Laura Jane Williams is the author of The Love Square (Avon, HarperCollins) which publishes on August 6th (paperback) and June 29th (ebook).
Who told me about spray mops? I couldn’t tell you. Maybe it was a targeted ad on Instagram, maybe it was a spiritual apparition. Either way, it came into my life a decade too late. For 14 years I had a simple mop and bucket for my kitchen floor. I used it twice a year. But when I uprooted my cramped London life for a more sprawling Derbyshire hideaway, it renewed my desire to live a cleaner existence — so I looked to Amazon for a solution.
I’d like to say I carefully read the reviews, but the one I have — the Vorfreude flop mop — was on discount when I got it (under 20 quid), and I absolutely chose it for the price. It came with a detachable bottle that you fill with water and whatever cleaning product you enjoy most — or even just a bit of lemon juice — and a reusable microfibre pad that is machine washable.
All the hassle of using a regular mop was gone — the effort of filling a whole bucket, checking the water was at the right temperature for whatever cleaning product I had, and then emptying the bucket and waiting for the bucket to dry … and that’s without mentioning how long it took my floors to dry. With the Vorfreude, the whole business is done within a minute — I can walk on my clean floors almost instantly, rather than perching on the stairs, waiting for them to dry.
I loved it so much that I called my mother, my best friend and showed it to my neighbour after its first use. After a week with my beloved Vorfreude, and its jolly purple handle, I casually mentioned it on Instagram and got so many messages asking for more info on it that I did a “swipe-up.” Within 12 hours, 1,000 people had clicked the link.
I keep it wedged between the fridge and the wall, and have to refill the water once a month — if that. The cleaning pad is just Velcro-ed on, and I bought spares, so when that’s getting a bit dirty it’s super easy to whip off and replace. If I spill some pasta sauce or things are looking a bit grubby, it takes me ten seconds to put the mop flat to the floor, spray the water from the handle, and then run the mop over it. I dread to think how filthy my floors were before.
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