There are lots of fun bloggers reviewing this product (but I’m sure none who have more pet hair than I suffer through), so be sure to go visit the roundup here .
Alright, as I mentioned, I started out more than excited. I tried to retain some journalistic integrity and professional reserve, but basically gave that up in the consideration stages as ridiculous. I get excited about cleaner floors accomplished more easily. It's what I do. Evidently even the suggestion that a product might make that task easier is enough to send me into a dither.
The kids were kind of excited too. They just love to help with the floors.
To tell the truth, with more than 1600 square feet of hardwood floors and a menagerie of pets on our little hobby farm, the floors are a constant battle here. No one enjoys floor duty. My vacuum, which incidentally cost more than my first car, fights a never-ending battle with dog and cat hair, not to mention tracked-in barn matter (which exact makeup shall remain a mystery so long as I want it to). Horse hair, people, is not easy to vacuum and is impossible to sweep.
So with hope in our hearts, after opening the boxes, we quickly snapped together the Swiffer mopstick thingamajig. Verdict: It couldn't have been easier to assemble.
And then came the most difficult part of the task: We kicked the dog out of the living room. Again. We couldn't have him contaminating the test surfaces, you see.
After that it was easy-breezy and dare I say, AMAZING. I was tempted to pre-sweep first, but the girls talked me out of it. And guess what? The dry pad really did pick up all the dust and pet hair and even the little circle punch-outs that Gracie accidentally spilled from the hole punch during craft time.
Then came the piece-de-resistance, the Swiffer wet. Dun-dun-dunnn…
I have to say, despite my excitement and subsequent surprised satisfaction with the dry Swiffer portion of the event, I remained skeptical when it came to try the wet Swiffer. (O me of little faith.) We live on a little farm, and our “mopping” is usually accomplished on hands and knees with a scrub brush after a thorough mopping with the old-fashioned string mop. I am lucky enough to have once-a-week help with cleaning, and honestly I don’t mop between Fridays unless absolutely necessary. Don’t tell my husband.
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So my skepticism was that the Swiffer Wet could handle our farmhouse floors. Well, don't let me keep you in suspense.… The Swiffer Wet was not so wet as to leak liquid – not like a mop traveling from bucket to floor. It was not so dry as to remain ineffective on moderately tough spots (a dried, smeared jelly spill in the kitchen that hadn’t quite been cleaned by whichever child did it –ahem-- was fairly easily Swiffered away in three passes).
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It lasted to mop my Wednesday-afternoon kitchen and dining room, which had been pre-Swiffered by the outstanding dry Swiffer.
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I’d say it was a two-thumbs-up experience overall. In fact, it was definitely easy to use and had results much better than I had hoped for a pre-moistened mop pad. We will use it for everyday touch-ups between the heavy-duty scrubbing. Who knows, it might even save me money on cleaning services every Friday.
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