Make Your Own: House Cleaning Wipes

My biggest, non-green, eco-disaster, bad habit? Twice a year, I buy a pack of these. One is divvied up for back-to-school supplies requests, one is for the house. Of the 5-pack we keep, the husband takes one for his office, the kids' bathroom gets one, and the remaining 3 are used by everyone throughout the year. Once they're empty, they get refilled with homemade wipes.

As I decommission old towels and washcloths, I cut them up so they don't get mixed back into the "good" pile, and they go into a rag bucket. If you're going to reuse your wipes bucket, you want them small enough to squeeze back out the lid, so about 6x6 inches.

I developed this recipe in January 2018 to test in time for that year's Me-Made-May and haven't had to make a change since. I hope you enjoy it as much as we do.

Becky's House Wipes Recipe:

1. Be sure to clearly mark your containers for safety. Try Sharpie - this will ensure a spelling mistake.
2. 1 Gallon of Water
3. 1.5 tsp Dr. Bronner's Sal Suds
4. 1/4 cup Isopropyl Alcohol
5. 30+ drops or more of your favorite smelly essential oil, if desired.

Mix. 1 Cup of mixture per wipe container & ~7 wipes. Your yardage may vary.

Notes: Alcohol is for mold/mildew prevention and it's a super great gummy-stuff destroyer. No, tea tree oil by itself won't prevent your wipes from mildewing in the container, and even the alcohol won't stop it forever. Only make enough wipes that you will go through in a week. At the one week point, I find things getting funky. And not in a good, James Brown way. This is also another reason to keep your wipes on the small side: you'll tend to use them faster before they mildew.

I fold up my wipes. I used to cram them in, but pulling them back out was not fun. So...folding & stacking it is. I only make 2 wipe containers at a time. If I go through them faster than a week, great, I can refill. If not - in the wash they go. As I use them, I throw them in the wash, then back out into a rag-holding bucket until time for refill or for use with spray bottle.

There will be leftover cleaner, obvs.

1 Gallon mixture fills:

• 1/2 gallon container
• 1 spray bottle
• 1 mop reservoir (see below for mop recommendation)
• 2 wipes containers (complete with Sharpie scribbles)

See how neat and tidy that is? See how I cropped out the ENTIRE REST OF MY HOUSE? 

A bit about the Libman Refillable Mop.

I love this thing. We have tile laundry->kitchen->dining room. Combine that with kids, cats, gardening, & biking, it needs to be swept and mopped very regularly. I bought the Libman refillable mop with an extra mop pad 4 years ago, and haven't had to replace any of it. The mop pads look just as new as they did when I bought them. I wish this was hyperbole, but it's not. I really expected I'd have to replace the mop pads, which is why I bought an extra. I thought I was being prudent. Come to find out, this is likely the best household cleaning item I've ever purchased next to my ChompChomp lint roller. If you haven't yet, dump that Swiffer for a Libman. I can't find a link for one on Amazon that isn't some crazy overpriced option, but it looks like, on Libman's site, Kroger-family stores reliably carry Libman.