How to Make a Ghetto Swiffer

If you have wood floors, you probably have already found the joy of the Swiffer. I know I have. A few years ago, when I was indulging myself in the luxury of a housekeeper (before my kids were chore-ready!) I was schooled in the art of the Ghetto Swiffer.

The kind and soft-spoken woman who cleaned my floors asked me if I wanted to keep buying those expensive, disposable cloths that affix to the sweeper’s head. Well, of course I didn’t want to keep buying them, but I knew all too well that you could only use them over and over again so many times before it kind of defeated the purpose. She asked if I had any flannel receiving blankets, the kind nursing mothers usually have slung over their shoulders. I just happened to have one in the rag bucket! She stuck it into the squeezy holes on the Swiffer just like you would do with the purchased pads.

Ha! Why didn’t I think of that? Since that day I have not bought another box of Swiffer wipes. Turns out any old rag works just fine. (Sorry, Swiffer people, but when my sweeper finally breaks from over-use, I promise to buy a new one!)