It’s so easy to make your own swiffer wet pads with 3 simple ingredients. Say no nasty chemicals found in the store bought version!

To make your own Swiffer wet pads you’ll need the following: 

  • 4 C distilled water
  • 2 C white vinegar
  • 10-14 drops of your favorite essential oil
  • (12) 11”x11” clean rags
  • an empty Swiffer pad container, or a 2 gallon Ziplock bag


Directions for making your own Swiffer wet pads:

Pour the distilled water and vinegar into the empty container or Ziplock bag. Add your essential oil. I chose to use lemon today because of its degreasing properties. You can see how far up this solution fills my container, below:

Next, place your clean rags in, one at a time into the container. They should soak up most of the solution between all of them. I’ve found the 11”x11” cleaning rags are the perfect size, and because their edges are already sewn, they’ll last through lots of cycles in the washer. Here’s what it looks like when all 12 rags are in:

Store with the lid on, or if using the ziplock bag, with the top zipped.

To use, attach a rag to your Swiffer mop, just like you would the other wet pads. Make sure the rag is pulled taught. And by all means, feel free to flip the rag over and use the other side.

Here’s what my rag looks like after just a few minutes of mopping, and I just mopped my floors last week!

This is just from regular living traffic. Moral of the story? It does the job. To clean, just throw the rag in with your other cleaning rags and wash in the washer.

How does our solution cost compare to what you would pay for a container of wet pads in the store?

Distilled Water: $0.22
Vinegar: $0.22
Essential Oils: $0.81 (I used 12 drops of Lemon essential oil)

I already owned the rags, container, and mop so my total cost is $1.25 per batch. A container of 12 Swiffer wet pads at my nearest Walmart costs $4.47.

That’s a 72% savings!!!!!

I’d be willing to save 72% any day, especially when you consider that our version comes sticky-chemical & residue free.

via happymoneysaver