Florida Spring Cleaning.. In December

One of the hazards of living in Florida is the fact that it usually very hot, all year round. When you talk to most people that are from out of state, you find out that they miss the snow, the multi colored leaves in the fall, or just the overall sense of "change of seasons". Rarely, do you hear somebody complain about not having Spring, because in our spring, the weather is just gorgeous!

However, one of the things about our spring is the fact that it's too hot to open up the windows, air out the house, and clean the house from head to toe. Most of us northerners do it anyway, but complain that it's too hot or humid or just leave the house for the day so we don't have to endure the undying 80 + degree heat.

This week,  our weather is gorgeous.  A crisp, 79* at 8:45am...

Twenty days before Christmas,  I decided we are going to purge and organize our house. Our front shoe/coast closet took a day and a half,  and I'm starting to panic,  but there's too big of a mess for me to just stop now!! The good news is that this weekend it is community yard sale weekend. Bad news is that I have a lot of crap,  but I'm not quite sure any of it is worth selling.

I'm hoping tomorrow my husband can take our broken couches to the dump, so I can get the carpets cleaned, and the living room done before Christmas!

I moved a love seat outside and came in for an iced coffee because it was too hot. Pray for me, because at this rate I will be done by the time next Thanksgiving rolls around!

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Hoover TwinTank Steam Mop Review

I love having a clean house, but face it- I hate to mop. We have no carpeting in the house, and although the laminate hides a lot of the foot prints our tile does not, I feel like I have to mop multiple times a day. I also have a bad back, so mopping is often a pain- literally- because of the bending, lifting, wringing, etc.

I've resigned to using disposable or reusable stick mops to help take care of pesky areas (like the entrance, kitchen and bathrooms- all tile), and a weekly mop across the laminate. I sweep 42 times a day. I don't think that's much of an exaggeration.

When I was asked if I would be interested in reviewing the Hoover Twin Tank Steam Mop, I jumped at the chance. I used to have a steam mop, but it died a year ago. I missed it dearly, so needless to say, I was excited about this one. The information I got online said that it was safe for all kinds of hard floors, including wood and laminate.

When we got the mop in the mail, I couldn't wait, I had to put it together. It came in two pieces, the body of the mop, and the handle. The handle clicks into the body super quickly and easily.. in fact, my six year old asked if she could do it- and did.

Once those two pieces are together, you can fill the twin tanks, and start mopping. Easy.

There are two compartments to this mop- hence, TwinTank. The front, larger compartment is for water only. To remove it, you just gently tug it upward. Then, untwist the cap, and fill it up. This mop contains a filter, so you can use tap water. The filter should be replaced approximately once a year, unless you have really hard water. The back tank is for the cleaning solution. The TwinTank Steam mop comes with an 8 ounce container of SteamPlus concentrated cleaning solution. The solution is non toxic, 100% biodegradable, so you can feel good about cleaning your floors because you're not using harmful chemicals.You can add this straight to the solution tank in the back for optimal cleaning results, or mix it with equal parts cleaning solution and warm water.

Once your two tanks are filled, you're ready to steam! Push the bottom power button, and as soon as the ready light comes on (about 30 seconds!) you can begin.

There are 4 settings- General Clean, Spot Clean, Tough Stains, and Steam Only. Depending on the mess, you can easily switch between each setting by the turn of a dial. I cleaned my Kitchen with the Tough Stains setting, because- face it- I had no idea what some of the spots by the fridge was. Kool-aid, milk, yogurt, and an unidentified spill came up with just one sweep.

The directions say that to truly steam the area, and kill the germs, you need to do a few passes. While it takes not much longer than a traditional mop, I feel better about using it, because I know it's leaving my floors clean and with a lot less germs. In fact, Hoover claims that it kills up to 99.9% of harmful germs and bacteria- including MRSA, Staph and Salmonella. This will be especially helpful once our little man starts crawling.. which will happen before we know it.

We did shoot a quick video just to show the Hoover TwinTank Steam Mop in action. On this particular day, I just wanted to do a quick mop before a friend came. I love the fact that it's got a triangular head to get into all of those hard to reach spots. I apologize in advance for the quality of this video, I couldn't get the higher quality video to upload correctly. Follow us on YouTube, and you can see a more in-depth review video there later this week.

As you can see, the  head of the mop was able to get inbetween our entrance way table and the vase we have before our hall closet. It lifted the foot prints up right away, and dried very quickly.

It does leave a little "wetness" behind. For the tiles, I don't mind so much, I just let it dry. For the laminate, I use one of the multi-surface pads to go over it to lift some of the excess water, just because I'm afraid it will get too wet. That being said, I've used this mop multiple times already, and I have to say, the more I use it, the more I love it.

As I mentioned earlier, I did have another brand steam mop that died after many years of good use. It was louder than this one, and hotter. I love that with this mop I can just step on the curved extention of the pad, and place the head of the Hoover TwinTank Steam Mop on a new pad, and continue- if the floors are really bad- or pass it over for a quicker dry.

What about the pads? This steam mop comes with three pads- two multi-surface microfiber pads and one hard floor microfiber pad. The hard floor microfiber pad is made only for sealed hard floor surfaces. The others can be used on carpet (with the included Carpet Slider accessory). This mop stands on its own, so if you need to stop for a few moments, you can. It also comes with a cooling rack to prevent any damage from heat or moisture, to your floors.

The cons? I sweep before I mop, for obvious reasons. That being said, this mop gets everywhere, and sometimes it loosens other junk from my floor. Instead of picking up the mop and wringing it out like a classic mop, I have to push it to the side, and either pick it up, or save it for a sweep. Is this an end-all con? Absolutely not. Some people might be inconvenienced by it, but knowing it's making my home healthier and safer far outweigh that minor con.

I do also wish the tanks were a little larger. Because I have to mop in smaller sections, it's not a terrible inconvenience. People with better backs, or larger homes, might want to keep this in mind. One of my girlfriends has the same mop, and she keeps a water bottle with her, so if she's outside of her kitchen she can just refill the tanks without wasting time running to and from a sink.

All in all, if you are looking for a great way to disinfect your floors with a steam mop, get a deeper clean, check out this mop. It's reasonably priced, on Hoover.com for approximately $99, which makes it attainable for almost every budget, and that much more attractive.


I received a sample of this product to facilitate my review, but my opinions are entirely my own.

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