The Foxfire Museum has amazing household items from days gone by-like the mops in this photo. Harder to use than my store bought mop I’m sure-but I bet they lasted a heck of a lot longer than mine seems too.
When I was growing up, Granny kept her mop just inside the basement door. After using it, she’d hang it on a nail to let it dry. I used to get that mop and tease Paul with it-telling him it was is girlfriend. I’d pull the strands of ‘hair’ back and chase him around with it saying things like “Would you like to go to the movies?”
Granny used mop n glow on her linoleum floors when I was little. Since the girls were babies-I’ve used vinegar in my mop water.
Tipper
p.s. If you’ve never been to the Foxfire Museum-its a must see. Go here for more details.
Linda
Thank you for the comment! Go here for Papaws pickled beans and corn recipe:https://blindpigandtheacorn.com/blind_pig_the_acorn/2009/07/pickled-beans-and-corn-the-old-time-way.html
Have a great weekend!
Tipper
Blind Pig The Acorn
Celebrating and Preserving the
Culture of Appalachia
http://www.blindpigandtheacorn.com
Well, I remember using vinegar in diaper rinse water to get the final residue of detergent and to freshen them from urine smells, but I’m not sure that’s why Tipper uses it in her mop water. ??? Hmmm…
God bless.
RB
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Thanks for featuring our mop, Tipper! I invite all your readers to visit us at The Foxfire Museum and Heritage Center, and you come see us again soon, too.
I saw awhile back that you served pickled beans and corn. I have never gotten a recipe to make this dish, might have missed it. Could you send me a recipe. I am quite old and should know how to make this but my family has been slightly closed mouth with the recipe. Thanking you in advance if you have the time to give me this recipe.
I clean with vinegar too. None of the detergents or chemical stuff on my floors and counters and such. Use vinegar in the rinse water instead of fabric softener too. No issues with allergic reactions like we had before I went to using it for so many things and much less expensive too.
Tipper,
Today is the first time I ever
looked and read about the Foxfire
Museum. Those old cleaning tools
have gotten better as time went
on, I think…Ken
INDEED! Those corn shuck mops were the FIRST mops I can remember in our house. I don’t know how long we used them but they sure were heavy to push around our wooden floors! We just used ‘homemade’ soap as a cleaning agent!
Eva Nell
Here’s some lore concerning brooms:
Whenever my mother would see a broom standing in the corner, bristles on the floor, she would lean it upside-down, saying it was bad luck to stand it upright. But it stands much better that way- an ongoing argument.
My mother would wring out her mops and hang them across the clothesline. When it dried (or froze)and you took it down, it would maintain its hooked shape until it was wet again (or thawed.)
Have you seen the cotton mops that are vacuum packed like bags of coffee? Looks like a brick!
Stuff a quart jar with orange peels then fill with white vinegar. Set in a dark place for 14 days. You have a great cleaning solution that will clean about anything and leave a citrus smell.
A fond childhood memory of mine is of an old widow, Pearl Dehart, who lived next door with her daughter’s family. She grew broom corn and made her own brooms. She tore up strips of worn out cloth and made her own mops. She made rugs from looper clips. She had shoe lasts and kept all the family’s shoes fixed. She mended all their socks. She made lye from wood ashes and used it to make hominy and soap. She also carried a cane that was the bane of any hapless child than wandered within its radius.
Have tile flooring thru out my home and the man that sold it, told me to only use a small amount of vinegar in the water.Never to use anything else other than plain water.
Tipper,
I’m guessing those mops are drip-dry! I have a hard enough time wringing out an old rag-mop, so I don’t think I could wring out a corn-shuck mop! I love a lightweight rag-mop or string-mop to a swiffer or sponge mop. Eventhough I have both. I also have the one with the gadget that squirts out the cleaner. Dog and cat hates that thing, since it makes a weird little sound! I don’t know, I just like the stir-around mop, bettern’ the square mopping. I’m an expert on mops, like dieting, I can tell you how to do it, but can’t get it done!
Laughing out loud in the dust!
Thanks Tipper,
PS…I’m wondering if a hot ember by the big open fireplace would catch that shuck mop on fire, even if was wet?
Those mops really don’t look so user friendly but I bet your correct, they would last longer.
I use different things in my mop water, mostly just dish washing soap but sometimes ammonia, vinegar, or occasionally bleach.
The floor seems to look the same no matter which I use.
Vinegar is one of my favorite cleaning supplies, it works great, isn’t harmful and I like the smell:) I suppose some people might walk into the cabin and think it smells like a salad though, LOL!
It has always been suggested that using white vinegar and water on hardwood floors is good. That’s what I use on mine, but use regular swifter wet pads on the tile floors in the bathroom. I really like your mop story. We didn’t have one of those as my mom usually used hands and knees to clean the floors.
The Foxfire “mop” appears like the cornshuck mop my father made and we used to scrub our hardwood floors when I was a child. Is it “stuffed” with opened corn shucks? I wrote yesterday about our using “white sand” as a scrubbing agent on our wood floors.
Vinegar is what I have always used too.