This post is sponsored by Swiffer. As always, all opinions are 100% my own.
As with most household chores, the easier the cleaning routine, the more likely I am to get it done. I am always trying different ideas to find the quickest, easiest, and most efficient ways to get our cleaning completed so I can move onto other {more fun!} things.
While I do use simple green cleaning products for the majority of our cleaning, there are a few tools that I really find helpful for day to day maintenance – my Swiffer Sweeper and Sweep and Vac are two of them. These are so light weight and are easy to pull out of the closet for those high traffic areas and little daily messes. Every day I spend about 10 minutes targeting the areas that need a little extra cleaning and I find that it really cuts down on the deep cleaning that I need to do later on and keeps the dirt from spreading to other areas of the house.
One of the things that I am really conscious about is using the Swiffer dry pads to their full potential to cut down on waste and to save a little money. These really are more than “one time use” cloths and can be reused multiple times until you notice that they are no longer effective. So…. I have put together some cleaning tips for you to get the most out of your pads as well as some of my favorite ways to use the cloths in my day to day cleaning routine.
1) Re-Use Your Pads.
Your Swiffer dry pads can likely be used for a lot longer than you think. Just because they look really dirty, doesn’t mean that they are ready to be thrown out. Due to the electrostatic charges in the pads and the increased surface area from the grooves, they really lock and hold on to all of that dirt so you don’t have to worry about spreading the mess around. So keep using those pads until you notice that they are not as effective! Once the pad starts getting full, you can pull off some of the loose dust bunnies that tend to accumulate or use a pet comb to brush off some of the debris to prolong the life of the pad even longer. I have even heard of some people washing the pads {in a mesh bag} to get even more life out of them but I haven’t actually tried that one myself.
2) Flip it.
If you look at the Swiffer pads, there is a “right” side that you are supposed to use that has all of the grooves in it. While the grooves allow for more debris to be picked up, the “wrong” side of the pad still has its uses. Once I am done using the pad to clean the floor, I use the reverse side to clean along the top of baseboards, along the spindles and banister on our stairs, or other little areas that need a dusting. I usually roll up the dirty section in the inside,and then have the rest of the cloth still to use. You will be amazed at how much dusting you can get done with it!
3) Use the Sweep and Vac for bigger jobs.
Most of the time, I use my Sweep and Vac over the Sweeper as it has both the benefits of using a vacuum as well as all of the fine dirt and debris catching benefits of using the Swiffer Sweeper. Since the vacuum is catching the bigger particles, it really ends up prolonging the use of the use of the dry pad and reserving it for those fine particles that are hard to get up with regular vacuuming. It’s kind of the best of both worlds in half the time. There’s no vacuum bag, so you just need to dump out the debris collected into the garbage. I usually do this every 2-3 uses depending on how much dirt I collect.
Optimize Your Use of the Swiffer Sweeper.
There are a few cleaning tasks that I prefer to use the Swiffer Sweeper rather than the vac. The first is for getting underneath furniture such as sofas, the television, shelving units, etc. There really isn’t much else that fits under these objects as nicely as the sweeper – the handle extends completely flat on the floor and you will have full reach underneath the furniture. The second place that I always use it is on our stairs. I always start at the top of the stairs and work my way down so any particles that manage to escape fall down on an area that I am going to be cleaning anyways. Our stairs tend to accumulate a lot of light dust {and it is especially noticeable since the sun shines directly through the windows on them!} and it is SO much easier using the Swiffer on them than trying to lug out a vacuum.
Be careful of generic imitations.
It is always tempting to go for the more inexpensive product, but in the case of the dry pads, I really do believe that you get what you pay for. The Swiffer pads are thicker, have more and deeper ridges and folds {increasing the surface area to pick up more dirt and debris}, and hold up to multiple use better than the generic versions. So, while you may pay less initially for the generic pads, you will likely need to use more of them to get the same amount of work done which really leads to no cost savings and more waste.
As you can see with the example above, the Swiffer pads are thicker and actually have deeper grooves to be able to pick up and lock in those little particles that often just get pushed around. I have also tried using microfiber cloths with my Swiffers when I have run out of the pads, and still find that the dry pads do a better job of locking in the dirt. With the life prolonging techniques that I use above, I will generally only go through 1 dry pad per week so it is worth it for me to purchase the pads.
So there you go! 10 minutes per day keeps all of our wood and tile floors clean with minimal effort. If you can get in the habit of doing it daily {even if you are rotating around where you are cleaning to target all areas}, it should really help to cut down your overall cleaning time and keep things looking relatively clean every day. Oh, and it’s also an easy job to get the kids to do!
Happy Cleaning!
For more cleaning tips, check out these posts…
How to Clean Your Washing Machine
How to Clean Your Washing Machine
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