Swiffer Refills - How To Make Your Own

by Taylor
(Household Management 101)

Swiffer refills can get pretty expensive, pretty fast.

They can also make you feel bad about the environment to keep throwing those cleaning cloths away after use.

The solution to these dual concerns is to make your own homemade Swiffer refills.

I just saw a great tip from Pudget Sound Prudence about making your own Swiffer Max refills.

She uses an old baby blanket as the swiffer pad. You know, the soft ones that won't scratch your floor, and cuts them into one-eights, and uses these as the pad.

I think that is brilliant, because you can then throw them in the washer when you are done, and then reuse them over and over.

Now I will caution about Prudence's post that she suggests using vinegar and water to clean her floor. I do not advise to use vinegar and water to clean your floor, because it does not work much better than plain water. (I know there are tons of people that disagree with me, so feel free to ignore this advice if you believe contrary.)

Instead, I advise using an all purpose cleaner to clean your floor. You can check out this recipe for all purpose cleaner (use the very gentle all purpose cleaner recipe at the bottom of the post for most floor cleaning, including even for cleaning hardwood floors).

You can make just a little of this all purpose cleaner, put it in a spray bottle, and then spray the blanket piece, Swiffer your floor, and then replace with a new blanket square, and spray it with clean water to rinse the floor briefly.

Voila, a clean floor for a low price, and without the use of harsh chemicals. What a great and easy way to make Swiffer refills!

***UPDATE:*** I am adding this link I found from Sew Much Ado for step by step instructions (with photos) for making a reusable Swiffer sweeper with a chenille sock and old t-shirts.

This tutorial is for how to make a reusable dusting sweeper homemade refill, unlike the post from Prudence, which was for a reusable homemade Swiffer mop refill.

Warning - this link above from Sew Much Ado is really awesome, but it does involve some sewing for making your reusable Swiffer sweeper cover, so if you aren't crafty you may want to skip this one.

So, do you have a favorite homemade cleaning recipe, or a way to make your own homemade cleaning supplies? Share your recipe or idea with us here!

You can also see ideas and recipes already submitted by others here.

Photo by nutmeg

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