Tuesday, July 1, 2008

Making your Swiffer All Natural

After my sweet hubby sent me this funny pie chart he made of my postings, I decided I needed some more "granola" in my blog.



Okay, I'm just kidding, I've had this post planned for a while. But I thought it was a funny coincidence :)

First let me say the reason why I do love all things "granola". I believe God our Heavenly Father put lots of wonderful things on this Earth that He created to help us live healthy lives and help in healing many things. I don't believe we're made for loads of chemicals and pesticides to be put in our body daily! Also, I believe this planet God made was a gift, and should be treated with thankfulness and care, just like we treat all gifts from our Heavenly Father.

Now onto Swiffer-ing. I have a love-hate relationship with my Swiffer... I love how it makes the floors squeaky clean, but I hate that chemical smell and the EXCEEDINGLY expensive floor pads and fluid. So I poked around a bit online and found some tutorials to help one out- but most of these were aimed at "sticking it to the man" and such things like that. So I thought I'd make my own to save you the sifting through :)

First ask hubby, very nicely, to cut you a hole in the TOP of your swiffer bottle. Swiffer has ingeniously sealed the cap at the bottom to where you can't get in without breaking the bottle. Hmph. This should be about the same size as the neck of a water bottle. Rinse out the remaining fluid and dry the bottle on the outside.



Now cut the "neck" off of a water bottle. No need to ask hubby, this can be done with a plain old pair of scissors :) Unscrew the top of the bottle off the neck and get your hot glue gun warmed up. If you want a water tight seal, you'll need some fancy glue. If you want one that just makes sure no evaporation is happening and you can easily access the inside, hot glue works just fine! (If you put the bottle into the Swiffer it holds it with the access you made UP) Now glue the neck to the hole in the bottle.



I filled mine with half Vinegar, half water, and a few drops of Lemon essential oil. When I run out of pads for the bottom, I plan on using some Microfiber towels we have. Just toss them in the wash when done! :)

8 comments:

mrsidotf said...

What a great idea! It would be much safer for kids on the floor too.

Mackenzie said...

Oh I'm *so* doing this!! I've already run out of cleaner and pads, so I've just been using hot water on a "bar towel"...you can get big packs of these white towels at WalMart...they work wonderfully and you can bleach them if you need to.

Lauren said...

I love it! It's been driving me crazy that swiffer has "preveneted" refilling the bottles. Haha! Now we can beat them at their own game. God Bess!

Jodi said...

Ooh, I'm going to try this! I was just whining about how expensive the Swiffer bottles are. I already use microfiber cloths instead of the pads. They work great!

Anonymous said...

Just a note on the Swiffer pads: You can actually knit these pads. They last forever and clean great! Just toss in the washer and dryer.

Tiffany said...

What a great idea! Thanks for the idea.

Tiffany

April said...

Lauren, you are BRILLIANT.

Sweetproserpina said...

Hehee, your hubby's pie chart made me laugh out loud, Lauren! As one who has been accused of being granola before, I can relate wholeheartedly :) Great job on the swiffer fix - I just use a microfiber mop 'round here with water, vinegar, smidge of soap, and peppermint EO. Everything always smells great!

 

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