Re-using Water For Mopping?

Using your dishes water is a bad idea. Even if there is soap there are oils and food particles left behind by dirty dishes. I don't know if it's an option but why not use the same water you use to mop? If you mop in the morning and then again in the evening, whatever dirt you mopped up in the morning would have settled to the bottom so you can carefully use the top water to mop on the evening.

 

If you want clean floors you need clean hot water. I can't see your house but I would say mopping every day is a bit excessive, maybe just the part that need it and I would keep any dirt the husband bought in minimal.

You can use the dirty water for the garden, but not dishwater or bath water for mopping. Just imagine all the bacteria you would be spreading and adding to the dirt? Do what most people do and use rugs, then hoover them take them outside to beat. That's what my old landlady did in her home with tiles and wooden floors.

 

I would never reuse my dirty water, because you just don't know what is in it. The question that I would really ask you would be whether you really feel as though you need to be mopping on a daily basis at all? I find that brushing up is enough most of the time, and will then mop perhaps once a week, or more if the floors actually get dirty. But so long as people wipe their feet before they come into your home, you should find that there isn't too much dirt, meaning that you don't have to clean up all that often at all.

 

I now what you mean about feeling as though you have to mop daily. I've got hard floors throughout the ground level of my house and they really do show every last particle. I cam imagine the mess is far worse wiith kids in the house.

In general though, I just mop thoroughly twice a week, sweep daily and attack any spot marks with a wipe whenever they appear. This seems to do the trick.

 

Yes, that can be an issue with dogs. Maybe you can get some puppy pads and the dog can get trained to use them? That may help too. Perhaps you can save some rainwater in a spare bucket and use that for quick mops when she has an accident?

I know friends that have dogs do this in case at night the dogs need to go and it can help alleviate some of the cleaning.

 

I have dogs (and a partner who doesn't know how to wipe his feet apparently) but my main issue is with all of them dragging crap from outside into the house. So I understand your dilemma. LOLOL I think rainwater is a great suggestion. As long as it doesn't come out of the spout because then you'd be in the same situation.

 

Rainwater is what I was thinking, also. You could get a couple of large barrels to catch and store it in, and there are tablets you can add to it to purify it, so you wouldn't be spreading organisms throughout the house.

Do you think your dog would be amenable to using wee wee pads if you trained him/her with treats to use them, and placed at least one in each room? Believe me, it may seem like a pain in the butt to clean that up from hard floors, but carpets is much worse. There are also doggy diapers from what I've heard, so that could be an option. There are also those fake grass patches for the animals to use indoors, that can then be taken out and rinsed. I know it's difficult when they get older, and can't always make it outside or to a litter box, but even decreasing the number of incidents can help.

I don't know what your house looks like, or if you have actual halls or mud rooms when you enter the house, but if not, I know it can be difficult to get people to take shoes off outside, especially if there's no covered shelter, and no where to hang coats, but if there is, that would help decrease the dirt tracked in, which should eliminate the need for as much cleaning as you're doing.

 

Using the rain water would also be my suggestion. Putting a bucket in the shower to catch water my not give you enough water to be use. I would also try to put a diaper on the dog or train her to a pad to avoid having to clean so much.

 

I personally wouldn't reuse mop water, especially if your floors are as dirty as you make them sound because then you are just wiped the previous dirt you mopped up all over the floors again. I really like the idea someone mentioned and that was to put a bucket outside so when it rains you have clean water to use the next day to mop. I have two small children who make messes like crazy so what I do is get some floor cleaner and wipe the small messes with paper towel and then mop at the end of the night so I'm not using so much water.

 

Although I'm not entirely opposed to the idea of reusing water for mopping purposes, I'd rather you use the water you saved for flushing the toilet once in a while. Toilet flushing consumes more water than showering or washing dishes. Also, you might note that recycled water may develop a foul odor if not used immediately so if you don't want your floor to smell bad then you have to proceed with caution. Still and all, you rinse it with clean or non-bubbly water (as they pointed out above, rain water). The thing with rain water, though, is that it takes time to come off.

 

I'm glad she's indoors now. They're our babies, and deserve as easy as a time as possible once they get older and sick. I have a younger one with issues from seizures who has incidents, and with carpeting it's a nightmare. I also had an older one with issues, and I will never again live in a place with carpet, it's just disgusting regardless of pets. I have no idea why someone would put carpet in a house by the water and woods, but I'm stuck with it for now.

I don't use rain barrels yet, but plan to someday, when my situation changes. I think it's a great way of collecting water, because you never know when you will need it, and it can be used for many purposes. If you watch any shows on Alaska, you'll see many homes there have catchment systems, so you could get some ideas on different ways to go about it, if you're interested.

 

This place has the cheapest carpeting, and it gets caught in everything. I'm constantly pulling it out of the vacuum cleaner wheels, and also the vacuum itself. Even though it was put down right before I moved in here, the first time I vacuumed, fibers and threads started coming up, and clogging the vacuum. I dragged my office chair outside to oil it the other day because it was squeaking, and when I turned it upside down, I found huge clumps of carpet fibers wound all around the wheels. No wonder it barely rolls. Ugh!

I would cover any rainwater and possibly as I said before, use the chlorine pills. I've noticed when it rains, the outside planters and even cat bowl are filled, and sometimes there are things moving around in there, so you definitely wouldn't want to put those critters on your floors.

 

This is an aspect of reusing where a commodity can have horizontal uses. In our country, even water from sewerage systems is being reused to make fertilizer after being mixed with fillers and then neutralised using fermentative bacteria. It seems that from this baseline, no water is useless.

 

I live in a farm and I reuse water in many ways. For instance, I reuse my bath water to water my plants. I also use sewage from my safety tank to irrigate my farm, I also reuse water to clean my animal shed.