When I had a house with all hardwood floors they needed to be swept or dust mopped every few days -- we did live on a busy street, and had a dog, which makes a big difference, but I can't imagine either hardwood or carpet going for more than a week without being in desperate need of a once over.

More dust and light colored fur shows up on dark hardwood floors. I have 4 pets and have to sweep my hardwoods every day. Something to think about if you have lots of dust and fur creating things and you also have the option to pick your hardwood stain! But my enclosed back porch - the main entry and exit of the house - is multi-color slate tile with grey grout and even though the dirt, dust and fur are there it is harder to see so I don't have to sweep as much. :)

With a dog and a cat, our carpet gets vacuumed once a week and shampooed every 6 weeks (yay for cream coloured carpets). The tile floors also get vacuumed once a week. I love my Dyson Animal.

Has anyone here used the scooba for hardwood floors? I'd love to hear your experiences with it, specifically how well it does if the wood pieces have small gaps between them.
I don't mind vacuuming, but I really detest mopping...

Every two weeks!! Oh how I wish wish wish that were true for us. Even with a cleaning lady (who comes once a week) our floors have to be cleaned EVERY SINGLE day! If we waited two weeks, the dust would certainly win the war being waged in my apartment. Granted, I live in NYC and I'm pretty sure that my apartment is the Universe's dust gathering black hole. Between city dust, two cats, two roommates and the aforementioned rip in the fabric of the universe I finally gave up and decided a vacuum (and a good one) was the only way to go. I read EVERY post on AT about vacuums and finally bit the bullet (and emptied my bank account) to get the Miele canister vacuum. I thought the canister would be a pain in our teeny tiny abode, but it's GREAT!. That thing could dance a ballet - frankly, he's way more nimble than me in navigating the apartment. He still doesn't have a place to live -- closet space is non-existant, but right now he just sits, looking cute, in the kitchen waiting to do his duty.

All that to say -- to keep our floors clean, we vacuum the kitchen every day (no more broom and dustpan that leave crumbs no matter how hard I try) and the rest of the apartment twice a week (and spot clean ups when necessary or cat hair is spotted).

I have hardwood floors and a cat--I have to sweep daily to keep on top of the cat fur. Even without a cat I think every 2 weeks would be a major stretch. Before my cat I was sweeping once a week (but the kitchen everyday--I'm a messy cook ^_^).

I am with MKQ-we mop and/or vacuum every day. And we don't wear shoes inside! 2 weeks without cleaning just sounds gross to me.

All hardwood floors, no rugs or carpeting. At least, if you're going to clean, you only do it with one tool.

I have hardwood with area rugs. I'm no fine example of tidiness, but I have a Dyson I use every other day to vacuum both wood and carpet, as well as tile in bathroom and slate in kitchen. I regularly clean the area rugs as they get nasty with dogs and toddler. I just hosed off my Flor carpet tiles in the front yard and they are drying in the sun.

I have tile floors and use the shark steam mop. it is great, cleans like nothing I have tried before. Used the swiffer wet jet with OK results. Also, since the steam mop uses only tap water, there isn't any residue to attrack more dirt or get pets sick.

Taking shoes off at the door makes a huge difference!

apparently i am a dirty dirty girl. once every two weeks sounds perfectly reasonable to me. floors are my greatest fear; i'd rather clean the toilet with a toothbrush than vacuum.
when we moved from a carpeted place to our present home with hardwood and tile, i finally saw how much dirt accumulates. in a carpet it simply disappears, whereas smooth floors show it all off thus forcing even the laziest monkey (oui, oui, c'est moi) to bring out the vacuum cleaner.
of course we have a horrible cheap vacuum cleaner which might be part of the problem. i'll have to look into the miele MKQ mentioned.

Here's my solution- ROOMBA!!!

Completely revolutionized how I clean.

With a dog and hardwood floors, it's either sweep every single day (and even then, two hours later, there's fur on the floor) or furminate her religiously (every day/every other day).

It's a toss-up as to which one is easier to deal with. The dog would prefer we sweep.

Then we run the vacuum around on a weekly basis. And scrub on hands and knees when there's time. And rent a Rug Doctor for deep-cleaning the rugs semi-annually.

You'd never know it to see our floors though! They always seem in need of further cleaning.

Here's a great tip, esp if you own pets: if you moisten your mop fairly thoroughly and run it over your low pile rugs like a giant sponge it will pick up TONS of animal hair and debris, MUCH more than a vacuum cleaner alone. It's like sponging down your carpets, you'll be amazed at what it picks up. Between hardwood floors, city living and three cats the minimum I can get away with is sweeping the biggest
(kitchen) floor daily and vacuuming and washing all floors and stairs and sponging the rugs weekly.

if I could go ONE week between full-house vacuumings I would be jumping for joy. this is seriously my biggest gripe about my present home.
between the worlds furriest greyhound, two cats, almost all hard floors and cabinetry/furniture on legs, three days is about my limit.
sadly, the roomba was not a good mix with the above and my big open floorplan. plus they're noisy and run for hours and hours a day and I got sick of listening to it all the time.

I bought a new vacuum in May - a Bissell - which is great. I have 4 cats and have to vacuum every other day. It has a bare floor adjustment and a fantastic attached hose. The suction is so strong I picked up wall-to-wall Flor carpet tiles off the floor. :)

You guys are crazy. Every day? Every other day? I have long haired cats and a boyfriend and I can wait 3 weeks no problem (except during shedding season) and really, the biggest problem is the stairs.

I have one cat and rarely sweep other than in the kitchen. Other than pick up some cathair tumbleweeds when I see them, I let the cleaners that come every two weeks take care of sweeping our hardwoods

@ ce_pelle & ec05:
Clearly some pets shed more than others, my in-laws owned fluffy long-hairs but when they watched our short-haired dog while we were on vacation they were incredulous at how much fur ended up around their house. Our dog's ability to shed her undercoat ad infinitum stuns many as her coat looks so low maintenance.

Plus, I could be more alert to or less tolerant of seeing fur clumping up around chair legs than you two but somehow I don't think so. I think of myself as a pretty lax housekeeper.

@ mskk: hmm, interesting tip. Do you mean the spongy-type mops? I use a Dutch broom (best evah!) for both mopping and sweeping.

I really don't think taking shoes off makes any difference at all. I've done both over the years (taken 'em off, kept 'em on) and my floors seem to get filthy the minute I turn off the vacuum cleaner and put it away. I HATE cleaning floors.

The Scooba is the best thing ever for keeping floors clean. I would have thought we'd have flying cars by now, but a robot to clean my floors is just as good!

I use it on my bamboo floors and it works great. I think it actually gets the floor cleaner than mopping, because instead of spreading around dirty water, it puts down fresh cleaner and squeegies the dirty water into a separate tank. Genius :-)

Okay I am not alone - I've had these new fake hardwood floors for about 7 months - I have to clean them constantly - I have two small short haired dogs - and just from general traffic - they get spots, fur, dust etc - I find myself sweeping on a daily basis - mopping almost bi-weekly - I use a Swifter dry and wet most of the time - maybe monthly I go extreme with a mop & bucket - but these fake hardwood floors are the worst - they warp and they streak - I'm at my wits end but the last thing I wanna see is a dirty floor - and the entire house including the kitchen are these floors! For those who have carpet (berber only in my bedroom) the Eureka Boss Superlite is a mighty beast - it does floors and carpet - it is bagless - and so tiny - retails for less that $40 - it has never failed me - I've had big nasty vacuums $200 and up - nothing can beat this little one - I promise

Thanks, margie :)

I love my terrazzo...

Sweep my floors only once every TWO WEEKS?! No freaking way - its AT LEAST every two days.

I use one of those microfibre pads, and its scary how much it picks up off the floor. I'll never go back to carpet, now that I can SEE how much junk was hiding in it.

ROOMBA!

I have 2 dogs and a long haired cat, occasionally my outdoor dog comes in once in a while(doesn't get a long with the cat) and I have to sweep twice a day. I hate mopping for the life of me and really want that shark steam mop or something similar. It makes me think it would be so easy I would enjoy mopping.

I try to mop once a week but sometimes I get lazy and wait for two. :\ Walking around barefoot is not fun I can always feel the bits of dirt on my feet so we always wear slippers inside.

The no-shoe rule works great for us (though we NEVER impose it on company--so rude). I don't know if it really keeps the floor cleaner in and of itself, but walking around barefoot makes you alert to gritty dirtyness and bullies you into not being so lazy about cleaning the hardwoods. And I really need to be bullied.

i have to sweep my kitchen floor several times a week - mostly because our front door basically comes right into the kitchen. but it's sad, because our floor has so many little scratches in the linoleum that it always LOOKS like it needs to be swept.

there is a great sense of purging that comes from shaking out rugs, beating them real well, and putting them back in their places - with the pile standing up, deep and thick. :)

agree agree: LOVE my roomba! with two dogs and a 4 year old, nothing beats the robot - set it and go!

FrontPorchPirate, I'm totally with you. I don't know how much cleaner our floors are for not wearing shoes, but they're definitely a LOT cleaner for making us so aware of the grittiness. We need to be bullied too!

The Scooba doesn't work in my kitchen - too many chair and table legs to be effective. I actually timed myself. By the time I move all the furniture and sweep, steam mopping adds only five minutes, rag mopping for the ultimate clean on hands & knees takes only fifteen (little foam garden mat to avoid blow job knee). The Scooba takes 35 minutes - if it doesn't cry about getting stuck.

As far as keeping things clean, I've found that sweeping up the concrete outside does more to keep dirt out of the house than anything else. I've also put the dog's water dish as far away from the carpets as possible (she has a beard that dribbles quarts of water at a time.)

I must be super "gross" because I haven't mopped in over a month. Our whole 550 sq. ft apartment is floored with linoleum tiles, I have a 1 year old and 2 dogs, I do have to sweep every few days, and I spot wipe the floor with a damp cloth if I see anything, but it is really difficult to talk myself into mopping.... that said, I fostered a short haired chihuahua, that looked a whole lot less hairy than my 2 shih-tzus. I honestly could not deal with all the hair that came off that dog, it boggled my mind! My dogs don't shed if a fraction as much!

I'm with MKQ- I love my Miele canister vaccum too. It's amazing for a small space with a lot of hard wood or tile floors. It's lightweight, powerful and so quiet I could even talk on the phone while I run it. The best $ I ever spent on a cleaning appliance.

Contrary to everything I've said about robots, DO NOT BUY a Roomba. THEY ARE PIECES OF JUNK and I'm so irritated at that company right now. They don't do out-of-warrantee-repairs, you have to buy a whole new one. They don't last more than a year. GARBAGE. But they do make for fun videos with cats. If you have a cat you want to humilate, get one. Otherwise, don't.