Swiffer Shirt Instead of Swiffer Refills

I can count on my fingers the number of times I’ve used a mop in my lifetime.  Well not really, I need my toes too. Before you think we live in a disgusting home let me quickly say that I actually hand mop my floors (not that I’m disputing the disgusting part, but one must defend her honor right?)  A regular mop just doesn’t work as well for me.  I use a pampered chef scraper tool thingie and old socks for a typical floor mopping and am very pleased with the results.  I can really get down into the grooves and grout of the floor.

This morning I was having a friend over for lunch and had inevitably put off all preparations for this visit until the last moment.  I simply didn’t have time for a hand mopping but the floor had to be mopped or I wasn’t letting her in the kitchen (sort of difficult since that’s where the table is).  So I pulled out the swiffer from the broom closet where the previous homeowners had left it. A hunt for the swiffer refills that I recalled finding under the sink resulted in the discovery that they were swiffer duster refills.  What was I to do?

Then I remembered my husband mopping one Saturday afternoon.  He had used an old t-shirt that was in the rag can to mop the floors with the swiffer (yes he also used the nearly half a bottle of swiffer cleaner that was also left behind, but I’m focusing on the fact that he mopped-without throw away swiffer pads).  The t-shirt was clipped to the swiffer using binder clips.  I gave it a go and it worked surprisingly well.  Was my floor as clean as when hand mopped? Nope, but it certainly was much cleaner than it would have been had I not mopped.  It was good enough to have an informal lunch with a friend.  The t-shirt seemed to slip off a little bit on the sides, but my friend said that when she used a swiffer the pads never stayed on well either. 

While I’m on a roll talking about swiffers- the reason they work is because you use the spray trigger thing to saturate the grime on the floor.  Remember, I have a no scrubbing preference.  To mop a floor (or clean counters) really all you need is moisture-no chemicals necessary to remove the visible grime.  If you have stuck on food that will inevitably be beneath your 1 or 3 yr old’s chair, soak with some water and a pampered chef like scraper will do the trick. Don’t waste your money on gimicks with chemicals and throw away pads.  The chemical H20 works just fine, plus t-shirts are washable.

Update: I had a reader on FB that was concerned I only used water and didn’t disinfect.  I did mix fabuloso in my kitchen sink to mop the floor (but at 11 last night failed to put that in my post). I let water penetrate the areas that weren’t coming clean with a simple wipe with the swiffer, and then scraped them right off with the Pampered Chef scraper before swiffering again.  I don’t see any sense in using chemical sprays repeatedly to remove something that water will remove just fine if I give it the time to work it’s magic.