Welcome to Clover's Garden Tuesday Tip series! Every Tuesday, I'll share with you money saving tip or DIY project that might help make your life easier.
I recently moved into a house with a lot of hardwood floor space. I would say about half of my house is hardwood, a quarter of it linoleum and the rest carpet. Gone are the days of a quick vacuum to clean the floors! I love it though, the floors are the original hardwood floors from when the house was built in the 1930's. And they are in amazing condition! They look brand spanking new.
As a small house warming gift, my best friend and neighbor (yay!) bought be a Swiffer wet/dry mop. It came with some samples, and I was pretty happy with the dry mop aspect. I do think it does a great job of collecting the majority of the dust and pet hair that accumulates on a daily basis. But then I went to buy the replacements....
Umm. $11 bucks for a glorified piece of gauze? Wow! And that was just for the dry pads! I use that thing nearly daily. I wasn't even that impressed with the wet pads...they smell great and everything, but they don't stay wet very long. And those were $14 bucks. So in total, I would have spent $25 bucks for my Swiffer replacements. There was no way I was going to spend $25 a month just on keeping up my floors. I figured I'd probably just put the Swiffer in my garage and use a broom and regular mop.
But, then I remembered that I have a stack of prefolds at home that don't get used anymore. I cloth diapered my daughter right from the beginning, and I used prefolds in the early stages. And, guess what. They fit easily on a Swiffer mop! Check it out:
If you ask me, they hold a lot more than the Swiffer replacements hold. And they get things a lot cleaner in one swipe. I use them both wet and dry and love them! There's plenty of fabric, so you can actually just reposition the cloth and get a lot of use out of one prefold. Since prefolds are made to be washed hundreds and hundreds of times, you'll have these for years to come. The one in this pic has probably been washed at least 50 times, and it still looks brand spanking new. As long as you stay away from bleach, a cotton prefold will last you years. The best part? They are considerably cheaper than the Swiffer refills that you toss!
I bought mine from a cloth diaper retailer, Diaper Junction.
Shop Diaper Junction to save $5 off your first $50 order - Use coupon AFL550 - Some restrictions apply.
They cost me $2.29 a piece for size small. That's what you see in the picture. I have about 36 and that's way more than enough for both dry mopping and wet mopping my house for a month. I would say you only need maybe 6-12. If you have prefolds from a baby shower that you never used, here's your chance! Get them out and put them to work cleaning your house. If you did use prefolds on your babies, well you're one step ahead of the game.
As far as cleaning and storing, I would suggest just getting a cheap plastic pail or bucket and tossing them in when you're done. You will probably only need to wash them once a month, so I don't think it's going to impact your water/energy bills all that much and it certainly isn't much more effort than washing your other cleaning rags. Just toss them all in together, wash on cold.
So there's my Tuesday Tip that will save you money, and even save the environment! Not to mention, you'll have the freedom to use what ever cleaner on your mop you want to use, instead of whatever they put on it.
Do you have a tip for saving time or money in the home? If you'd like to be featured on Clover's Garden Tuesday Tip, just send an email {cloversgarden (at) yahoo (dot) com} with your tip, photo's if you have them, and links to your own blog and Facebook page or store!
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