I was going to create a post that was addressed to DEVO and asked that they stop wearing their silly plastic hats. Then I realized that they are irrelevant. At about the same instant, my horribly song-tagged head underwent a kind of metamorphosis whereby it was no longer tagged with the original song. It now contained the song as a Swiffer commercial.
Gadgety household cleaning tools sell well because people generally hate the job for which they are intended. Advertisers feed on needs and wants. We all need to use something to clean our floors (at least once in a while). We all want an easier way to clean our floors. My experience has been that gadgetry doesn’t cut it. I am suspicious that the convention of having a broom closet came into being so that we could hide all of these ineffectual impulse purchases from view. It goes without saying that there is a lot of plastic waste involved in this cleaning gadgetry. I really hate those plastic covered metal handles that seem like they are designed to rot to pieces within a year.
Big commercial machines like the ones that I have seen in use in airports and hospitals do a good fast job, but that would be overkill for our little home. These machines are not a very green choice either.
We have tile floors. This is the norm for much of Southern Europe and Northern Africa. The way we clean our floors is described on the English speaking internet as the French way. We push a wet rag around the floor with a broom. To be more accurate we buy what we call floor cloths. These are thick and absorbent and just the right size. One will hold up for about a months worth of cleaning on a smooth tile floor. If I had a new one, I would post a picture. The one we are using isn’t very photogenic.
Natural broom bristles on a broom like this one are made from fibers harvested from palm trees. That was news to me.
Everybody knows what corn brooms are made from… that’s right… Sorghum. If you are shopping for a corn broom, consider getting one that is produced on your own continent to reduce the carbon footprint. Mexico is a producer, but China is flooding the market with cheap brooms.
Sidenote: If you are ever planning a costume that involves headgear, reuse helmets or safety hats rather than making something from scratch.
March 31st, 2009 at 2:57 am
I use a vacuum for what you would use a dry swiffer for. I hate sweeping haha. I do have a Method O-Mop for mopping, I love it. Doesn’t hurt my back and everything is reusable. Yes some plastic but very little at least…
The new boxes are even cardboard now I believe.
March 31st, 2009 at 3:35 am
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April 4th, 2009 at 4:45 pm
I was a participant in the testing of the Swiffer. They asked me to watch a video and showed me a prototype of the product and asked what I thought. At the time, I couldn’t believe that someone would actually purchase one of these items. To me, it was nothing more than a disposable diaper on a stick. Since the Swiffer came out (successfully, I might add, to my chagrin), so many more disposable cleaning products have entered the scene. It’s sad, really.
For myself, I use a broom to sweep and a rag to mop. These two items have worked for me for years and I don’t have to keep buying replacement disposables to attach to the end of a stick!
April 4th, 2009 at 4:50 pm
It’s very sad (all the disposables) and a strong example of how advertising works. I have 150-year-old bare pine floors. Once a year I scrub with a brush, then use raw linseed oil on them so they don’t dry out too much. I also grow my own broomcorn and make brooms & whisks. I love them!
April 4th, 2009 at 10:45 pm
Anne, I used a Swiffer for a short while a few years ago. I started to think that it was silly long before the first package of disposable wipes was used up. They do provide you with something to do on those days when the floor didn’t get dirty enough to sweep with a real broom and/or mop with a real mop.