I love my Swiffer.  I use it so often my mop and broom are feeling neglected.  It’s great for light, day to day floor cleaning. And now that I’m pregnant again, I appreciate my Swiffer even more than I did five months ago, since I’ve found it’s easier on my back.

But do you know what I really dislike about the Swiffer? The price of those sweeping cloths. Even with coupons or buying the generic brand, the prices are outrageous, at least for our family’s budget. (Or maybe I just use my Swiffer a lot, so we burn through those cloths faster than the average household?)

So when we ran out of the refill cloths recently, instead of buying more, I decided to look for a less expensive alternative. And I was able to come up with some money saving ideas that really work- for pennies on the dollar!

Dry Cloth alternatives-

1.  Instead of buying the refill dry cloths, I just hooked a high quality paper towel into the Swiffer. (I was able to score some Bounty paper towels on the cheap a couple of week ago, and those work great!) Then, to help the towel pick up dirt rather than just scoot it around, I (very) lightly sprayed it with some dusting spray. Endust worked like a charm. Not only did the paper towel/spray combination pick up dirt, it also left my floor with a nice shine.

2.  My sister-in-law gave me a great microfiber cleaning cloth several months ago.  In addition to the easy dusting job it accomplishes, I’ve found it also works great as a Swiffer dry cloth.  I just hooked the cloth in to Swiffer and it picked up every bit of dust and dirt it could find.  The best part:  The cloth is completely reusable!

Wet Cloth Alternative-

1.  Instead of shelling out the bucks for the wet cloth refills, I found that you can just dampen a wash cloth or old dish towel and snap it into the Swiffer. It works just as well as the refill cloths. If you want to add the shine to your floors that I mentioned above, spritz a little dusting spray on as well.

Have you found another inexpensive way to use your Swiffer? Please share!

Photo by Dave Austria.

Dana is married to her high school sweetheart Ryan and is a stay-at-home-mom to a baby becoming a little girl. She blogs daily on Frugal In Virginia where she helps families live on less.