Ewwwwwwweeeeee!

Unless you want to hear about my adventures in steam mopping, you might just skip my blog today.

As some of you may know, I've been on a mission to clean my kitchen floor. When we saw the house before we purchased it, I actually thought the grout was brown in the kitchen. Ahhhh, nope! It's white....it's just that the very dirty people that lived here before us with two little indoor dogs didn't do a very good job of cleaning (apparently, ever). All the high traffic areas were a nice shade of brown, where all the non-high traffic areas were gleaming white. So far, I have tried mopping, swifting, bleaching, and good old fashion scrubbing with a scrub brush with somewhat successful results but still not to my satisfaction. After watching a few infomercials on steam mops, I thought, "That might be it!"...because of course infomercials always tell the absolute truth and never exaggerate. So I started my quest for the best steam mop for the money. After ample research and reading about a million reviews I decided on the Eureka Enviro-Steamer. It wasn't exactly what I wanted but the reviews were pretty even across the board that outside of industrial steamers, it was the best for cleaning. I was so excited to clean the floor, I couldn't wait for it to arrive (I know I'm a nerd). I almost skipped to the door when the fed-ex guy dropped the big box on my door step and rang the bell. Those dirty floors had better watch out...they were about to be enviro-steamed! So here's what I've learned now that I'm post steaming two weekends in a row. #1: The Eureka Enviro-Steamer does a great job of cleaning the actual tile. Definitely easier than mopping or scrubbing....gets the stuck on cheese or piece of squished/dried fruit under Z's chair right up after letting the steam soak it for about 8-10 seconds (seriously, you'd think she's 1 the amount of stuff under her chair). #2: The Enviro-Steamer does not do a good job on grout. Sadly, it doesn't get down in the groove. I think I might try a "steam them-scrub them" combo next weekend and see what happens. #3: Steamers are not vacuums. It's a mop. You have to make sure you sweep/vacuum the floor first or you just get the dust, lint, cat hair wet and it defeats the purpose of the steam mop. Lesson of the Day: All in all, the Eureka Enviro-Steamer doesn't have me screaming, "Eureka!" because I really have more of a grout issue, but I do think the actual tile is clean enough to eat off of. So there you have it. Oh, picture #2 is after week two of the high traffic areas downstairs...yuck...and we're pretty clean people. I think I'm still going to try to find powdered bleach for the grout (another infomerical...the source of all great knowledge....don't worry...I'm kidding...or maybe not).