While there’s no denying the convenience of store-bought cleaning wipes, they’re far from a perfect solution! That’s what motivated me to come up with the homemade alternative I’ll be sharing with you today: DIY cleaning wipes.
We’ll start by exploring some of the things that give these homemade wipes an edge over the store-bought variety, then we’ll dive right into the simple tutorial for how to make them. By the end of this post, you’ll know everything you need to know to make your own reusable cleaning wipes!
Related: This Is What You Need to Know About Cleaning vs. Disinfecting
The Problems with Store-Bought Cleaning Wipes
1. They Create Waste
Any sort of disposable product creates waste, and wipes are no exception. While disposable wipes can be a smart choice in high-risk environments like hospitals, they aren’t typically necessary for home cleaning and disinfecting.
Related: 11 Easy Ways to Make Your Paper Towels Last Twice as Long
2. They Contain Harsh Chemicals
You don’t need a laundry list of chemicals to clean surfaces or kill bacteria and viruses. But store-bought wipes feature a lot of them, including synthetic fragrances, toxins, and respiratory irritants.
3. They’re Costly
One container of cleaning wipes doesn’t usually last very long, especially if you clean frequently. Even if you’re paying just a few dollars per container, that can add up fast!
Related: This Is the Best Way to Clean & Sanitize Your Hands on the Go
The Solution? Make Your Own Cleaning Wipes!
But you can avoid all of those drawbacks just by making your own cleaning wipes at home. They’re easy to make, cost-effective, and reusable—what more could you want? Before we get to the how of making them, let’s quickly review what exactly goes into them.
What’s in It? Ingredients for DIY Cleaning Wipes
You only need three ingredients to make your own DIY cleaning and disinfecting wipes:
- Rubbing Alcohol: Rubbing alcohol is an extremely affordable disinfecting agent and is effective against many viruses at concentrations of 70% and up.
- Dish Soap: Adding a bit of Dawn dish soap to your homemade wipes enhances their ability to cut through greasy messes.
- Simple Clean Essential Oil Blend: Simple Clean makes a great addition to almost any homemade cleaner. It has a fresh, clean scent, and it gives the wipes another boost of germ-killing power!
Prefer a more natural version?
You can swap the dish soap for Castile soap, a gentle plant-based cleaner that works great in homemade wipes. Just leave out the rubbing alcohol, since it doesn’t mix well with Castile soap.
The result is a wonderful natural cleaning wipe — just not a disinfecting one. For disinfecting, simply clean the surface first, then follow up with rubbing alcohol or a disinfecting spray.
Click here to get the full recipe!
How to Make Reusable DIY Cleaning Wipes
Ingredients & Supplies
- 2 cups rubbing alcohol, 70% or higher
- 1 tsp Dawn dish soap
- 20 drops Simple Clean Essential Oil Blend
- Quart-sized mason jar
- Stack of clean cloths*
*Any clean cloths or rags will work here, but I especially like using my Microfiber Cleaning Cloths because they’re absorbent, durable, easy to wash and reuse, and great for tackling stuck-on messes around the house.
Directions:
Add the rubbing alcohol, dish soap, and essential oils to your jar. Put the lid on and swirl or shake gently to mix.
Next, remove the lid and add your cloths to the jar. Continue adding more until the cleaning solution has saturated all the cloths, then add one more for good measure.
Replace the lid on the jar, then turn it upside-down for a minute or so. And voila, your reusable cleaning wipes are ready to use!
How to Use Your DIY Cleaning Wipes
You can use your homemade wipes to wipe down countertops, clean up spills, dust your baseboards, and more. If you’re using them to disinfect frequently touched surfaces, pre-clean the surface with soapy water first, then use your cleaning wipe and allow the surface to air dry.
Collect the dirty/used wipes in a container, then when you’ve used them all, toss them in your washer to clean them. Once they’re clean, add them to a fresh batch of the cleaning solution and use them again!
Be sure to thoroughly clean both the jar you store the wipes in and the container you use to hold the dirty wipes between uses, too.
Save on DIY Cleaning Wipe Ingredients
If you want to try making your own reusable cleaning wipes, I put together a collection with the exact products I use most often, including my Simple Clean Essential Oil Blend, Castile Soap, and Microfiber Cleaning Cloths.
Whether you prefer the disinfecting version or the gentler Castile soap version, these products make it easy to create effective reusable cleaning wipes right at home.
Reusable DIY Cleaning Wipes
Equipment
- Quart Sized Mason Jar
- Several Clean Cloths or Rags
Ingredients
- 2 cups Rubbing Alcohol 70% or higher
- 1 tsp Dawn Dish Soap
- 20 drops Simple Clean Essential Oil Blend Or your favorite essential oil
Instructions
- Add the rubbing alcohol, dish soap, and essential oils to your jar. Put the lid on and swirl or shake gently to mix.
- Next, remove the lid and add your cloths or rags to the jar. Continue adding more until the cleaning solution has saturated all the cloths, then add one more for good measure.
- Replace the lid on the jar, then turn it upside-down for a minute or so.
Do you need to wring them out before using or do they come out of the jar without dripping? I hope that make sense.
Please log in or create a free account to comment.I would imagine it will depend on the thickness of the material you use whether that be washclothes versus old t-shirts. I was thinking I could adjust the amount of liquid added so that they would just be quite moist but not have to be wrung out. Hope that helps. I really don’t want sopping wet towels but LOVE the idea of making my own and the cost savings. I was wondering if they would work as well at leaving that nice shiney counter top look. Those wipes do such a good job of leaving a nice shine on the counters, faucets, hardware, etc.
Please log in or create a free account to comment.If they don’t leave your countertops as glowing as you like, try adding a tsp of liquid (called “fractionated”) coconut oil and make the initial mix with hot water. Perhaps have two lots on the go: 1) without the bit of oil to clean up other spills like on the floor and in the bathrooms; and, 2) keep the oiled wipes for the countertops and wooden kitchen table tops. Besides, isn’t the coconut oil anti bacterial or microbial or some such thing?
that sounds like a good idea. wonder what Jillie’s thoughts are? I use equal parts vinegar & olive oil to clean kitchen cabinets.