Spin Mop: The Secret to Quick & Easy Cleaning?

Found my way back to scrolling TikTok as of late and have been seeing a lot of videos with people cleaning damn near everything with a spin mop. After deep diving into Google it seemed that the O-Cedar EasyWring Spin Mop was a popular choice so, I decided to give it a whirl.

TL;DR 👎🏼 This spin mop is not for me, but that doesn’t mean that it might not work for you. Read on to learn more!

I’m still working on coming up from the really deep, dark place I have existed within for about the past three or so years. That means I have an overwhelming amount of recon cleaning to do. Recon cleaning that I must chip away at slowly despite that making the entire process even more overwhelming and frustrating.

Once upon a time I was that lady who woke up now and again in a major cleaning mood. I’d go in hard and push myself to keep going until everything was done, or I’d pulled apart so many spaces that I overwhelmed myself and created a mental block, or I absolutely just could not physically do anymore. BUT I was much younger and, apparently, healthier then.

This past fall things got a wee bit more complicated after I suffered a myocardial infarction (aka a heart attack). When I say that, it brings up visions of clogged arteries and unhealthy living. I’m really not all that unhealthy when it comes to food choices. I am definitely lax with exercise though, hypothyroid, and a former smoker (and have also been living with moderate to severe depression and anxiety pretty much my entire life).

After inpatient testing and monitoring they attributed my heart attack to SCAD (Spontaneous Coronary Artery Dissection), which is not the same as a traditional heart attack, is most common among women, and is not very well-studied or understood (case in point, the cardiac rehab center I went to for consult afterwards had never even heard of it). Fortunately, I did not require any reparative surgery and, for the time being, am managing it with medications pending follow-up.

Anyway, so I’m taking things slow these days and NOT pushing myself too terribly hard because I’m super scared, and I was watching all these cleaning vids on TikTok. After much debate, I finally decided that $35 for a spin mop was probably not too much to risk for a chance at making housecleaning a little easier.

Side Note: At the time of purchase I had no intention of writing a post about this, so I do not have any unboxing or in process pics or anything like that. All photos in this post were taken after the fact — I’m sorry!

Here’s how it went:

Spin Mop Delivery Day

I was a little excited at the prospect of quicker and easier cleaning, especially after watching people all over TikTok zipping through their homes like little cleaning maniacs. That makes it easier to understand why I was so impatiently awaiting the delivery and hoping it would arrive early enough in the day that I could get started right away.

Unfortunately, it didn’t arrive until later in the afternoon. As a morning person, I prefer to be finishing “work” by mid-afternoon, not starting it.

It arrived in a non-retail style brown box with the bucket inside and the plastic mop head base, the microfiber mop head, and the “telescopic” handle all tucked inside the bucket with a short “Use & Care Guide”.

Initial Thoughts after Unboxing the Spin Mop

From the get-go I wasn’t very impressed with the microfiber mop head. I originally had high hopes, especially because it said it was machine washable, but holding it in my hands the strands felt too light and flimsy and cheap. It didn’t seem substantial or durable enough for any real cleaning and definitely not for scrubbing. It also wasn’t going to work for my ceilings at all.

My home has vaulted ceilings and I’d been neglectful for quite some time now. To make matters worse, the ceilings are also textured — not popcorn though, it’s… I don’t even know how to explain the texture so here’s a picture:

Enough of a texture to be annoying, hold onto little dusties, and be a pain in the butt to wipe down — I’m not a fan. This microfiber mop head was definitely going to get caught up on the texture if I tried it use it up there. It was just too soft and fluffy — sort of like a cotton ball, ish.

Still, I thought it would probably be ok for a lightly wiping down the crown molding, the walls, and hopefully the floors since that’s what most mops are meant to clean! The bucket seemed pretty sturdy as far as plastic buckets go. I’d never used a spinning bucket before, so this was a completely new experience.

Side note: While pre-purchase researching, I saw there was a newer model (EasyWring RinseClean) with a two-compartment bucket that kept the clean and dirty water separate, but at approximately $50 it was too pricey for me.

Prepping the Spin Mop for Use

After a quick skim of the directions, it was time to expand and lock the three portions of the telescopic handle, screw on the mop head base, and attach the mop head. The handle expands one section at a time with a twist and lock concept — sounded easy enough.

It wasn’t. I couldn’t seem to get it to “lock” into place well enough. Every time I thought I’d gotten it and tried to apply a little pressure as though I was going to put a bit of elbow grease into something, it slid back down. I got frustrated and had to walk away for a short while. 😒

The mop head base screwed onto the handle easily and the mop head itself snapped onto it after I made sure all the fiber strands were out of the way and not wrapped up around the plastic piece that needed to snap onto the base.

At this point, the spin mop was as ready for action as it was ever going to be!

Using the Spin Mop

In hindsight, I realize that it’s likely everyone is just dry mopping (aka dusting) their ceilings, walls, and moldings with this thing and, for that purpose, I suppose it would work relatively fine. My issue though, is that I wanted to wash my ceilings, walls, and moldings with it.

To the bucket I added about two inches of hot tap water, a little blue Dawn Ultra Platinum dish soap, and some cleaning vinegar. Why? I don’t know, it’s just what I do?! And I really do mean a little with the Dawn because it’s concentrated and a little goes a long way. Plus, I didn’t want my walls all sudsy and soapy — that wouldn’t be good at all!

After filling, I lifted the bucket by it’s handle to carry it to where I needed to use it. Much to my surprise, the bucket did not carry level. It seems the weight of the spin side (with the foot lever) was heavier and so holding it by the centered handle made it tilt. I was glad I only put a relatively small amount of water in it. I’d have been really mad if it had sloshed out all over my floor and made a bigger mess for me to clean up!

Once safely where I needed to be, I did the dunk, dunk, dunk thing with the mop to get it saturated and to help swirl around the cleaning mixture a little bit more before carefully lifting and shifting it into the spinner portion of the bucket.

The step lever was easy to press down with my foot but after a single spin the mop head still felt really wet. I pressed downward on the handle a little to squeeze some out and the middle portion of the handle slid down over the lower one, so I guess I hadn’t managed to get it properly locked at full extension. After dealing with trying to extend and lock the handle (again), I spun the mop head a few more times. It spun much faster if I pumped a few steps on the lever instead of a single press.

After making contact with my wall, I realized the mop head was still much more wet than I expected. I guess I was hoping for more of a medium dampness after all that spinning. To be fair, my salad spinner never seems to spin my salad dry enough either…. maybe spinning just isn’t my thing!

Final Thoughts on the Spin Mop

I wanted to love it — I really, really did! But I don’t. There’s nothing super wrong with the O-Cedar EasyWring Spin Mop, I just don’t think it’s the right tool for me and the way I want/need to clean.

In all fairness, I’ve never been a fan of any mop.

As far back as I can remember, I’ve always ended up scrubbing the floors on my hands and knees and drying it as I went with a separate towel. It just seems like the only way to really get things clean. However, it’s a little much these days, so I’d really like to find something that will work for me without quite so much wear and tear. Unfortunately, this spin mop is just not it.

For now, it looks like if I want to get these things done then I’m going to have to suck it up, climb a ladder, and rely on good ol’ cleaning rags and elbow grease.

Just seems like I’m getting too old for all of that! 😂

Best to all,