I Just Discovered This Old-School Italian Method for Cleaning Floors
I’m a third-generation Italian American. While a few cooking techniques and an undying love of pasta, pizza, and gelato have been passed down, the Italian language itself has gotten lost along the way. I’m working on gaining it back with the help of Duolingo, although it’s going a lot slower than I thought. (But I do know that “mappina” is Italian slang for a dishcloth or rag!)
So when I stumbled upon an old-school Italian cleaning method on Apartment Therapy that used a mappina to mop the floor, I couldn’t wait to try it. Were my ancestors going to help me finally break up with disposable mop pads? It appears that way. Here’s how it works.
How to Use a Towel to Mop the Floor
If you’ve ever used a Swiffer, you already know the drill here. In fact, having a Swiffer mop handle would make this hack even easier, although any broom will do.
Soak an old dish towel (or a mappina) in a bucket or sink full of sudsy water.
Wring it out and lay it flat on the floor.
If you’re using a regular broom, just use it to push the wet towel around on the floor as if you were using an actual mop. (If you’re using a Swiffer or some other type of reloadable broom, you can try to attach the wet towel to it for easier use.)
Adjust the towel — flip and spin — to use every bit of it as you clean the floor.
Rinse it out and dunk it in the soapy water again as needed until the floor is clean.
When you’re done, wash the towel out in the sink, then let it hang to dry.
When I first tried this method, it was laundry day, so I simply wrung out the towel and added it to a wash load right away. But as long as you let it air dry and don’t let it grow moldy in a heap somewhere, you can hold off on a deeper clean of this towel until it’s more convenient for you.
Using a broom to push the towel is certainly better for your knees. But I’ve hand-mopped my small bathroom floor in minutes this way with no complaints. In the same way, I’ll also wipe down the bathroom vanity or the kitchen countertops with the bathroom towel or mappina right before it goes into the wash.
Call it old school, call it old country, but I now call it the way for me to use fewer disposable cleaning products. Saluti (cheers)!
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