An Earthy Idea

Those of you that know me know I recycle, I reuse, and I even have tried to reduce. Those of you that have been I my house know I am a slob. No I am not being modest I am a pack rat. Although I don’t have a maze of newspapers or mountains of rubbish, I am a terrible house keeper and hate to throw things away. I have gotten better in recent years but if you have been in my house you know about my piles of papers on my desk, dresser, cedar chest, and shelves in my office. I do like to have a clean kitchen although I don’t clean tops of cabinets, refrigerators, ceiling fans or anything else above my head until I have PMS and the world is so disgusting.
I do clean the counters, stove, sink and floors often. Anyone who has feet knows that the floor is a never ending battle. I could mop every day and it would still not be clean. When we lived in Kansas, I made mopping something I did every night before bed. I fell in love with the Swiffer wet and Swiffer wet jet although I always bothered me that I had to throw away so much. You already know how I feel about filling up our land fills with plastic (and diapers) and throwing out things in general. On top of that I usually had to use two Swiffer pads to get the whole floor clean. I experimented with rags and dish towels that could be washed and reused. I saw those commercials for those steam mops that have reusable microfiber pads. Microfiber was too expensive. I tried fleece. Then I tried a piece of felt from the craft box. The felt worked as well as the Swiffer and it didn’t fray even when run through the washer like terry cloth or fleece. Plus it comes in “squares” that are almost the same size.
So a few weeks ago I went to the craft store and bought felt “squares” 5 for a $1. I trimmed the ends so they would fit perfectly on my Swiffer mop and stacked them in the empty box then poured a mix of my favorite floor cleaner(Murphy’s oil soap and water) over them. Now I can use as many pads as I need then toss them in the laundry. (I chose grey and brown so they could be washed with jeans or sweats.) I can even mop every day if I want. In the spring I could mops many times a day with all the dirty feet in and out of the yard and garage.
I was thinking if you really wanted earth friendly you could look for unbleached, no dye added or locally grown etc. You could also choose any cleaner you wanted. Vinegar and water is popular, Simple green or some other store bought product or some other homemade mix would work well. If you were a knitter and wanted to spend money on natural wool, you could knit and felt “squares” with bumps to scrub a bit better. The possibilities are endless.
BTW I have given up the Wet Jet I just use a spray bottle, with my cleaner in it, to spray the floor- my finger doesn’t need batteries.