Refill Your Swiffer Wet Jet at Home: Reuse to Save Money and Reduce Waste

Two of my favorite cleaning products for cleaning wood floors are the Swiffer Sweeper and the Swiffer Wet Jet. The ingenious cleaners from Proctor & Gamble have made cleaning wood or tile floors a breeze. Plus, they're fun to use, lightweight, they require little maintenance, and they're great cleaning tools for kids. The Swiffer Wet Jet eliminates the need for traditional mops, which are germ magnets, and buckets, which take up space. The Swiffer Sweeper is a great space saver as well, requiring no more than an outlet to keep it charged. Both can be easily tucked away in a closet.

While the Swiffer Sweeper and Swiffer Wet Jet make cleaning a breeze, refills are costly and far from environmentally friendly. Fortunately, my crafty and frugal husband found a way to eliminate the need to spend money on refills and reduce our waste. If you love your Swiffer and Swiffer Wet Jet but are looking for ways to save money on refills, read on.

Refill at Home to Save Tons of Money and Reduce Waste

The Swiffer Wet Jet is about $23. Mop pad refills are $7 for a pack of 12. The cleaning solution refills are $6 and may last up to eight rooms. Assuming you chuck the mop pad after each use and purchase two packs per month, as well as the refill solution twice a month, the annual costs are $312. Instead, save money by modifying your Wet Jet. Instead of using mop pad refills, use washable fabric for your mop pads, such as cut up old t-shirts or wash cloths, which can be tossed into the wash after each use. For the cleaning solution, forget the refills. Save money by reusing the Wet Jet cartridge. Fill it with your own cleaning solution and insert by turning your Wet Jet upside down.

Reuse Cloths to Save Tons of Money and Reduce Waste

The Swiffer Sweeper is about $20. Not a bad investment for a convenient cleaning tool that should last at least a couple of years. On the other hand, the Sweeper refills are $6 for a pack of 16 cloth refills. If you follow the instructions and chuck the cloths after every few cleanings, you could be looking at buying a pack of refills every month or two, which means spending $36 to $72 per year. While not a hefty investment, add to that the unnecessary waste involved in using these refills. Forget buying more refill cloth pads. Save money by washing and reusing the cloth refills. The cloths are extremely durable and will last through dozens of washings.

We've been washing and reusing the cloth refills for about a year. We use them on our Swiffer Sweeper and Wet Jet. We also use our own cleaning solution to fill out Wet Jet. These efforts have resulted in savings of about $200 the past year.