Okay, so I got one of those nifty little swiffer mops that spays stuff infront of it. And it is cool, it’s so much easier than dragging out a whole mop and bucket for my little kitchen and bathroom.
The problem is I am a bit on the cheap side when it comes to stuff, and I don’t really want to spend the money on the Swiffer brand cleaning solution[sup]TM[/sup]. I figure I can cut the top off the little bottle and poor my own solution in and use that. from here on out. But I’m not sure what is in the solution. My normal bucket and mop solution is just water and pine sol, dumped on and sucked up. But the Swiffer method doesn’t use all that much water, since the mopping-up abilty is limited, and my floor would end up covered in water. Which I would just have to mop up the old way anyway.
Does anybody know how to cheaply make something that works as well and dries as quickly as the official Swiffer stuff?
I’ve thought of doing the same thing myself, using something like an ammonia and water or Simple Green and water solution.
You’re not going to be able to cut the top off of the bottle though, because the bottle has to be locked into place upside-down for the nozzle to allow the fluid into the pump. If you cut the bottom off of the bottle, your cleaning solution would slosh all over hell’s half-acre while you were moping.
The only ways I can think of for “cheating” in this way would be using something like a 60cc syringe and needle to inject your new solution into the bottom of empty bottle that is already inverted and locked into the mop. Or maybe cut a hole in the bottom just big enough for the end of a funnel to fit through, funnel in the solution, and then seal up the hole with some sort of cork or plug.
shrug
Sorry, when I said top I really meant the bottom which becomes the top when it is flipped over an locked into place. I figure I can just use it as a funnel supply and poor in a bit at a time, then cover with a baggie and rubber band, But I don’t know how to make a cheap damp-mopping solution.
What cleaner you want depends on what floor material you’re cleaning. I use a concentrate form of Bona Kemi hardwood cleaner for our hardwood floors, and plain water for our tile floors (which works since we usually wipe up spills as we go). This cleaning website was suggested at another message board I visit, it describes many cleaning solutions you can make yourself cheaply & easily, depending on what you’re cleaning.
I probably don’t have to warn you about mixing ammonia & bleach or vinegar & bleach. That said, if you use ammonia or vinegar as part of a cleaning solution for your swiffer bottle, and then want to clean something else with bleach, don’t reuse your swiffer bottle.
BTW, when you run out of swiffer cloths, walmart sells a cheaper brand that works just as well as the swiffer brand. Even cheaper (and less disposable) is to buy the “miracle-cloths” and then wash them with your laundry after each use. I got mine in the auto-care dept of walmart.
I use a regular Swiffer (not the Swiffer Wet Jet), and I just use it in the bathroom and the kitchen, the only rooms with bare (vinyl) floors. They’re both small rooms, so I figured the Swiffer Wet thingy wouldn’t be worth it.
I spray the floors with a Windex Multi-purpose type of cleaner, and mop it up with the Swiffer sweeper. Works like a charm.
I like the Swiffer duster, too. I just bought the one with the long extendable handle. I wish they’d sell just the refills for it rather than making you buy the damn handle thing each time.
I haven’t use the swiffer spray, but a volatile solvent like rubbing alcohol might make a good diluent. In the past I’ve poored some on a mop (one of those sponge types) and mopped up the floor pretty well with it. The floor was dry almost instantly and it cleaned pretty well.
PC
eep! (Although I guess you’d save on vet bills if you have any female dogs…)
If you examine an empty WetJet bottle when you take it out of the mop, you’ll find that what you’d consider to be the bottle’s “top” (which is upside down and in the machine when in use) is not the delivery mechanism at all. Instead, the mop punctures the bottle with two rectangular holes that pierce upwards (toward the “top”) on the side of the bottle under the lip that’s right below the bottle’s top. Here’s my “artistic” interpretation.
In order to refill the bottle, therefore, you would have to find a way to inject fluid via those holes first upward, to get into the bottle, then downward to fill the bottle below the holes. Either that, or as suggested, inject via the bottom of the bottle while it’s in place in the mop itself.
You’d also have to find a cleaner which is effective when highly concentrated with very little water or when a small amount is extremely diluted in a lot of water. Finding the proper cleaner:water ratio that doesn’t leave you with soaking pads or uncleaned dirt seems even more difficult a concept than refilling the bottles. Unless, of course, in your frugality, you’ve fashioned replacements for the Swiffer disposable pads with something like bar towels or very old, very absorbent terry cloth which could effectively absorb a much higher quantity of liquid while retaining cleaning ability. 
I expect you could drill a hole in the bottle and cover it with a patch of duct tape.
My husband was able to finesse the top off of the bottle with a pair of pliers. I then filled it with my preferred cleaner. One thing to keep in mind is that the spray nozzles can get stopped up with certain types of cleaners (found this out the hard way).
