How To Make Reusable Swiffer Pads

Are you looking at how to make your own DIY Swiffer pads for your Swiffer sweeper mops, Flash mop or Swiffer Wet Jet mop? Here is how to make reusable Swiffer mop pads. Stop needing to buy so many disposable mop wipes, save money and become more zero waste with reusable swiffer pads instead.

*this post has been updated, it was first posted in April 2020

How To Make Reusable Swiffer Pads

 

A few years ago I owned a Swiffer sweeper mop. It was brilliant product for turbo cleaning my laminate floors, dusting walls or picking up pet hair.The wet dry pads would dust or mop without needing a bucket, water or soap. They are great for a quick window cleaning aid. I was sad when it disintegrated and broke apart, because at the time they had stopped selling the Swiffer wet mop over here in the UK. So you can imagine my delight when I found a very similar mop in the form of the Flash Speed Mop.

However, I was less than happy at the prospect of throwing away all the disposable mop covers. Disposable swiffer pads can cost a lot of money and contain a lot of plastic. A pretty high price to pay on both count. So I decided I really needed to make myself some reusable pads that are machine washable in my domestic washing machine to ensure more green cleaning and save money.

I am always looking for new ways to upcycle my old cloth. And one of the most useful cloths in my waste pile is old towelling. Every so often I have a clearout of my bathroom cabinet. There is always one towel that looks a bit threadbare and grey, and it goes in a (large) pile in the corner of my sewing room to be reused. And making a reusable mop cover is a perfect way of reusing this old towel. You could also use microfiber or terry cloth if you prefer to buy new cloth to make these.

You Will Need

To make your reusable Swiffer mop cover / cleaning pad you will need

• An old towel, dish towels or microfibre fabric if you wish to make reusable microfiber mop pads
• Some old cotton fabric – I used one of my fabric remnants
• Cotton thread
• Sew on hook and loop strip or Velcro
• Pins, Scissors and a sewing machine
• A large piece of paper to make your template pattern

 

 

Firstly, make your reusable mop pads pattern.

 

Draw Around your Swiffer mop head in the centre of your paper.

I drew a 1cm seam allowance around this box.

 

I placed the mop head on the 1cm seam allowance line at both top and bottom and drew a line along the other side of the mop head.

Then I estimated where the flaps of the mop cover needed to start around the central pole. I joined these dots to the outer lines.

Finally I added 1cm seam allowance to the end of each tab

This means that you end up with a “H” shaped template, which is the pattern for your mop head cover.

 

How To Make Reusable Swiffer Pads

 

Cut the “H” shape out of both your old towel and your cotton fabric. Pin the fabrics right side together, and mark on one of the sides about an 7-8 cm section, which will be left open.

Sew a 1cm seam all the way around the pad, backtracking well at the start and end.

Clip the corners and trim the seam allowance down – except where the gap is.

Turn the pad the right way out, and push out the corners well with a pencil. Give it a good press.

 

 

Going back to the sewing machine, sew around the pad around the edge. This closes the gap left during turning, and gives the pad more stability. I also like to sew around the rectangle in the centre of the pad, which helps keep the layers in place.

 

Finally, add some sew on hook and loop or velcro to the tabs.

 

 

And you have a finished swiffer mop cover!

 

 

Using The Reusable Swiffer Cloths / Mop Covers

 

I like to use my mops with a spray bottle of water, white vinegar and a citrus essential oil. See my tutorial on how to make a natural floor cleaner. This keeps my laminate and vinyl flooring looking clean and dust free!

Once the mop cover is dirty, just throw the item in the wash with your regular wash and tumble or air dry.

Finally, once the mop cover has become too worn or dirty to use, cut up and compost everything but the velcro strips!

 

 

Need Swiffer Pads Compatible With The Gripping Corners?

Then here’s an even quicker version of how to make a reusable swiffer wet pads. Just cut out a piece of towelling about twice the size of the mop head, and overlock the edges of this towelling. (You do need to overlock, or the edges just shed bits everywhere!)

These make excellent all purpose cleaning cloths, but they do grip into the plastic grippers of the swiffer or flash power mop.

 

 

Love these Zero Waste Kitchen Swaps?

See my post here for more ideas. And here are my tutorials for Unsponges and Unpaper Towels.

Do you think that you will be making these? I’d love to hear your comments. Tell me what you think below, or find me on social media.

And please do pin this post for later.