The Baby Wipe Hack That You'll Want To Know If You Own A Dust Mop

If you've finished potty training, or just bought too many baby wipes during a sale you couldn't pass up, you may be wondering what to do with them. Perhaps your baby still needs wipes for now but you've run out of mop pads, fret not — you can put all those extra baby wipes to good use by cleaning your floors with them! If you have a Swiffer-style dust mop, all you have to do is attach the baby wipes like you would any other wet mop pad, and voilá! You've got a homemade wet mop that'll trap dust and leave your floors looking shiny and fresh.

The cleaning agents in baby wipes are designed to be extremely gentle on a baby's skin, so they're ideal for cleaning floors and other surfaces without damaging them or drying them out. Plus, using baby wipes instead of name-brand mop pads can save you money in the long run. Here's why you should start using this baby wipe Swiffer hack to get your floors feeling clean as a whistle. 

To try out this hack for yourself, you'll need a few baby wipes and a Swiffer-style dust mop with a paddle end. The nice thing about using baby wipes to clean your floors is that they're much less expensive than pre-made wet floor pads. A 24-pack of Swiffer wet mop pads is $9.84 at Walmart. Meanwhile, you can pick up a 72-pack of Pampers baby wipes for just $7.99 at Walmart, and some off-label brands are even cheaper! 

Using baby wipes to clean your floor is extremely easy, especially if you already own a Swiffer or similar dust mop. Simply pull two fresh baby wipes out of the package and lay them on the floor with the edge of one wipe overlapping the other. Set the mop paddle on top of the two wipes and wrap the edges around the paddle, tucking them into the rubberized corners. Then you're ready to go! You can use baby wipes to clean almost any type of flooring, especially kitchen and bathroom tile. It's good to be cautious with delicate hardwood floors, but baby wipes are even gentler than standard mop pads!

Baby wipes are designed to pick up and trap even the messiest of ... messes. Because of their dirt-trapping fibers, they work much the same as a standard mop pad! Baby wipes are mostly made up of water and surfactants, with a small amount of preservatives to keep them moist without spoiling or growing mold. Surfactants are the power molecules in any cleaning product, but in baby wipes, they have to be extra gentle so as to clean well without hurting a baby's sensitive skin. Because they're so gentle but effective on Baby's bottom, they'll also be gentle and effective on your floors! Many baby wipes also contain skin-softening ingredients like aloe or shea butter, which can also help to condition floors and give them a glossy appearance. 

Another reason to love cleaning with baby wipes is that they'll take up less space in your laundry closet than a box of mop pads, and they have multiple other uses in the home. You wouldn't use a mop pad to clean keyboards, countertops, or your hands, but you can with baby wipes! If you're planning to buy baby wipes for home cleaning, choose unscented wipes or a scent that isn't too powdery, like the lavender or green tea melon wipes from Target's up & up brand.