Why does it feel like you’ve just cleaned the house from top to bottom before you turn around and need to do the whole lot again.
Household chores need to be kept on top of, otherwise they can spiral out of control and you’ll find yourself living in a hovel faster than you can say “The Twits”.
Part of the faff comes from trundling various bits of cleaning kit and tools in and out of the storage cupboard, under the sink, garage, or wherever you keep them. The key, we’ve found from years of sharing as well as independent living, is to clean as you go instead of allowing it all to build up.
Wiping down surfaces after food prep, folding and putting away laundry in between the episodes of your boxset marathon, and never leaving a room without straightening or neatening something all adds up, especially if you’re someone who works in the office for most of the working week. It means your weekends are free for doing fun stuff, rather than trapped with a feather duster and microfibre cloths at home.
Multi-use cleaning tools can also help the stealth cleaning cause, allowing you to quickly and effectively clean in an almost-effortless way (we’re looking at you robot vacuums with a mop function). For hard floor areas like the bathroom and kitchen, a spray mop does away with hauling around a bucket and means you can quickly give your surfaces the once over with cleaning fluid already on board.
Whether you’re looking for a budget buy for speedy wiping or something more substantial to achieve a deep clean, we’ve found the best spray mops at every budget.
See the best options below
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Flash Powermop Starter Kit + 5 Pads
Forget tired old mops with smelly heads; Flash takes mopping into the 21st century. Okay, it’s not quite as exciting as that, but the PowerMop is definitely an upgrade from whatever you had before.
The core of the brush head soaks and removes grime up to two times faster than a traditional mop and bucket, leaving behind nothing but clean, hygienic surfaces and a light, pleasant scent. If you’re tackling caked on dirt, use the battery-operated trigger to blitz through it with ease.
It comes with mop pads which can be recycled at Terracycle points.
Buy now £29.99, Robert Dyas
Bona Premium Wood Floor Spray Mop
Sleek and compact, this all-in-one option is perfect for anyone who wants to clean their hard floors effectively and quickly. The extra large swivel head, fitted with a micro-fibre cover, sweeps across a wider space and can reach tight spots and awkward corners with ease. The on-board water tank can hold up to 850ml, eliminating the need for a mop. And it’s safe to use on oiled wood and varnished floors too, so you needn’t change cleaning equipment when you’re going from one surface to another.
Best of all this spray mop comes with free cleaning concentrate and a refillable cleaning cartridge that’s already filled with solution, so you’re ready to go straight from the box.
Buy now £42.99, Lakeland
Vileda 1-2 Spray Mop
Spritz and blitz your floors in record time with Vileda’s spray mop, which promises to cut your cleaning time in half (or more). There’s no bulky tank to wrestle with here: the cleaning solution funnels down the stem of the mop, sandwiched between the trigger handle and a spray towards the mop head. The spray is a fine mist, which means it won’t swamp your floors but will still remove stains and spills effectively.
What’s more, the pad is removeable and washable, so not only is this a practical buy but it will prove to be a sustainable one too.
Buy now £25.00, Argos
Hetty SprayMop
This spray mop means you don’t need to have a bucket of dirty water sloshing away next to you as you move about the house. Instead a water tank, operated by a foot pedal, spritzes out just the right amount of water for the mop head to wipe up, taking dirt along with it.
The head is fitted with a removable microfibre pad that can be machine washed too, allowing you to use it time and again, saving cash and the environment too. It’s made to be used on wood, tile, laminate and vinyl surfaces.
Buy now £39.99, My Henry
Addis Spray Mop
An excellent budget-buy spray mop, this design comes with a fitted tank, meaning you can leave a messy bucket completely out of the equation. The microfibre pad that fits onto the mop head will not only collect more dirt than a usual mop, but it can be cleaned by adding to your next laundry load too. High performance, low effort.
Buy now £15.00, Dunelm
Shark Classic Steam Mop S1000UK
Lightweight and easy to manoeuvre around the house, this steam mop does more than wipe floors. It uses steam to sanitise hard floors and tiled areas, allowing you to steam over stubborn stains using a manual pump in the handle. Next day delivery is available as long as you purchase before 8pm.
Buy now £69.99, Shark
BISSELL SpinWave 205E Hard Floor Cleaner
For a different night on the tiles (it all changes once you hit your 30s, kids), a deep clean can be incredibly satisfying - just ask Mrs Hinch’s 3.8m followers.
‘Mop’ is such an elementary term for this machine, it’s so much more. Designed for hard floors, it boasts swivel steering with cleaning pads that can hit all those hard-to-reach spots and there’s a ‘trigger’ button that allows you to spray an extra burst of cleaning solution to see to those stubborn messes.
The water tank can hold 830ml so there’s no need to refill when you’re halfway way through a job. Standby for gleaming floors you could probably eat your dinner off - if you wanted to.
Buy now £148.96, Amazon
BISSELL CrossWave Cordless Max Hardfloor Cleaner
This three-in-one cleaner offers cleaning solutions for all the floors in your home - hard floors as well as rugs. The CrossWave can vacuum, wash and dry multiple surfaces all at the same time, so you don’t have to keep going over the same areas again and again.
It uses two tanks to separate dirty water from clean, helping it run more efficiently and you can go all over the house without running out of cord length or tripping over wires because this unit is cordless. One charge delivers 25 minutes of running time, enough to clean all the floors in your home.
Buy now £399.99, John Lewis
Shark Klik n’ Flip Automatic Steam Mop S6003UK
Stand back, for this is no ordinary mop. The diminutive design boasts, as it says on the tin, Klik n’ Flip Technology, which cleans and sanitises 99.9 per cent of common household bacteria using intelligent steam controls. It works on all kinds of floors: as well as bathroom and kitchen tiles or laminate, you can use the Klik n’ Flip mop on hardwood, lino, marble and stone too.
The best part is that once you’re done with one side of the microfibre pad, flip over the head and continue with the opposite side - no more grappling at manky cloth. You don’t even need to use any chemicals or detergent as the microfibre works effectively with just water. Simply sling the pad in the wash once you’re done, ready for your next cleaning session.
If you’ve got really tough stains that no amount of hand scrubbing seems to shift, it’s time to call in the big guns - in this case, the mop’s steam blast function. Use three settings to blitz away stubborn debris.
Super slim at 119cm x 11cm x 10cm, it takes up far less space than a traditional mop and bucket and as far as mops go, looks pretty slick too. Comes with a 12 month guarantee.
Also available at Currys.
Buy now £119.99, Shark
Hoover Steam Capsule CAD1700D
Whether you have kids or pets, small curious creatures and household chemicals are never a good mix. If you like the idea of gleaming floors cleaned with nothing but H2O, look to Hoover’s Steam Capsule cleaners. They use high temperatures to make short work of any dirt and grime, loosening it and dissolving it quickly.
Get hard floor sparkling with the mop pads and scrubbing nozzle, and use the included glider accessory to give rugs and carpets once over too. Too much steam can be bad news for certain types of flooring such as parquet, but the Hoover steam cleaner allows you to control the heat with low, medium and high settings.
Comes with a 12 month guarantee.
Buy now £69.11, Amazon
Russell Hobbs RHSM1001-G Steam and Clean Steam Mop
Not your traditional mop and bucket set, this mop uses the power of steam cleaning alone to return your floors back to their gleaming best. Fill with water and after a 25 second heat up time, you’ll have just under half an hour to go over laminate flooring, wood planks or bathroom and kitchen tiles, which should be plenty for most homes.
Move the microfibre pads over stubborn stains and spots to ease them off, and once you’re done throw the pads in the washing machine for cleaning and to use again next time. Genius.
Comes with a one year guarantee.
Buy now £29.99, Amazon
Minky Reflex Sponge Mop
Ever since cleanfluencer Mrs Hinch professed her adoration for Minky cleaning products, the brand has gone from strength to strength and reached a whole new audience. This sponge mop is part of the line-up and comes with a wringing mechanism that gets out twice the amount of water so you’re not sloshing it all over the place. The larger head also means more floor space is covered quickly, resulting in a faster clean.
Buy now £12.00, Argos
