Eco Friendly Steam Mop - Shark Steam Cleaner

Are you thinking about buying a steam cleaner or floor steam mop?  Do you wonder if it would be worth it?  I wondered myself and recently took the plunge and bought a floor steam cleaner, the Shark Steam Pocket Mop.  Let me give you some background first.  Maybe you can relate.

I’ve had a cleaning lady for most of the last five and a half years.  When I was pregnant with my first child, I was still working full time and cleaning our then townhouse became a chore with my big belly, so I decided to get a house cleaner.  I told my husband that it would only be until the baby came, or maybe a month or two beyond that until I was settled in to the new life with baby.  I’m sure you’ve guessed by now that I was wrong; it never ended.  Maybe deep down inside I knew that I wouldn’t be able to give her up once she started, and then especially when baby number two came eighteen months later.

When we moved and bought a new, larger home I was lost trying to figure out how to clean it.  My sister’s house cleaner drove an hour to help me out every couple of weeks for the first few months; I was going through chemotherapy at the time, so I needed the help.  Later, when I was better, she had to stop coming because it was just too far for her.  My neighbor had a cleaning lady that she liked very much and I began to piggyback – she would come to my house every other week after finishing up next door and spend just a couple of hours cleaning just my bathrooms and floors (the things I hated doing the most) … until she hurt her wrist in a bad fall and could not clean for a few months.  I’m still waiting for her to come back. 

In the meantime, I’ve had to clean the whole house myself (I know, poor me!)  I have two stories, with the entire downstairs being tile and I had no idea what I should be using to get it clean.  I tried a number of different mops and mopping systems and was not satisfied with any of them – they were all very cumbersome and messy and I didn’t feel they worked well.  I also couldn’t find a cleaner that I liked that didn’t smell too strong or cost too much. 

I had seen many an infomercial on different types of home steam cleaners and I decided to learn more about them. I asked friends what they used and I asked other moms on a website I belong to where moms ask moms for help about anything and everything. Hands down, the most recommended type of floor cleaner was the steam mop, and the most recommended brand was Shark, more specifically the Shark Steam Pocket Mop. So I bought it. And. I. Love. It. I’ll tell you why…

It works. It uses water. One time investment. Super easy to use. No cleaners to buy. Clean, sanitized floors in minutes.

Are you convinced? Okay, I’ll give you some more details about this super great steam mop. The steam mop is designed to clean up stuck on gunk, grime and footprints. It’s not a vacuum, so you need to vacuum or sweep your floors before using it – especially if yesterday’s cereal crumbs are still hanging around. Using ordinary tap water, the Shark Steam Pocket Mop gives you a chemical-free, non-toxic clean to your home’s floors. It is safe on all sealed hard floor surfaces, including hardwood, linoleum, tile and marble. It comes with a couple of different quick-release mop heads (triangle, rectangle and XL rectangle) and pads for each head, as well as a steam duster pad and a carpet glider to ‘freshen-up’ your carpets. The pads are machine washable.

The mop heads are double sided, so when one side gets too dirty, just flip the whole mop over to use the other side. The steam mop has a thirty foot cord, so you don’t have to keep moving the plug around. It also has an extra large water tank which lasts a long time – my downstairs is probably around 1400 square feet and one tank-full is more than enough to do it all. Oh, and it heats up really quickly when you turn it on – thirty seconds or less and you’re ready to go! Just pump the handle a few times to get the steam started, then when you start mopping the steam is created automatically as you go. Also, the steam evaporates quickly, so the floors dry very fast!

My favorite feature of this steam mop, besides its ease of use and how great it cleans, is that I never have to buy abrasive floor cleaners again. I can use tap water not only to clean my floors beautifully, but to sanitize and sterilize them, too! Think about it – doctors and dentists use steam to sanitize and disinfect their equipment, right?

Well, basically they work by boiling water which in turn produces steam.  The steam is ejected at high pressures.  By combining the steam vapors with high pressure, you’re able to loosen dirt and stains that are stuck to the floor – no more bending sown to scrub stuck-on stuff!  The high heat of the steam alone is enough to sanitize and disinfect the areas being cleaned – this is a huge benefit for homes with babies, especially crawling babies!

If you are concerned about the environment and how chemical cleaning agents affect it, then a steam mop is the way to go.  Steam cleaners are the perfect household cleaning tool for people who suffer from allergies, too, as well as those wanting a clean and healthy home environment.