Homemade Floor Cleaner

Having little kids who spend most of their day playing on the floor, means I am cleaning it a lot. I was using a Swiffer Wet Jet, because it was so convenient to just grab it, spray, wipe and be done. But the price of the cleaning solution and pads was getting a little outrageous. Plus I was wanting to make the switch to some less-chemically cleaners. And for the kids I wanted it to be a clean place for them to play, but not full residue of who-knows-what from the cleaner.

So I invested in a Libman Freedom Mop (which is like a Swiffer WetJet, but you fill it with your own cleaning solution, and reuse the washable cleaning pad) and searched for a homemade cleaner to fill it with.

This is the one I like best:

Homemade Floor Cleaner
(adapted from TipNut.com)

1 Gallon of Water
1 Cup of White Vinegar
1/2 Cup of Lemon Juice
1 Tbsp of Dish Soap

Just mix the ingredients together.

I fill my Libman mop, and then put the rest in a gallon jug. I also have some in a spray bottle for quick cleanups and cleaning our hard wood stairs.

This cleaner works great!! I use it on all of the hard floors in our house (linoleum, vinyl, laminate wood, and painted hard wood - the previous owners painted the hard wood floors on the entire second floor of our house - *insert eye roll here*)

I feel a lot better about using this cleaner in the kitchen and around the kids. Plus it WAY cheaper (one batch of this clean costs me about 25 cents to make!) I did have to invest in the Libman mop (which is about the same price as the Swiffer was - but I had a mail-in rebate), but there are no more refills to buy!!!

Cost comparison:
1 Liter Swiffer WetJet Refill.............around $5.00
1 Liter of Homemade Cleaner:.................$0.07!!!
SAVINGS: about $4.93!!
(plus no more pads to buy, which are $11.47 for 24, or nearly 50 cents a piece!)

Note:
If you search online, you can find tutorials of how to refill a Swiffer cleaning solution container. That would save you from buying the solution, but I chose not to deal with all of that. Plus there still would be the pads to buy, and batteries, since it is battery operated - the Libman mop is not.

Another Note:
Vinegar is considered an antimicrobial, and a good for cleaning, but is not a "disinfectant" or "sanitizer".