Product Review of the Wagtail Mop

Six months ago, I fell asleep on my livingroom couch. Upon awakening around 4 A.M., I discovered two things;1) Sleeping on the couch, unlike sleeping in
bed,induces copious drooling on one's self, one's clothing, and one's sofa cushions. 2) At 4 A.M., many television stations air a lot of infomercials, which are rather annoying extended commercials complete with studio audience and repetitive huckstering by one or more overly perky emcees.

This one had managed to incorporate itself into my dream just before I woke up, causing me to stare stupidly at the TV for a good ten minutes. How did these people get into my mind, man? Once fully awake, I started to make some sense out of what was happening . Some people were using a funny-looking mop on a filthy floor and getting it clean and dry without using a bucket. Hmm. I sure could use something like..wait a minute! I groped frantically for the remote to turn it off before it caught my interest, but it was too late; I'd already been sucked in to watching.

The next day, some TV-induced impulse made me google the name I'd heard mentioned. The Wagtail, as it's called, is an Australian invention that is stunning in its ingenuity and simplicity. The website has a video demo and some descriptive ad copy, but what got me was the clever design. As a person who has tile floors throughout the house, I have tried too many floor cleaning tools to count. From the good old-fashioned string mops (excellent for growing your own little mildew garden and spreading dirt in an even film over the floor) to sponge mops (great for pushing dirty water around; when you need more dirty water, slight pressure on the handle will yield another pint or so) to a glaringly inefficient "mop vac" that ran for a grand total of 20 minutes after an overnight charge, required special cleaning fluid and was heavy and a pain to store. I was a bitter, hardened veteran of the clean floor wars.