I knew when I bought the Swiffer Wet Jet that I would never buy the refills. Not only are they expensive, that just means one more item to toss in the recycling bin. Lately, there have been horror stories of how hard it is for municipalities to keep up with plastic recyclables, so I'm not willing to add to that burden. Luckily, I had a plan and the right parts and tools to carry it out. It started with an empty container and the cork top from a bottle of Bourbon (Russell's, TBG's favorite).
I traced the size of the cork and then got out my Dremel and sawed the hole out. That took about five minutes -- including my trip down to the basement to get the tool, the drill process, and putting the thing back.
The cork fit in perfectly. I wasn't too concerned about how water tight it would be since it will always be stored upright.
I filled the container with a little bit of Murphy's Oil Soap, a few drops of cinnamon essential oil and water. Here it is on the mop. Rather than using the Swiffer disposable or re-usable pads, I'm making do with the microfiber scrub mop heads from an old steam cleaner. The fact that the pads are larger than the mop head means I can get under some things like the oven or the refrigerator.
A bottle of cleaner refill is about seven bucks. A box of re-usable pads are around ten. A 64 count package of disposable pads are around twenty. My solution... less than pennies -- nearly free!
It didn't take much to hack this together. I tried to price out refillable containers (I know they exist), but couldn't find them on Amazon. Regardless, they are certainly more expensive than my DIY version.
Has anybody else done this?
I usual refil mine with spic span.
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I use the Murphy's Oil because I'm cleaning wood. I also like adding the essential oil because it smells nice. But SS is a good cleaner for sure!
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