How to Green Your Swiffer ~ Refill and Reusable pads

Mondays are for housework at my house. I find it’s a great way to get the week started fresh – and after the weekend, our home always needs a bit of a sprucing up.
This house has laminate floors (I know, I like hardwood better too, but this is what we have.) For convenience, I like to use a Swiffer wet-jet to mop, but I don’t really like the stuff that comes in the refill bottles.
It seems to leave a film on my floor.
It smells too strong.
And oh mylanta! it’s expensive.

I wanted to refill the bottle with my own solution, but those evil corporate geniuses that created it did not intend for the bottle to be refillable.
However, I’m not one to take no for an answer so I found a way to do it anyway.
First boil about a cup of water. Use the stove top or microwave. Pour water into a coffee cup. Carefully (don’t burn yourself) soak the cap end of your swiffer wet jet bottle in the hot water for a minute or two.
green your swiffer
Remove the bottle from the water and dry it off. Use a wrench or pliers and a tiny bit of elbow grease to remove the cap.
green your swiffer
Rinse it out and refill with your own solution. I added 1/4 cup of white vinegar and few drops of lavender essential oil to my empty bottle, then filled it to the top with warm water. Twist cap back on. You will see that it goes on tight and will not leak.
green your swiffer
Hmm… now to find something to keep me from having to waste my money on those disposable pads.
How about an old washcloth? Yes!
I used binder clips to attach one to my swiffer head, being careful not to cover the nozzle that the cleaner sprays from.
green your swiffer
How does it work? Better than ever!
My floors feel so much cleaner – no sticky filmy residue.
There is no cloying perfumy smell. In fact, once they have dried there’s no scent at all other than a faint hint of lavender.
I have nothing to throw away when I am done mopping, so there is no waste.
Best of all, my refill costs only a few cents.

Mondays are looking even better around here.

12 Comments

  1. sounds like such a great idea!

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  2. Thanks for the tips on how to reuse the bottle! A friend of mine made some lovely knitted (or possibly crocheted?) covers that I use and they work great. Just do a search for Swiffer Socks and you’ll find some great patterns.

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  3. What a great idea! I love your blog!!

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  4. This is brilliant!!! I can’t believe I’ve been buying refills all these years. Love it!!

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  5. Thank you so much for this! We just moved to a house with laminate floors (oh, how I miss my hardwood!) and I’m having a hard time keeping them clean. I contemplated getting the swiffer, but didn’t want to use their cleaning solution… you posted this at the perfect time. Looks like I’ll need to go get one! I already have the lavender oil and vinegar ready to go!

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  6. That is genuis with the binder clips. I just stuck a rag to the bottom but it wasn’t cutting it.

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  7. I just opened the box mine came in and the smell overwhelmed me, so I googled how to use my own cleaning solution and ended up here. I don’t think I can use this stuff.

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  8. I tried this…works like a charm! I’ve made a vinegar and water cleaning solution before but without the essential oil. Cleaning day smells like Easter egg dying day with the grandbabies, a good memory, but not for long. So don’t postpone this project if you don’t happen to have the oils.

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  9. The cap has theses strange pointy things on the inside to prevent you from trying to refill. Do they have to be removed to make it easy to do a refill or do you just have to heat it up each time?

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  10. Hey Delores, I read somewhere that you do have to heat it up each time. I’m assuming the heat makes those pointy things soften but once they cool they harden back up. I actually tried this the other day and had no luck but wondering if they redesigned the bottle since the original posting of this which was back in 2011…

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    • I think someone used toe nail clippers to cut off the prongs and another person used an empty bottle and drilled a small funnel sized hole and put a plug into the bottle from the top so you then just remove the cork and a funnel to refill. They also mentioned that be sure and after drilling you get out the plastics shavings from drilling it before filling.

      Reply

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