There are LOTS of people making their own disposable cleaning wipes lately. – I switched over awhile ago. Many people are using homemade wipes in order to conserve the brand name wipes. I use my home made ones all the time.
They’re amazingly simple to make and can be made either with paper towels for disposable ones, or with old cleaning cloths for reusable ones.
I have a container of each – one disposable and one reusable. LONG ago I had been gifted a yoga mat size microfiber towel that I never used. This is what I cut into smaller pieces for the reusable cleaning wipes. I love using these because I can throw them into a laundry bag, wash, and reuse. Less stuff getting thrown out, and I’m already doing laundry – no extra waste of water.
There are places though that I prefer to use a disposable ‘wipe’ over a reusable one. Places like the counter tops where the raw meat ‘juice’ has leaked, the toilet seat after a boy uses it…. and the like. I keep them in an unused stainless steel kitchen canister (like these https://amzn.to/2UroxAl) that has a silicone ring to seal the cover. I find that this kind of container slows the drying out process and keeps the wipes moist. The BEST container for this is the one that fits your roll of paper towels though. Some containers are more narrow than the double super duper rolls of paper towels. [in a pinch, I’ve used a stainless steel compost container like these: https://amzn.to/3dmjgTi, https://amzn.to/33FB1s5]
Lately, I’ve been keeping one at my front door, one in each of our cars, and one at the back door. Having purchased a multi-pack of canisters, I decided I was going to use them all!
Here’s my recipe:
1 roll of paper towels
1 serrated knife
1 stainless steel kitchen canister
1 to 2 cups of water
1 to 2 capfuls of Thieves household cleaner
10 to 15 drops of Thieves oil
First cut your paper towel roll in half with the serrated knife so you have two rolls that look about the height of a toilet paper roll. Then put one of the rolls in your container.
In a glass or steel measuring cup, measure out one cup of water, then add in 1 cap of Thieves household cleaner and 10ish drops of thieves oil, mix this up so the oil is pretty distributed. Then pour this mixture over the towels in the container. Depending on how wet/dry and how absorbent your towels are will determine how much liquid you pour over them.
Let the towels sit in the closed container for about an hour or so then open them and remove the brown cardboard tube from the middle. If you leave this it will mold, so don’t miss this step.
When you’re ready to use the wipes, pull from the middle of the hole and tear off a sheet. HUZZAH!
