Swiffer Wet/Dry: A Great Spot Cleaning Tool and Wonderful for Dusting
According to the advertisements for the Swiffer Wet/Dry, it can replace the mop and broom as part of a cleaning arsenal. The truth is, well, not really.
However, for spot cleaning and to do some things that a mop and broom do poorly, a Swiffer Wet/Dry is a great investment.
The Swiffer Wet/Dry is a rectangular flat surface at the end of a handle. Depending on the type of cleaning to be done, either a wet or dry cloth specially designed for the product is placed over the rectangular surface.
The ads claim that with a dry cloth the Swiffer replaces a broom. With a wet cloth, a mop is deemed obsolete. The truth is somewhere in the middle.
The dry cloth Swiffer can accomplish things that a broom doesn’t. When used on dusty, dirty floors, it picks up the debris in the groove cloth instead of stirring it into the air. Allergens like dust are trapped in the cloth instead of floating free and causing sneezing fits.
Larger particles are pushed along in front of the Swiffer and need to be picked up via a dustpan on similar device, but the Swiffer is especially good at picking up animal fur, dust bunnies and lint. On hardwood floors, the Swiffer leaves behind nothing but the shine of the wood.
Unfortunately, the wet version is not as efficient. The wet cloth has a scrubbing stripe built into it, designed to scrub away sticky spills. It doesn’t work. The same pivot head that makes the Swiffer useful flops around when attempting to use it to scrub something.
And, the wet cloths get dirty very quickly. After about half a room, the cloth has soaked up as much dirt and grime as it can and needs to be replaced.
The best use of the wet Swiffer is for quick cleanups in between moppings. It is very good for cleaning up a quick spill because it is so much faster to grab the Swiffer, snap in a new cloth and clean up the mess than it is to get out the mop. However, for deep cleaning the mop still exceeds the wet Swiffer.
An added bonus of the Swiffer is that the dry Swiffer cloths make great dust rags. Unlike spray-on dusting products used with a rag or paper towel, the Swiffer cloths grab the dust and hold on to it. The dust is not pushed around or released into the air.
Since the dust is removed instead of being stirred up to settle again later, dusting with the Swiffer cloths means that dusting does not have to be done as often.
So, though it may not live up to the advertising, Swiffer Wet/Dry is a great spot cleaning addition and dusting tool that makes cleaning easier.
