AMONG the conceits of boosters of modern-day capitalism, with its supposed free competition and “free trade,” is the idea that consumers are supplied with a wide range of choices and that the best products win out due to the forces of competition.

That this is myth is easily exposed by a trip to the supermarket or mall. The truth is, capitalism, as we know it, often consigns us to a very limited array of inferior products. There is all too often no hope for any competition to the producers of obvious junk because they are so big and so well-funded and so pervasive.

Here is one small example.

I recently set out to buy a replacement for the sponge of my kitchen mop. It was one of those mops that is squeezed out by pushing down on a sleeve on the handle. It is a simple design that was common for many years. I bought the mop  two or three years ago. But I found out, after going to five or six stores, that the sponge refill is no longer available. The mop has been discontinued and you cannot buy a refill pad anywhere, not even online. No other mop manufacturer produces a simple mop refill for this model.

That meant I had to buy a new mop, not just a new sponge. But the kitchen mops that were available were all …. technologically weird. They included this complicated Libman “Freedom Mop” (above, what a ridiculous name for a mop), which does not allow you to dunk the mop head in water and wring it out. Other mops had styrofoam pads, which do not hold water, or had other similarly complicated, counterintuitive designs. Basically none of the mops could be used with a simple pail of water and an easy mechanism for squeezing a sponge mop head out without bending down. I was in one store and spotted something that seemed to fit the bill. I grabbed it. On my very first use of this plastic mop — I am not lying — it broke. Part of the plastic head just snapped.

While I was shopping, I ran into a woman in the aisle of yet another store. She heard me talking about how bad all the mops were. She interjected and said she has looked for a simple, decent kitchen mop everywhere and could not find one. Yet think of how basic a mop is to daily life. Everyone needs a mop.

It was obvious, after searching over a two-week period, that the few mop manufacturers that supply most stores want consumers to buy the “mops” with disposable wet pads such as those produced by Swiffer. These pads are expensive and give off a strong chemical odor. I used them for a while, but I don’t like them. There’s something decadent and wasteful about pulling out a chemical-bathed diaper every time you want to clean the floor and throwing it out after one use.

I ended up buying this other mop by Libman with its cheap plastic parts and big brush. I am willing to bet that the replacement sponge will not be available for all that much longer and that the whole thing will not last for long. “Free enterprise” often seems to entail compulsory consumption of trash. The people who produce this junk in factories in China are probably paid very little and have no fondness for the product either.

— Comments —

Roseanne writes:

I have had this very same problem. I suggest looking in the commercial section of hardware stores or even searching out a commercial cleaning product distributor – someone who sells to cleaning companies.

Laura writes:

Thank you for the suggestion.

The problem with commercial mops (I have looked at a couple) is that they seem to be made for large expanses of flooring. I am not swabbing the deck of the Queen Elizabeth. My kitchen floor isn’t all that big.

Laura adds:

Here’s what I kept thinking, sort of in the back of my mind, when I was looking for a mop.

I bet there are plenty of people who could make a decent mop and could produce enough of them in their own homes to supply the people nearby in perhaps a five-mile radius. Women could even make mops and stay home with their children! But there’s no hope for small free enterprise like that. We’re entirely geared to the big producer and his cheap schlock.

Roseanne writes:

I have all hardwood floors in my house except for linoleum in the bathrooms and laundry room so I use a Haan steamer. Expensive but I am a very pleased customer.

Paul C. writes:

I know what you mean.  I jury-rig stuff in an attempt to make up for this problem.

Here are a couple of small wet-mop squeezers that you might find at a local store by searching online.  Amazon Prime customers like me usually often get free shipping.

Laura writes:

Thank you. I appreciate the suggestions. (I haven’t put in the links yet.) These are pails with wringer devices. Unfortunately, I don’t have room for a normal pail and another bucket specifically for floor mopping. I’m not running an institution, just a home.

Sven writes:

My best suggestion is a commercial mop with a replaceable head. Most aren’t too big.

That’s an astute observation about capitalism. Referring to the recent discussion about toys, this same problem you have with mops is my biggest issue with modern toys. They are utterly disposable, meant to be played with once, and then forgotten. Or they simply break after a little bit. What an absolute waste. Toys should be durable enough to be passed down for at least 75 years.

Laura writes:

Thanks. True about toys.

Those string-type mop heads, if that’s what you mean, can be a problem in a smaller space because the wet strings flap about and come in contact with walls and other vertical surfaces, transferring the dirt from the floor to the walls.

Asian reader writes:

Google “Clorox mop”, high quality, low price, and low maintenance (just refill water).
Or, if you prefer, just google “target mop”, find a simple mop at the first page, below $10.

Laura writes:

Thank you for the suggestions.

I don’t see a single “high-quality” mop when I google “Clorox mop.” Those are mops with refill pads which are much more expensive and wasteful than a well-made sponge mop head that only needs to be replaced every six months or so.

Also, I’ve been to Target. (I actually went to eight stores altogether.) They had lousy mops. Same problem. Cheap refill pads that must be changed often.

Constance writes:

Please try The Vermont Country Store website. They specialize in classic, old fashioned products and carry a sponge mop (and replacement heads) that has the mechanism on the handle to wring out the sponge. I have ordered many products from them over the years and have been very satisfied. I believe, also, that they have a 100% satisfaction guaranteed policy.

Hope this helps! Good luck and happy mopping!

Laura writes:

Thanks.

Mopping has its own rewards.

Phil writes:

Thank you for the notification about the unavailability of the old common household mop. My limited search online generally confirmed the difficulty in finding the old style types with replaceable heads. If you search online here (McMaster-carr is a large industrial supply outfit in several US locations) carries polyurethane wring type mops; $32 for a galvanized handle mop and $10 for replacement heads seems kind of high but you can at least buy replacements in quantity for a discount and they ship pronto.

Aug. 18, 2015

Kristor writes:

Forget mops. Buy a sturdy wooden push broom, with very stiff bristles and a head that is not too wide. Take an old bath towel, ready for use as a rag. Cut it in thirds. In the center of each third, cut a slit. Stick the handle of the broom through that slit, and slide the rag down to the head.

Use the stiff bristles of the broom to do the scrubbing. When you are ready to mop, pick up the head and let the bristles land on the rag, which you will then use to mop.

When you are done and ready to mop up the moisture on the floor, do so with the other two (still dry) sections of the bath towel. At the end of the cleaning day, throw the towels into the washer.

Laura writes:

That’s interesting.

Unfortunately, because of the type of vinyl floor we have, I have to be able to wring out whatever I use to wipe the floor because it gets very dirty.

Karen I. writes:

Your mop post was excellent. I had a brand new plastic mop break on the first use as well and those Swiffer wipes gave me a headache. Plus, they did not clean very well.

I would recommend the Vermont Country Store for high quality products. They tend to be on the expensive side, but their products are well made and last. Some of their products are items that have been around a long time but are now hard to find.

They have a mop that might interest you. It is a nickle plated steel sponge mop, made in Italy. It costs $29.95 and replacement sponges are $9.95. You can find it by going to the Vermont Country Store website online.

Neil P. writes:

Years ago, “outlet stores” were all the rage. You could get deals on closeouts, slightly damaged products and the like. Then companies started making separate lines for their outlet stores.

I remember when stores would say “we will pay you if you can find the same item for less.” However, all these stores sold slightly different products with different numbers. There was no way you could compare a Panasonic CD Player from Store A with a Panasonic CD Player from Store B.

That being said, I’m generally supportive of free enterprise. The only authority strong enough to stop such things would be government, and we all know where that leads.

Laura writes:

Everybody’s for free enterprise. Everybody.

But what’s so free about a marketplace dominated by a small number of corporations that produce lousy products and use quasi-slave labor?

William from the Netherlands writes:

Your mop troubles are familiar. In fact, soon even people in the remotest regions on the planet will know them intimately. It all reminds me of this G.K. Chesterton quote:

“Comforts that were rare among our forefathers are now multiplied in factories and handed out wholesale; and indeed, nobody nowadays, so long as he is content to go without air, space, quiet, decency and good manners, need be without anything whatever that he wants; or at least a reasonably cheap imitation of it.” – Commonwealth, 1933

However, now we have come futher: ordinary, everyday things that were normal among our forefathers are now only made by rare craftsmen who make them on demand so only the very rich can buy them.

Just think of the wicker basket. When I visited a local and very touristy ‘farmer’s market,’ there were people making old-fashioned wicker baskets, but they were ten times as expensive as their ubiquitous plastic equivalents. (Which are made to look like wicker in fact…) One could object that those craftsmen did if for a hobby, and do not have to live off them. That seems reasonable, but they couldn’t anymore, even if they wanted to. People do not buy that sort of thing for everyday use anymore if the plastic alternative is thát cheap. In the time the real wicker basket would wear out, they will have gone through ten plastic ones, but people just do not seem to realise that.

There are plenty of ordinary things one could only find an ‘advanced’ technical equivalent of while the thing itself is left forgotten  under a layer of dust, somewhere in a corner of the shop. Another example to illustrate this point: the other day I went out to buy a simple ballpoint pen, but all I could find were hideously deformed, modern pens with ‘neon’ colours that hurt the eyes. Who could write with those, if they would actually write at all?  There were rather more normal ones (‘BICs’), but they were literally dime-a-dozen: disposable, thin and just as ugly as the rest. Finally, at the counter, I saw the better pens: the Parkers, just as classy and good as ever, but with gold and silver elements and terribly expensive. When I asked, the more affordable end of the Parker products were in a separate cabinet, somewhat hidden, or better said, forlorn, between aisles and far away from the writing section.

With a relatively expensive and durable pen, one would not just scribble, but make an effort to write. People lose the ‘BICs’ one after the other until the whole dozen is gone and one has to go out and buy a new pack. The ‘Parkers’ one keeps safe and if they are expensive enough, has them engraved. They are even given away as presents after years of service or such.

Carolyn writes:

I love a small string mop so I usually shop at a store like Dollar General where they can be found. To me this is closest to hand mopping the floor. If a string mop is too large I have even cut out some of the strings. Hate those Swiffer things which just push around the dirt.

Hurricane Betsy writes:

Like you, I had been trying to find replacement sponges and finally gave up and went back to what I had used for decades; old-fashioned, smaller, string mops have done the trick for aeons. We had them at home, my grandparents had them, and so on. Wood and string. Products of nature. No plastic. And that is what I use now, with one of those buckets with the round section where you wring it out. And I’m happy as a pig in mud.

There is no need for the strings to ” flap about and come in contact with walls and other vertical surfaces, transferring the dirt from the floor to the walls.” That would be a problem only if you are using the large, commercial versions of the string mop and especially if you are not careful. I haven’t had the problem that you describe.

Anita Kern writes from Toronto:

Today I was trying to find a replacement for my old dust mop. (Dry mop)

The mop part works fine but it no longer attaches to the handle properly.

Anyway, couldn’t find the same again. All kinds of things, but no old-fashioned dust mop. Sigh.

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