Brooms and mops are eternal symbols of floor cleaning, or for that matter every form of cleaning. However, symbolism has not exactly been kind to brooms, because brooms have been perpetually associated with witches. Witches are believed to ride brooms to their destination. Whether witches rode brooms or not, people were not exactly fond of the job of floor cleaning, especially that of mopping the floors, till a steam mop came into the picture. Doing the floor cleaning job by sweeping was not something too difficult to perform, though a broom always had a stamp of something demeaning, even when it was not associated with witches. But mopping the floor was a different ball game altogether.  To clean the floor well, you had to go down on all the fours, and perform like an animal. Doing floor cleaning that way round the year gave a lasting stoop to some hapless performers.

By introducing the steam mop, modern technology has given its blessings to the job of floor cleaning also. A steam mop does not resemble the good old ragged mop even a wee bit in appearance or functionality. The basic parts of a steam mop are a water tank in which water is heated, a cleaning pad attached to the tip of a long handle, and the tube connecting the two through which steam flows out to the steam mop. To start with the floor cleaning process, the tank has to be filled with clean water for heating. Normal tap water would be sufficient for this purpose in most cases, even though in places where the water is hard, it is recommended that distilled water be used. Then the steam mop mechanism can be plugged in and switched on to heat the water. The average time for the water to get heated enough to generate steam, is thirty seconds.

While the water is being heated, the cleaning pad that does the mopping job has to be attached to the tip of the mechanism, to the long handle. Most of the manufacturers of steam mops offer both disposable and reusable cleaning pads and it is the user’s choice whether he wants to discard the pad after every floor cleaning ritual or whether he wants to machine wash and reuse it. Once the steam is generated, the cleaning pad of the steam mop should be slid over the floor, synchronizing it with a pumping mechanism on the handle to release the steam. Some models of the steam mop have a trigger mechanism to release the steam. No one, whether a witch or not, has ever rode a broom. But everyone can try driving a steam mop, for it is easy and is the best available floor cleaning set-up.