That hoary old axiom that the older we become the more resistant we become to change is quite correct.  It is, in any case, correct in my case.  I find security and comfort in the familiar, and most people do.  I've set things up in a practical manner in this household that works best for me.  In, for example, collecting a number of useful tools that help me clean house, and the same for the everyday use of the kitchen.

I have been hampered of late by the increasing and puzzling unavailability of old-style floor dust mops.  There was a time when one could enter any hardware store, even the big box stores like Canadian Tire and find an assortment of suitable dust mops.  There was a time when I could keep a dust mop for years, simply removing the top, washing it and re-using it on a daily basis.  They were made to last.

They likely went out of use at a time when floors were covered with wall-to-wall carpeting and hardwood flooring was less popular. But hardwood flooring of all types have made a tremendous come-back and most people take pride in their wood floors, eschewing total carpeting for smaller area rugs.  To properly dust floors on a regular basis nothing beats the simplicity and functionality of a floor dust mop. 

Looking for one has become a source of absolute frustration; no outlet seems to carry them any more.  Oh yes, there are microfibre-type floor mops and they are utterly useless, there is no comparison whatever to the old ones in ease of use and outcome.  The Swiffer brand appears to have captured the market and it represents an advertising success for a useless product.

Does no one use a bucket of hot soapy water and a sponge to wash their kitchen floors and other floors with hard surfaces any longer?  For me, at age 76, that is the quickest and most thorough way to adequately wash floors be they porcelain tile, marble or linoleum-covered.

I did find one suitable dust mop, really well designed, by Tormax which met all my expectations.  The fly in that ointment was that it was produced with inferior products, made fragile by this very fact, and lasted at best a month before it broke apart and had to be replaced.  I was so desperate for a usable product that I was willing to keep buying new ones, but they too are no longer available.

Yesterday my shopaholic husband went to Lowes and brought back a Rubbermaid dust mop, clearly in its 24" dimension and heavy wood handle, meant for commercial use, but the best designed with sturdy construction and material, available.  Other types I'd bought there languish in my cupboard, utterly useless.  And this one was so large, heavy and awkward I could barely move it around.  Back it went.

And I am left looking still for a useful product to satisfy my fairly simple criteria.  Ease of use and able to pick up dust; resistant to breakage when it is shaken outdoors to release what it has collected.  Looking online has been no help whatever; I see there the very same models and products that have proven useless.  Rubbermaid had one dust mop that seemed a reasonable size for domestic use but politely advised it was no longer available.

Understated frustration reigns supreme.