I know this is crazy and doesn’t make any sense, but this morning I was too lazy to walk to the mudroom to get my mop so I hand washed my kitchen floor with a General Purpose e-cloth. Sometimes I wash my floors with a Norwex Enviro cloth. Truly, it depends only on which cloth is more handy.
What I have discovered is that it is very satisfying to hand-wash floors. It feels like hard work, but with the right cloth, it’s easy. It’s also a good way to see little messes that you might have missed with the mop – like yogurt on the toe-kick under the cabinet.
4 Reasons to Hand Wash Floors with e-cloth
- It’s effective. An e-cloth will clean your floor far better than a sponge or cotton cloth. The e-cloth will wipe up ground-in dirt, grease and old spills fairly easily and with only water.
- No Chemical Cleansers or Polishes Required – E-cloths work with only water to remove soil, grease and bacteria. All you need is a damp e-cloth and a bit of elbow grease.
- It will give you a sense of how the e-cloth mop will work. I get a lot of inquiries about the performance of the Deep Clean Mop and whether I think people should get one. My best suggestion is to try hand washing your floors with a General Purpose e-cloth. If you find the cloth works well – and are amazed at how easily and how much dirt it picks up – then you’ve got a very good idea of how well the mop will work. Only the mop is much, much easier. Especially on large areas.
- It’s very satisfying. Just imagine telling your mother-in-law that you hand-washed(!) your floors.
I had that floor washed by 7:30 am! So of course then I felt like I didn’t really have to do anything else today. So I sat down with a cup of tea and ate a handful of chocolates. Good old Christmas 😉
How to Hand Wash Floors with e-cloth
- Dampen and wring out the cloth: Make sure you wring the cloth out well in order to avoid streaks on the floor.
- Fold the cloth properly: Fold the cloth in half and then in half again so you have a 6″ x 6″ square. By folding the cloth this way, you actually have 8 sides of the cloth that can be used to clean with. As one side gets dirty, flip to a “fresh” side of the cloth.
- Wipe: Pretty sure I don’t need to add any directions here.
- Do not use soap or any cleansers: e-cloths clean with only water and no cleansers or soap is required.
Will the e-cloth Leave Streaks on the Floor?
When done correctly (which is not hard), the hand washing your floors with an e-cloth will leave you with a gloriously streak-free surface. There are three reasons why you might see streaks:
- The e-cloth was too wet – and moisture was left behind. Make sure you wring the cloth out well before hand washing the floor. If you’ve got a floor with a very shiny surface, you may want to quickly follow up with a glass and polishing cloth (here is my review of the Glass & Polishing cloth)
- The e-cloth is too dirty – and is leaving some grease/dirt behind. This is unlikely unless you just sopped up a container of yogurt. Either use a different part of the cloth OR rinse the cloth in hot water. It may be necessary to rinse with a bit of dish soap depending on what mess you cleaned with the cloth.
- The floor has polish or commercial cleansers on it – and the e-cloth has removed some but not all of it. Many commercial floor cleansers leave a film of polish behind. An e-cloth will pick up and remove that polish, but may leave some behind. This will cause your floor to look streaky. The remedy is to use the e-cloth a few more times to remove the remaining polish/cleanser.
Does the e-cloth Have to be Laundered After Hand Washing Floors?
I recommend laundering your e-cloth after hand washing floors. My trusty green e-cloth got pretty dirty (but remarkably, there were very few dog hairs on the floor. Odd) so I set it to soak for a while in the sink and then put it by the washing machine to be laundered.
I hang my used, wet Norwex and e-cloths with Command Hooks on the side of my washing machine when they’re waiting to be laundered.
How does Hand Washing with an e-cloth Compare to the e-cloth Mop?
The Damp Pad that comes with the e-cloth mop has slightly longer fibres than a general purpose cloth, which means it will reach into cracks/divots in flooring better. The mop is also much easier on the knees and back than hand-washing. Other than that, hand washing with an e-cloth will have an equally good cleaning result as the mop.
Will e-cloths Fit Onto Your Swiffer?
Lucky you! I’ve already put e-cloths to the test. Read my blog post about how e-cloths fit on to Swiffers.
I have 2 kids ages 1 and almost 3, soo my kitchen floor is trashed daily and on daddy day it’s a miracle when we can even see the actual floor. Dried on who knows what that’s been coated in cheerio dust. My kitchen and bathroom are small so if I want to deep clean I do it by hand. Mops are to bulky and cant get around and behind the toilet so I end up doing that by hand every time anyway. I swiffer regularly but when I want it deep cleaned I do it by hand. I’m sure norwex/ecloth mops are different and make cleaning easier, but I don’t really like using mops because you just can’t scrub with them when you need to. While I may switch to the mop after all my swiffer pads are gone, if I still preferred to wash my encrusted floors by hand which cloth should I use?
Also I have a norwex body/face cloth and really love it. Does ecloth have something similar? All I’ve seen are those body mitts. Mitts to me are gross….. it’s probably a mental thing… I’d really prefer a cloth.
Lastly, I want my house to smell good after I clean, like a lemon exploded. Is there a natural cleaner or spray or oil or anything I can use that will not mess up the cloths but leave my kitchen smelling like eucalyptus and lemon were married in holy matrimony in my kitchen/bathroom?
JennX – I typically use a General Purpose cloth for hand washing floors but… if you’ve got dried up crusty stuff, the Stainless Steel cloth is my fav. I use it often to clean up dried dog drool (which is like dried glue on the floor). It has little stripes of scrubbers on one side. The other side is essentially a General Purpose cloth.
For body washing, e-cloth only offers the mitts. I once asked if we could get some smaller, body cloths similar to the Norwex ones but I was told that because of the longer fibers on those cloths, they can be too drying/exfoliating on the skin and without proper use, damage to the skin could result.
UPDATE Feb, 2019: e-cloth finally came out with baby wash cloths a few years ago. These are very gentle on baby’s skin and are brilliant for cleaning hands and faces.
It is recommended that you use the e-cloths on their own with water. You can use essential oils with them but it’s important to remember to rinse your ecloth afterwards with a bit of soap to make sure the oils are out of the cloth. You could use lemon juice without harming the cloth. Or you could just put a pot of water on the stove with a lemon in it and let it simmer for a while to get the smell throughout your house without actually using it to clean. Obviously you could also use vinegar – but I don’t expect that’s the kind of smell you’re searching for 😉
Can I use vinegar with the cloth to wash the floor?
Hi Kathryn – yes, you can use vinegar with your e-cloth or Norwex cloth to wash floors BUT… please try this on a small, inconspicuous area first. I recommend an 8 to 1 ratio of water to vinegar. Soak the cloth in the mixture then wring it out really well before wiping the floor. Alternatively, you could mist/spray the floor with the 8 to 1 mix and then wipe with the cloth. You may find that you have to wring the cloth out as you go if you’re doing the spray-method.
Hope this helps.