I have used a Swiffer Mop for years and I love it for quick cleaning! Here’s an easy way to refill a Swiffer mop with homemade cleaner and save money!
How To Refill A Swiffer Mop With Homemade Cleaner
Patty from Michigan asks:
In your book Dining on a Dime, in the cleaning section, it has a recipe for making the floor cleaner for the swiffer. My question is how do I get it into the bottle? The top doesn’t come off, so, the only thing I can figure out is to put a hole in the bottom, which when turned upside down to use, would be at the top. Also, I don’t know if this bottle needs to be air tight. Anyone know?
Jill: When I refilled my bottle the first time, it was very hard to open and I had to really force it. I have since learned to just dip the lid part into boiling water for about 10 seconds and it should come right off. Use a rag to unscrew it.I don’t know all the ins and outs on those bottles but if you can’t get the lid off then your idea of a hole on the top sounds like it might work. If it needs to be air tight then you maybe could place a piece of tape over the hole. Hope that helps.
From A Reader: We had some large syringes left from our late cat’s final illness when he wouldn’t eat. The tip was large enough to deliver liquefied food into the side of his mouth, and the syringe itself holds 60 mL/2 oz. liquefied food. So, I got to thinking.
I added some Pine Sol to water in a measuring cup, loaded the syringe, and carefully squeezed it through the hole into the reservoir bottle that gets punched when you first load it into the Swiffer mop. The mix went in without a hitch, and I was able to fill the bottle at a cost of about 10 cents. With a replacement bottle costing $4.60 or so, that’s quite a savings.
Thanks so much for this tip. I have been wondering how to refill the Swiffer bottle for a very long time.
you might like this link for the swiffer hack
http://www.instructables.com/id/Swiffer-bottle-hack/
worked good for me.
You can use a pair of pliers to help twist the cap off of the Swiffer floor cleaner bottle. It has little grippy teeth on the inside of the cap to keep you from opening it (probably because they don’t want us thirfty people refilling their bottle, lol). But I have been successful using pliers to get the cap off without breaking it. Then you can refill it and twist it back on.
I drilled a small hole with one of my husband’s “paddle shaped” drill bits in the end of the bottle that faces the ceiling when the bottle is installed. Then I filled the bottle up and corked it off with a cork. Actually, I didn’t have a cork that fit well so I used an empty unused rubber suppository mold I obtained from a local pharmacy that does custom compounding. It is a light pink colored mold. They just snipped me off a couple from the strip and charged me a dollar or something. Here is a picture of a mold. Hope this helps. http://pharmlabs.unc.edu/labs/suppository/molds.htm
I was just at Walmart the other day and found a Swiffer knock-off that has a refillable bottle. I think that will be my next one!
For the Swiffer towels/mop pads I have been using my old prefold baby diapers. The fit perfectly, absorb so much, and can be reversed to the other side before needing to be washed. I have given all of my nicer diapers away to be reused on babies, but I had a dozen that were for the rag bag. I’m so glad I saved them! I bought the simple Swiffer and just use a squirt bottle filled with my cleaner of choice.
I don’t use that kind of Swifter. I still use the ones where you are supposed to replace pads. I merely take a couple layers of cloth or toweling and put the cloth on the mop just like the pads would go. I then wet the mop with a combo of Pine sol and water. Works fine for me and all I have to do is wash the rags.
Libman has a Swiffer-like mop with a refillable bottle. The cleaning pad attaches via a very stury velcro and can be washed.
Marilyn, I do the same thing and it works out perfect for me.
THANKS !!!!
We did our own refill a couple of times. The second time that Swiffer refill leaked like crazy streaking the laminate floors. Seeing as how I’d sold the house and was just doing a final clean up – oh well.