When I first moved into my rented home, the bathroom floor was oddly discolored around the edges. I tried every floor cleaner imaginable when I did my ‘move-in clean’, but nothing got it up. I resigned myself to thinking it was permanently stained from years of use.
Then, it started to get worse. It was in all the areas where water was prone to dripping. Under towels and around the shower were the main problem areas. Water would drip and hair and dust would cling to it, forming a thick layer of brown gunk. Gross, I know.
I steam-cleaned it every week and nothing came up – until I tested the Swiffer PowerMop, available at Amazon. This single tool stripped away years of grime and cleaned my linoleum floors in less than 30 seconds.
The Swiffer PowerMop finally fixed my grubby bathroom floor
All prices correct at time of editing.
The Swiffer starter kit comes with everything you need, including the batteries, to get you set up and cleaning floors in minutes
Setting up the Swiffer PowerMop
The Swiffer PowerMop came with everything I needed in one package – including the batteries which was massively appreciated, as I am always running out and forgetting to restock from battery hubs like Amazon.
Setting up was simple thanks to the written instructions and diagrams. The handle clicked together easily, the cleaning solution bottle slid into place without resistance, and the batteries were popped into the casing at the back. All in all, it took me less than five minutes to open the box to have a complete tool.
The mop pad was the final thing to go on. These are disposable, so they are not as eco-friendly as my washable microfiber pads, but they are a lot rougher. The best way I can describe them is having the texture of a cat's tongue – slightly rough but not enough to scratch or do any damage when cleaning vinyl floors. With over 300 hundred of these grippy little strips, you're guaranteed a pro clean without the effort.
Using the Swiffer PowerMop
Mopping floors the right way isn't rocket science, especially when you don't have to use a bucket of soapy water and drench the floor as you work. I decided to test the mop in one area of the bathroom first – throwing it in the deep end and tackling the spot with the most caked-on grime.
The handle has an easy-to-press button that activates the spray jets on the front of the mop, dispersing two jets of cleaning solution at an inwards angle in front of the mop head. It sprays as long as you keep the button pressed, so I had full control over how much solution was used.
With the grimy spot coated, I started to mop. I went lengthwise along the wall – the nature of the handle means you can position the mop head to any orientation you need, so you don't need to stick with basic back and forth to get the job done. This also means the mop can fit into tighter corners, such as the space between the sink and the wall, with ease to clean a floor without streaks.
Just look at this before and after.
The rougher texture of the pads combined with the cleaning solution meant that the grime came up right away. I barely had to put any effort into scrubbing either. All I did was apply gentle pressure and go back and forth over the spot three or four times and there was already a drastic improvement. Any toothpaste stains from the floor were also removed instantly. It was astounding to watch.
I was genuinely under the impression that if my beloved best steam mop couldn’t break down the grime, nothing would come close. It turns out that, because the problem was caused by water, adding more to the equation was only making it worse.
Plus, while I love my Black & Decker 7-in-1 steam mop, it uses washable microfiber pads which, while great at absorbing dirt, are not the best at scrubbing floors. The hard brushes that come with it are designed for cleaning tiles, so I didn’t want to risk using them on the linoleum and scratching it especially as the property is not mine.
It turns out the cleaning tip I really needed was a Swiffer Mop – not microfiber. Don’t get me wrong, I still firmly believe that a steam mop is an essential cleaning tool everyone needs (I use my steam cleaner in every room of the house in one way or another), but it does go to show that there are some things you should never steam clean in your home.
My verdict
I am not exaggerating when I say that this was one of the most satisfying cleaning moments I have ever witnessed, as those stubborn stains had been bothering me for almost two years in my rental home, so to see them stripped away so easily was gratifying, to say the least.
I would certainly go so far as to say the Swiffer PowerMop is now, in my estimation, one of the best ways to clean a bathroom floor. It helps that the cleaning solution smells amazing, helping to make a bathroom smell nice as I work.
My only complaint is that the pads are made to be disposable. I have mixed feelings about this as I attribute most of the success of this mop to the roughness of the pads (something that is likely hard to replicate in a product made to go in a washing machine).
However, it also means that I am creating waste when I clean (and I try to be sustainable at home and clean my home without harming the planet wherever I can), and I will have to spend more in the future to replace them.
It is a trade-off that is complicated to get around. There are anecdotes online of people being able to clean them and reuse them to some degree, which I am tempted to try and see if it is both worth the effort and how it affects performance, but I can’t speak to its efficiency yet.
Besides that, however, the mop is certainly one I will continue to enjoy using on the hard floors around my home, especially as it is safe for use on most hard surfaces, including cleaning real wood floors (so long as they have already been sealed).
The refill pads are luckily affordable, and easy to find in most stores. If you are Target circle member, you can get $2 off these at the moment. This deal might be subject to change, only while stocks last.
Swiffer makes wood floor-specific pads, in case you are worried about scratching the floors with the original grippy pads. The Circle member reduction applies to this one too. It's on till 7 Dec while stocks last.
The extra benefit of using the Swiffer mop is the cleaning solution smells amazing, and lingers for a while after cleaning to help make my home smell nice.
I will never make the bathroom cleaning mistake of neglecting these grimy corners ever again after testing out this savior solution. Now I’ll have to give it a go cleaning a kitchen floor, too, after one of my infamously clumsy cooking sessions.
