Done properly you should not need to squeegee the tile floor, in "should" drain properly. Is there a curtain or something at the entrance? Why do you think there will be water on the bathroom floor that will need to be cleaned up?

Agree, elderly mom should not be squeegeeing a floor. Hard water should be remedied with a system since it does way more damage to what you can’t see than what you can see.🙂

We still have to dry our floor. It is properly pitched with Kerdi barrier but the grout joints stay moist long enough for the orange stuff to grow in it. As much as I love a tiled shower, it is just more maintenance. Next shower will probably be Corian for me.

Hard water should be remedied with a system...

Unless you are like us that do not like or want a water softener. It does cause other issues but nothing that has been a big deal for over 17 years we have lived in the area.

Gailan, thanks for the suggestion. I hadn't thought of that. You don't find that it flops around or spreads the water more? I think I've seen a Vileda version. Do you use this after each shower or just every so often for a better clean? I can't imagine where they'd keep this as the bathroom is small.

Susie, what do you use to dry your floor? You've described the situation. We weren't keen on tile and grout either but that was the option everyone mentioned within budget and timeframe.

@Nancy in Mich I think you had made a suggestion somewhere but I couldn't easily find it. Would you mind sharing what you use?

We just use a hand squeegee that I bought at target. I think it’s a private label item. Then we get the rest of the moisture with a towel. It helps lengthen the time between scrubbing the grout. In my downstairs bathroom, I have an oxo hand squeegee that works better. Either way it’s a lot of bending over, which you probably don’t want for your mom. A mop may be the better option.

Thanks Susie - yup, that's a lot of bending! I wouldn't even want to do that ;) I agree, something on a long handle would be better.

The micorfiber mop does not flop around or spread any water. It soaks it up like a sponge. We have a shower that is 5' x 7' with a handset pebble floor (love it) and it will completely dry the floor before it needs to get wringed out. I use it after each shower and I have it hanging over a floor register so the air from the HVAC dries it quickly. I have never have to clean the shower floor or grout with the exception of the edges of the shower where the mob may not get every drop of water. I only need to clean that once a year at most. It takes a bit more time in the morining but well worth it for me.

That's good to know Gailan - thanks! I'm pleasantly surprised to hear how well the microfiber works; I have found that some microfibre rags don't absorb at all. I'm all for 0 to low regular maintenance to avoid heavier cleaning or replacement of things. We'll have to think of a place to hang a mop. No floor registers and the towel rack is over the baseboard heater.

I don’t dry my shower floor. I have a Corian-like shower floor by Transolid and they have routed out 2x2” squares to simulate tile. It is done to give better footing in the shower. But my floor and walls have a marble-like color design. “Veins” are crossing from tile-to-tile on these fake tiles, making it very obvious that they are fake. Anyway, I get pink mildew in the routed 2x2 pattern, and have to kill it and scrub a bit to get the floor clean. I have a product called Force of Nature. It is a small electrical appliance that sits on a counter. It has a bottle that you fill most of the way with distilled water, and you buy little capsules of liquid (mostly vinegar) to add to the bottle, then you hang the bottle on the appliance so that the electrodes on the bottle cap engage with the ones on the appliance. You hit a button and it starts to bubble. In about five minutes you have 8 oz of cleaning solution. It is electrolyzed water, also known as e-water by those with Toto toilet bidet seats that wash the sides of your toilet after use. E-water kills by penetrating the cell membrane. It breaks up the cells. They include a spray bottle, so I just spray and walk away, come back later and scrub with my scrub-mop. The e-water has a slightly chlorinated pool smell to it. You can google Force of Nature to find it.

For those wanting a squeegee, there are floor squeegees of many different kinds with long (54”) handles. Hard rubber, foam, and so on.

https://www.lowes.com/pl/Floor--Squeegees-Cleaning-tools-Cleaning-supplies/4294599015?refinement=4294705665

Thanks @Nancy in Mich! Hopefully other readers find this information useful too.

Walmart reviewers like this $13 Libman Floor Squeegee because the blade is soft enough to move water on uneven surfaces (though most users were using it on concrete floors).

You can stuff a rag, dishtowel, microfiber, etc. in the end of a Swiffer and swab everything up pretty easy, then toss the cloth in the laundry. It's like the mop, but without squeezing water--if your mom has any hand arthritis, she'll appreciate that.

Some microfiber cloths are better than others and they also have to be laundered properly to maintain their usefulness. (I guess they also dump tiny particles into the water supply...) But you can get a couple dozen all-cotton Indian dish towels off the A store inexpensively.

Thanks for the suggestions. @wdccruise, I just checked and that Libman doesn't seem to be available where I am. I'll keep an eye for it.

@Iri, good idea. We do that for regular cleaning but with thin cloths or paper towels since the little creases that hold the fabric in place easily enlarge and don't hold things well anymore. Given that it's flat it may not be much help with the grout which tends to be inset a bit from the tile surface. Good point though about differences in microfibre cloths - that's been my experience too.