Living in New England has given me a lot of perks. Some are welcome: an amazing sense of community, a love of history, and rabid fans on game days. Some are not: looking at you, snow and mud. Because let’s be honest, our seasons change a lot.
Living in a colonial-style country home, hardwood floors are everywhere in the home (even in new homes, I love the vintage wide-plank white oak floors). Cleaning these all-natural beauties can be a challenge. The list of no-nos is long—no wet mops, vacuums with sanding strips, polishes, oil-based soaps or waxes, and vinegar.
Plus, getting down on your knees like Cinderella to clean is not the best option. That’s why I got the Shark Steam Pocket Mop Hard Floor Cleaner ($69.99 at Amazon) , which gave me the perfect opportunity to get my hands dirty and clean my floors by hand. Here’s the cleaning process.
I used this Shark steam mop to clean my kitchen’s ceramic floor, but it also works great on sealed hardwood floors, marble, and stone tile.
While the Shark Steam Mop isn’t the lightest cleaning device we’ve used in our home, it’s not the heaviest either. Its swivel-steering feature is great for maneuvering in tight corners, and the rounded handle (perfect for storing in a cleaning cabinet) makes it easy to change your hand position as you work.
You can also adjust the height of the handle, so everyone in the house doesn’t have to wash the floors.
The 18-foot cord is a boon when the outlet is on the other side of the room, but the “quick release” part made no sense to me, as it seemed to be just a simple latch that moves to the side to drop the cord (where the end of the cord attaches to itself was defective on my unit).
Once plugged in, the Shark heats up quickly (30 seconds) and is ready to go. The pad flips to the clean side without having to touch it, which is a great idea because who wants to touch a dirty pad in the middle of a cleaning session?
It doesn’t have an actual on/off switch, so it was a little confusing at first. But after cleaning, I realized that was the least of my worries.
While refilling is easy thanks to the refill bottle, the water level indicator window is so filthy that you can’t tell how much water is in the tank. To get the steam flowing, you have to “pump” the Shark.
It took me a while to figure out that the instructions say to push the mop back and forth to spray steam onto the floor. Unless you sit in one spot for a while, it took me five or six pushes to really get rid of a spilled coffee stain. While it did remove the stain, it was more laborious than I expected.
In addition to cleaning, the company recommends using distilled water or the filter bottle they sell to avoid calcium and mineral deposits that can build up over time and affect the mop’s performance. I don’t like buying things that require additional purchases.
When you put the mop away, you have to pour out all the water before you put it back. I better be relieved about the unevenness of my cabinets because I found myself laying the mop horizontally over the sink to drain after every mop.
While the Shark steam mop has some nice selling points, overall it’s more trouble than it’s useful. If there’s one thing I hate leaving on my doorstep, it’s something that makes household chores a chore.
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