Why I'm a Swiffer Believer

Swiffer Sweeper

I hate cleaning up the house. I mostly hate it because we have 4 kids, 2 of which are home all the time, and as soon as I clean something up it's dirty again. I used to have a very clean house, almost to the OCD point, but then I got real because the number of kids in the house made it unrealistic to attempt that level of cleanliness. These days, I'm just glad if there's a path through the kid clutter and no one dies. Recently I've started to rethink the level of clean in the house, mostly because the baby is somewhat mobile and he eats a lot of crackers and such and there are far more crumbs on the floor than there should be. It's like Logan's in here only it's cracker crumbs instead of peanut shells. I decided that it needed to be cleaned more often, but in keeping with my realistic side I determined that whatever method I used needed to be quick and easy because daily use was a must. I want to insert a little disclaimer here and say that I tried to use reusable microfiber stuff to dust and clean the floor, but then I had to clean what I used to clean and that meant more cleaning and they never came all the way clean anyway and so I just stopped cleaning so much. I finally just gave in to the notion that whatever I used to clean needed to be disposable so that when I was done I was done and I could move on and not deal with that particular mess again. I started with the regular Swiffer Sweeper thing, I think it's just called a "Sweeper". I gotta tell you that with the messes in this house, that poor thing didn't stand a chance. I actually felt sorry for it. After cleaning about half the floor, that thing was not only too clogged to pick up anything else, it was pushing a huge pile of crumbs and miscellaneous that I then had to clean up and dispose of. Remember what I said about hating to clean up after I clean up? It was time for more aggressive action. I pondered other Swiffer options because I like how light and easy and fast it is to clean up

Swiffer Sweep & Trap

what you need to clean up. I pondered the jumbo size of the Sweeper, and though it was larger and would clean more of the floor at a time, it saw still going to be pushing a pile of crumbs. Not what I was going for. I thought about trying the Swiffer Sweep and Trap which has this little rubber paddle thing in it and the cloth thing rides along behind and gets the little stuff. In theory this would work because it's the equivalent of those little sweeper things that restaurants use on their low pile carpets and they seem to do ok, but the thought of all those crumbs stuck to the rubber thing and having to clean that off... nope, not going there. I then pondered the Swiffer SweeperVac but I wasn't sure if it would work either.

Swiffer SweeperVac

I stood in Wal-Mart staring at it wondering if it was worth the $40. I'm cheap, I don't want to spent money on something unless I know it's going to suit my needs. As I was standing there pondering, baby in cart, this older lady cruises up with her cart, grabs one of the vacs and tosses it in her cart. This was my chance! As she took a few steps back to the handle of her cart I asked her if she'd ever used one of them before. She said yes, she'd had one for six years and it finally died so she was replacing it. She stated that the battery was made into it and that it had a cord to charge it and that hers just wouldn't charge anymore. I figured six years was a pretty fair length of time for something that cost $40, and the fact that she was buying another one spoke volumes. Since we had this conversation going, I asked her about the vacuum ability, mainly does it work? She said that it was great for crumbs and little things, and that while it wouldn't pick up a pebble it certainly had enough power to be a first line of defense for little light things. SOLD! I've been using this product for a couple weeks now and I love it! The battery stays charged long enough for me to do all of downstairs before it dies. We have a pretty big area to do so I think that's pretty good. I haven't timed it to see how long it really works non stop, but I'd guess a good 15-20 minutes? I'll have to time it next time and report back in. I'm loving that it really does pick up grass clippings, crumbs, hair, lint, dirt, etc. It certainly helps prolong the life of the cleaning pad which saves money. I also love that when I'm done using it I don't have to sweep up a pile of crap that it's left behind so that's less of a hassle. While we're on the subject of cleaning up

Swiffer Wet Jet

I will add that I also posses a Swiffer Wet Jet and I love it too. It's great for cleaning up splattered milk when the baby throws his sippy cup off the high chair or leaves it tipped over so that it dribbles on the floor. I'm loving not having to drag out the mop or get out paper towels and a spray cleaner for 3 drips of milk. Since I am cheap, I will admit that I refill the bottle with my own concoction of cleaner which seems to work just as well as theirs. Floor cleaner and water, yep, that'll do pig. Now I'll admit that while I do think that the vac thing replaces a broom for most applications, and that the Wet Jet takes care of spot cleaning fabulously, I do not think that you should "get rid of your old mop and broom". Nothing replaces a real mop, and the vacuum and pad on a stick isn't going to do great with getting junk out of corners and such, or cobwebs off the ceiling. That being said, there is another Swiffer product that I'm about to try out, and that's the Swiffer Duster. They even have one on an extension stick for cleaning the ceiling fans and those darn cobwebs! I've used them before and I was pretty happy. I stopped using them because I went to the microfiber cloths, but we've already discussed that.

Swiffer Dusters

The bottom line of all this is this. While I agree that the level of clean that one will achieve with these products probably isn't equal to more old fashioned techniques such as real scrubbing, mopping, and dusting with polish and a soft cloth, it's better than nothing which is pretty much where I was before. I mean I cleaned up, but only like once a week instead of every day. In my opinion, knocking it down every day with a simple, easy tool is better than letting it pile up to make getting the big vacuum and mop out worth it. So there you have it, my shameless solution to cleaning. ~Kellie~