Dear TL,
I know it irks you as much as it does me to BUY swiffer pads and solution. So, I created a pictorial tutorial on avoiding the refill monster entirely.
You will need:
- swiffer wet-jet
- microfiber washcloths (scrubby kind if you want to be FANCY–5$)
- good scissors
- frayblock, fraycheck, or the like
- cup of hot water
- vinegar and water
DIRECTIONS
1. Open microfiber washcloths. (Remember how microfiber sticks to you fingers if they’re dry? Sticks great to that bottom-of-the-mop velcro too.) Cleave in twain.
2. ‘Fray Block’ the cut edge and allow to dry.
3. Smush the cloth onto yon mop.
4. Turn empty solution bottle upside down in a cup of hot water for one minute. Twist off cap and fill with 50/50 water and vinegar.
5. Get to mopping!
6. Toss DIRTY cloth in washer!
RECIPE MAKES 10 REUSABLE CLOTHS
luv, Ivory
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{ 21 comments… read them below or add one }
I’m a bit late here, but I just had to say thanks for posting this! I love my swiffer, but the cost of refills…not so much. I still have a couple of pads so I didn’t try yours yet, but finding out I could actually refill that “unrefillable” bottle is cause for celebration. I just mopped my white ceramic tile floors with it, and they look great. The house smells a bit like pickles right now, but I know that will dissipate in a bit. Thanks again!
Well, I’m even later getting back to you.
You are welcome! And I guess you already found out that the smell disappears as soon as it dries.
Thank you for the comment!
I really like your site–simple, fun (and funny) and VERY helpful. Thanks a lot!
Love your posts. You have an AWESOME since of humour. This makes me wish I had the mop thingy. I just have the regular swiffer but have been using a scrap muslin hack because the smell of their evil disposable cloths was made me sick. When I read about the microfibre hack I had a ‘hits head and goes duh’ moment of epic proportions.
AWWWW….I love it when people think I’m funny….
Silly question… what does “cleave in twain” mean? I am guessing something to do with the way you open the cloth and cut it? Just bought a wet jet and using a homemade solution and washable pads sounds fantastic. Just want to make sure i am doing it right.
HA! It’s just a funny way to say “cut in half.”
Ivory — thank you, thank you, thank you for posting this! I usually avoid using those cloths because of the way they cling to every minute rough spot on my hands but this idea is too good to not use.
“Cleave in twain” “Professional smushing” — Bah hah hah! Too funny!
Thanks for the laugh as well as the idea.
I LOVE reading your site and all of the wonderful ideas… One question; when you refer to ‘vinegar’ in your cleaning recipes, do you mean white distilled?? I’m sure that if I looked a little deeper I’d find the answer, but couldn’t so far so I thought I’d ask! Thanks for the great ideas.
Ooo — forgot to tell you — I am the cleaning lady at a small insurance company and I used to use my Swiffer in their break room. The insurance company bought the pads for me for a while. I have to use the liquid floor cleaner concentrate the cleaning company I work for provides so I put a hole in the ‘bottom’ of the empty Swiffer bottle, add water, and then squirt into the hole the liquid concentrate which I had put into a spray bottle (I set the spray nozzle to “stream”). I put the water in the Swiffer bottle first, then the concentrate, so I don’t get too many bubbles. I don’t use batteries to spray either — I just tip the whole thing and let some of the cleaning fluid/water flow out onto the floor, then mop. I have to fill the bottle each time with just enough liquid to do the floor once — any more than that and the liquid would just flow out over a short period of time (a couple of hours) because the hole in the bottom isn’t sealed.
Because of the economy, the insurance company had to stop buying the Swiffer pads for me (and I can’t afford them even for at home) so I’ve been having to use “the big, yellow monster” bucket, wringer, and string mop head that was provided by the cleaning company I work for. It’s a horrid, almost unmanagable thing. Now, with your idea, I can use my Swiffer again at work as well as at home! Thanks again!
@Always in Blue Denim–GREAT! Glad to have helped. And I know what you mean about the rough spots on your hands.
@Court–I use white vinegar. I try apple cider from time to time, but it’s just so much stronger smelling.
This is pretty late, but you can buy 24 microfiber cloths at Sam’s Club for $10. I love them and use them for everything, we only use paper towels for bacon and other greasy food related tasks.
I hate to contradict you, but you should never use vinegar on tile! Vinegar is acidic; grout is alkaline. Eventually you can have grout failure unless the vinegar is rinsed off thoroughly so it doesn’t “eat at” the grout. (My husband runs a tile cleaning business, so he knows all about this). And you can’t say “Grandma always used vinegar”. My guess is that Grandma didn’t have tile – she probably had linoleum or vinyl. You really need to find something that is pH neutral to clean: Spic ‘n Span and Mr Clean are a couple of products that work.
@Carmen–I’m with Grandma. No tile.
I’ve been making my own swiffer juice for a few years. Just take a pair of pliers and twist off the cap. Fill to shoulder of bottle with water and add a tbsp. of Hoover Floormate concentrate (I use the floormate a few times a year to really scrub them). Smells good doesn’t bother my asthma and is streak free. A bottle of of the cleaner will last for years if just used for the swiffer.
Thanks for the tip on making pads – I’m going to Sam’s tomorrow and will stock up on micro fiber cloths.
Lawks-a-mercy.
Life is good.
THANK YOU.
I like the idea of the refillable swiffer and the homemade cloths but Bissel makes a wet mop and vac with a refillable tank on it. It comes with 2 washable microfiber cloths that velcro on them. I love it but I have hard wood and tile and linoleum in my house so I have to use Murphey’s Oil Soap in it (diluted of course so it lasts a long time!) I bought cotton kitchen twine in the hardware department and knitted myself some super scrubby cleaning pads then sewed velcro on them. It takes a little longer to make but they will last forever! I like the twine better than cotton yarn because it’s scrubbier, (if anyone was wondering) I use sugar n’ cream yarn for my dish cloths.
Just found you today — what a neat site. Here’s my swiffer hack. Use an old thin sock. Cut off the top (cuff) or use the “peds” or athletic type w/o the cuff. Slit the sock at the heel a couple of inches at most Now pull it on the swiffer “foot” and tuck the cut ends (at the heel ) in the grooves. The toe end doesn’t need tucking. I wear a size 8-9 which perfectly fits the swiffer. Great recycling for old socks, works great, and toss in the washing machine.
Oh I have been wishing for this very thing! I have 100% hard floors in my house and we swiffer like crazy! I have the swiffer vac and the wet-jet and I cringe at buying refills, but not as much as I cring at using an old-fashioned mop. Making my own *everything* is just the ticket! And the wet-jet is so simple that my kids fight over who gets to mop!
So – I bought a wet jet because age and natural deterioration have made it impossible for me to mop the way I did before all my parts went out of warranty.
I had guests the first time I tried it, and that awful blue juice that comes with the unit triggered two asthma attacks, one headache, and required opening windows in spite of the cold temps.
You have saved yet another victim of chemical warfare.
Dorothy
Dorothy–*blush*