a unique way of cleaning your floor. You’ll need to plug it in, and you’re ready to bring your floor back to its original state.
However, using steam mops has a few drawbacks, and if it doesn’t fit, go with a regular mop.
Pros of Using a Mop
Other than being effective in cleaning your floor, steam mops heat water in a reservoir to 200 degrees, which makes it effective to loosen dirt that leaves the floor sparkling clean.
Further, the steam disinfects the floor without any help from a cleaning agent and still cleans deeper by using little physical work. The steam mop doesn’t use chemicals that guarantee no damages while it deep cleans your floor.
Cons of Using a Mop
The challenge with using a Steam mop is that they don’t suit all floors, which is unfortunate.
Vinyl floors shouldn’t be steamed as they usually use adhesives as the steam mops heat will cause the corners of your floor to start curling that eventually leaving you with a weak tile.
Similarly, if you have a hardwood floor, then a steam mop isn’t the best solution to clean your floor: your floor protective coating weakens each time you steam it.
Moreover, carelessly leaving your mop in one particular place is equal to leaving your plugged-in iron on your shirt—the shirt will be unrecognizable within seconds.
Leaving your steam mop on the floor isn’t a good course of action.
Swiffers
Swiffers have been with us for some time, and they give your floor a clean and fresh scent.
However, some people just don’t resonate with it. If you’re one of them, hopefully, the pros and cons I’m about to give you will change your mind.
Pros of Using a Swiffer
- A Swiffer contains water attached to the mop itself, which helps you effectively apply detergents on your sticky floor without a bucket and water.
- Swiffers are easy to use as they are light and straightforward in their handling instructions.
- They use batteries which makes them even more appealing. They have movable pads to help you in replacement when one gets dirty.
- They are cheaper to acquire, which makes them popular.
Cons of Using a Swiffer
- Swiffers need an actual detergent to be effective. These are chemicals that most of us can’t stand being on our floors. The detergents used to make your floor shiny also make the floor slippery, which can cause injury.
- Swiffer pads can’t be cleaned and reused like regular mops; they are thrown away, and you have to get costly new ones, especially if you’re on a budget.
- Even though they don’t usually damage your floor, they require a lot of effort or physical work to remove stains compared to how easy steam mops are to get stains out.
Can You Use Steam Mops For Sticky Floors?
Yes. Steam mops can steam clean both carpets and floors to their natural states, making them a worthy replacement for regular mops. Its hot steam is handy as an excellent disinfectant that destroys almost 99 percent of bacteria.
These steam mops come with reservoirs to pour water in and heat for about 248 degrees Fahrenheit. Afterward, the microfiber pad absorbs the steam and effectively deals with dirt and stains.