So we have this Pergo floor. (In the kitchen. The rest of the house is soon to follow.) You can't do this, that and the other to it. Hubs read somewhere about not using a sweeper with a beater bar. I have to clean this stuff, so I bought an O Cedar Flip Mop to do the spray and swipe with. My mother-in-law gave me her Swiffer along with whatever little pads she had left. She bought it and didn't like it. I hate the idea of buying refills for it and decided that I was going to craft my own.
At the local discount store, I bought a 3 pack of Quickie microfiber cleaning cloths for $1.99. Since my sewing machine is in my studio somewhere behind all of the living room accessories, I took them and the top of the Swiffer Sweeper to my friend, Laurie. The cloths were big enough to be cut in half and have a bit cut off the ends. She zig-zagged around the edges.
You know what? They are perfect! They poke in just like the Swiffer pads, I can flip them over and use the opposite side then instead of flipping them in the garbage, I can throw them into the wash.
I was an easy way to make an otherwise environmentally horrible product environmentally friendly.
Hooray!
Smiles in my day:
- It's bedtime.
Have a great day!
ETA: I decided that I liked my environmentally reworked version of Swiffer so much, that the O Cedar Mop is going back. The particles stick to the altered cloths so much better than the O Cedar pushing them into a pile for me to sweep up. I'm picking up another pack of cloths for Laurie to alter, so my new mop will be $3.98 instead of $11.97. :)!
6 comments:
This makes me smile. Awesome way to use your smarticles, Girlie, and great way to save the environment, one disposable pad at a time. :o)
Um, I thought one of the best bennies of Pergo was its indestructability. You can't use some stuff on it? Really? Well, that's stinky.
You can't mop it like a traditional floor. They suggest using vinegar and water. I think that Hubs read that the beater bar on a sweeper can mar the surface, so I go ahead and use my altered Swiffer and sweep up any big hunks with our little cordless Shark. It works. It'll be even better when it is all done.
Ah, got it. :o)
Good for you! I always hate throwing those things away. I think of the "land fill". OY! One of the "green" cleaning companies makes something similar but it's uber expensive. I'll have to look for those cloths.
I have the same wood floors through my house and the same floor washing woes. I bought the Method O-Mop (on clearance at lowes for $20) and a couple extra packs of microfiber cloths for $3. Same idea as Swiffer only the handle is curved, the mop surface is about twice as large and it is easier to maneuver. The O-mop has both poke holes to use a throw-away cloth and velcro to attach a microfiber. So, if I ever decide I want to use a paper towel for messy jobs I can do that without wrecking the microfibers. So far I am in love with it.
Who would have thought that cleaning an "indestructable" floor would take so much thought?
Amen to that! It does require some change to the norm, but I found that I'm loving the smaller Swiffer head, as it fits behind the toilet and I'm not certain that anything bigger would fit. Certainly, the O Cedar Flip Mop (that was returned) wouldn't have fit. It was much larger and probably a little bit easier to push if wet, but the dirt didn't stick to it like I thought it would. The microfibers collect and retain the dirt, whereas the Flip Mop was better about pushing it into a pile and I would then do a quick sweep with the hand held Shark.
Always a good thing to know! I'm just thrilled that I don't have to lug a bucket of water anymore! It takes three seconds to spray the floor in sections and to slide the clean cloth right over top. In fact, I find that it is easier to go ahead and not do touch-up's, but to actually clean the floor daily if I wanted to.
Hooray!
Post a Comment