Reusable Swiffer Pad

Here’s the first post that might make you ask – is this art? Really?

I unabashedly believe that art can be functional and that anything you create could fall under the description of art. If you disagree, hit me up in the comments. Now on to the decidedly unsexy how to make a crochet reusable Swiffer pad.

I am one of those people, you know the kind, that try to find ways to make my own reusable stuff to be nicer to the planet that houses us. Add to the fact that for some reason, neither adult in my house can get the actual Swiffer pads to stay attached to the blasted thing, and a solution was necessary. It was either figure it out or get rid of the Swiffer and find something else.

I won’t hide the fact that is not the first one I made. That one was knit and I followed someone else’s pattern. It grew when wet and fell off. Wah, wah, wah. I was not deterred. Well, I was for nearly a year. Yes, for a year I washed the floor on my hands and knees rather than figure this out. In the end, I finally decided to spend the time making a new pattern, instead of mop again without it.

I went back to the idea behind the pattern that didn’t work. It is just a rectangle that you stitch together to fit on the head. I also decided to crochet instead of knit. I find that crochet doesn’t grow as much when wet.

For this project, I used cotton yarn and H (US) crochet hook. I also used double half crochets. In reality, you can use whatever yarn, size hook, and stitch you want. I think single crochet would give you a tighter weave, maybe making a more scrubby pad.

To make this pad you need to start by measuring your Swiffer head. For clarity, the long side is the width and the short side is the length because that’s the direction you crochet in. Mine is 10 inches wide by 4.5 inches long. I used an online calculator to figure out how many stitches I needed to get a finished piece slightly wider than 10 inches and then through testing, adjusted from there. The calculator had me using 41 and it ended up at 36. (Not including a chain for turning.)

For the length of the rectangle, you crochet until you hit double the length of the head. 4.5 x 2 = 9 inches (See math is useful.) And anyone who has ever knit or crocheted to a length instead of a number of rows knows it takes sooooo much longer than you expect it to.

Once you have your rectangle, you lay it on a flat surface and fold the top and the bottom into where they touch in the middle. Sew up the sides and you have a reusable Swiffer pad.

Sidenote: When I have a project that you stitch together like this, I like to leave long tails when I make my starting chain and when I finish the last row and use those to stitch up the side. Makes for less weaving in.

Happy cleaning! I know I’ll be happier in mine.