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Welcome to Stuff I Learned Yesterday. My name is Mandy Wichert. I’m busy sewing and stuffing for Christmas and I believe if you aren’t learning, you aren’t living. Today we’re talking about practical gifts and how using the right tool for a job can make everything just a little bit brighter in the world.
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What I Learned Yesterday:
Who here loves mopping? Raise your hands!! I know a story about a mop may not sound like the most exciting lesson, but it did lead me to learn something new and I hope you will learn something too. Last year, mopping was my enemy. I had laminate wood flooring and tile throughout my entire home, and keeping up with the sweeping and mopping was at least a full-day’s job. Not to mention I had a little one that loved to discover whatever I didn’t keep up with and immediately initiate impromptu taste-tests of whatever she found. I am pretty diligent about sweeping up after meals and especially make a point to not miss sweeping after dinner, but mopping was a whole different beast.
I had large thick ceramic tiles that were textured like a rough stone, with thick dark grout lines separating them, where food and gunk loved to play hide and seek. I tried a multitude of mops, big stringy spaghetti fringed mops, bristly mops, mops that twisted and turned and sponge mops. Eventually the sponge mop was the best option I could find. But something about the way that the mops functioned really bothered me. Have you ever noticed how while you are cleaning, you are dipping your dirty mop into what used to be fresh, clean sudsy water? By the time you get to the end of the room, you are using the dregs of the bucket? How is this possibly making your room cleaner?
That being said, I loved the effects of mopping. My house smelled amazing, my floors shined and I felt a sense of accomplishment as people noticed how sparkling clean everything now seemed. I almost felt like I was living in a commercial when Clint would notice and comment about how nice it looked and smelled. But it was such a pain! Mopping took forever, and as I already said, it wasn’t really all that clean, even if it appeared to be, so my mop and I had a love/hate relationship. Mopping was also becoming expensive. My little sponge heads had to be replaced, because the deep grout lines were not friendly to the sponge and by the fourth session it looked like some puppy’s favorite discarded chew toy. So, I resorted to using a Swiffer 90% of the time and then only pulling out the mop about once every month or so. Then, we began prepping our home to sell.
We were still living in it when we were showing it, so before showings, I’d have to scramble and clean up every room, which meant my mop was beginning to see more use. This made me quickly remember why I hadn’t used it more often in the first place. I did a quick poll on Facebook and asked if any of my friends used steam mops and what they thought. The reviews came back overwhelmingly positive, so I began window shopping, and hesitantly asked for a steam mop. I knew it would be a big purchase and I really did not want to get something that would further complicate mopping, as it was something I already did not enjoy.
Then, for Mother’s Day, Clint surprised me with a wonderful steam mop that he had carefully chosen based on its stellar reviews and price, the [[[Bissell Powerfresh Steam Mop 1940]]]. I was so excited to try it out. I know most people probably think it’s a little crazy to be excited about a mop, but I was, and I ripped the box open like a 7 year old tearing into an eagerly awaited birthday gift! I filled up the canister, placed the cartridge in the mop, put on the terry cloth cover and turned it on.
Within seconds I was steaming my entire house, like Mary Poppins. I practically danced around the house on a cloud and revealed with childlike excitement as it banished clinging sauce, washed away fine dust and sterilized in one simple, swift, swoop! It was like adding a spoonful of sugar to an otherwise ill tasting remedy. It changed my entire view of mopping! The mop made my task so much swifter and less painful. I won’t go so far as to say that I loved the task, but I will say that this carefully selected tool performed as promised and made an otherwise bleak chore a lot quicker, more sanitary and even little more fun! It also made the entire mopping process nearly as easy as sweeping, with no sloshing buckets to drag around and no dirty water to dispose of. I mop a lot more often now, with very little excuse not to!
So, what did I learn?
I learned that sometimes all you need to press on with an otherwise difficult task is the proper tool. I could have continued on feeling guilty and unsure about the steam mop, sloshing around my dirty bucket of water and feeling dissatisfied with the end result for years. My floor still would have looked clean and the job would still have been done, albeit not as often. However, with the new tool, the steam mop, cleaning became less of a hassle. It was a small price to pay for making a mundane job so easy and quick.
This is often true in life. How long do we suffer through the same old routine because we are unsure of how making a change will affect the status quo? How often are we uncomfortable with something, but afraid of branching out and trying something new? Even the words we choose can act as tools, and taking time to select the best words may work to make our communication more effective and fruitful.
I know it’s a stretch, but every time I use my steam mop, I am reminded how grateful I am that we took the plunge and tried something new, and I kick myself a little for not getting it sooner! On that note, do you have any products or tools that have been game-changers for you? Anything that you would recommend so highly that you find yourself telling everyone about it? If so, I’d love to know more! Stop by https://www.facebook.com/groups/StuffILearnedYesterday and tell us about it! Or leave some voice feedback!
I’m Mandy Wichert, and this has been stuff I learned yesterday.
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