Dear FlyLady,

I’ve been holding out on the mop for a while.

What could possibly be SO DIFFERENT about THIS mop over THAT mop? I know a lot of people have posted about dog hair and small children…well, I’ve got old bunny who likes to leave me clumps of fuzz when she’s out for her morning run and three cats who shed like Crazy, ESPECIALLY when I pull out the vacuum to clean up after THEM.

All three have gotten used to the routine:  I pull out the broom and sweep, move the rugs, shove the bunny pen and rocker to the side in the front room, and…as soon as the living room closet door opens and the Dust Devil appears…three furballs shoot either upstairs under my bed or downstairs to the basement…and they aren’t seen again till dinner.  Sweep, then noise.  That’s what they associate with my broom.

I finally broke down and bought the Mop on sale (cause I’m a cheapskate too!), and it stood in the front room for a day or two so they could all sniff it and make sure it was (at least relatively) non-threatening.  At some point, the white fur clumps under my dining room table must have gotten to me, so I pulled all the chairs out and in less than two minutes, I had the bunny fur corralled.  The cats all saw me with the mop in hand, and they tensed.  It was like a flicker around the room.

Sweep…then… I decided to quick run it around the kitchen to see how it did on the tile, and there was more nervous twitching when I moved the rugs.  Either my kitchen really isn’t as big as I thought or that head is massively larger than it seems.

Again it took less than two minutes to move around the room. I moved into the front room, and that was more than the cats could take.  They all jumped off the chairs or couches they were on and nervously beat a retreat to the stairs.  I ignored the fuss and moved around the room, rounding up furballs and stray string, pushed the bunny off to the side to swipe around the pen, dusted the rungs of the rocker as I went by…and three felines just sat, watching and waiting.

I got done, picked up the mop, and dusted all the fur into the trash with the dustbrush, and then swept up the dirt pile with the dustpan and brush.  That’s literally all I’ve had time to use it for since I got it–just a daily round-up of fuzz.  I can’t wait to actually try it out wet!  LOL  Oh, and the cats?  They still don’t know what to make of it, but when I didn’t get out the noisy thing, they were extremely confused! They haven’t been brave enough to check it out yet, but I give it a month or two, and they’ll finally “get” it that there’s no more NOISE.  Which is good…’cause my third son is starting third shift this week, and I’ll need to do things quietly again.

From the bottom of furry feline hearts, thank you for a noiseless cleaner that works!

SB in PA