Homemade Lysol "Wipes"

I don't know about you, but I would appreciate an endless amount of cleaning wipes. Having dogs, a child AND a HUSBAND around, make things a little messy. Even for those that don't live the active family lifestyle, there are still germs everywhere.

I woke up a few days ago with the urge to clean the house. Everyone has had some sort of bug in the past couple of weeks, so the house was due for a good scrub down. I didn't have any Lysol wipes and didn't want to buy any, considering the cost. (Especially, since I can go through a whole can in one good deep clean session.) At this point, I decided to make my own. I did some reading and found that most people use paper towels and/or toilet paper. Toilet paper?? REALLY?? Using either of these would've been just as expensive as I was afraid, so I had to come up with something else.

Shug (my amazing husband and best friend)(by the way, his name did NOT come from Honey Boo Boo. I had a Shug before Honey Boo Boo was born, I'm pretty sure) took me to the store and we decided what to buy. I came up with an empty wipe container, that I already had (obviously), a bottle of Lysol and an 18 pack of thin generic washcloths. I spent about $7.00 between the Lysol and washcloths.

Keep, in mind, this is the first time I've made these. With that being said, as we go along, I am going to tell you what I did; but, I'm ALSO going to tell you what I would do different, next time.


SO, after I got home, I got my washcloths, Lysol, wipe box and I got a measuring cup (next time, i'll add a bowl to this step).

I used about a half of a cup of Lysol and filled the rest of the measuring cup with water.

This is where the "next time, I'm going to...." points really begin.

I ended up using about 2 and a half cups of water with the half cup of Lysol. Next time, I plan on mixing the Lysol with the 2 and a half cups in a bowl (MAYBE, even a little less Lysol).

I put that to the side and started working on my washcloths and wipe box. I wanted to fold my cloths like Bug's (our daughter) wipes, but quickly figured out that my cloths were to big. I tried to fold the ends in to make them fit, but then I couldn't fit near enough in the box. Shug even offered a hand in helping, on this step. In the end I just put them in there. I ended up with six cloths in my box. 
Shug decided that the next time I do this, we need to put a little bit of the Lysol/water in the bottom in the box, before putting the cloths in. This time, I just put my cloths in and evenly poured the mixture over the top. After saturating them, I closed the lid and shook the box good and hard. 

After that, it was time to test them out! I had a microwave that we don't use and it needed cleaned. I figured there was no better test subject than a dirty microwave. 

Before (this is embarrassing)

Pretty dirty, right?? After only ONE cloth, I came up with this nice after picture.

Needless to say, I was pretty impressed and couldn't wait to get to the rest of the house. The first room I headed to was the upstairs bathroom. THAT would be the real test. Still, I was impressed. Generally, I use SEVERAL wipes on JUST the toilet, alone. With the washcloths I used ONE. I wiped the WHOLE toilet (not the inside, obviously) with ONE cloth. I couldn't believe it. I used another ONE on the sink. I wiped it from top to bottom, also. I didn't use them on the bathtub. That's a different post, for a different day.
 I only had one complaint, after cleaning the bathroom: my washcloths left fuzzies.  So, I'm going to fix that by washing ALL of my washcloths before doing this again.

This was a good cleaning project. It was quick, cost effective and simple. The washcloths were thicker than wipes. They lasted longer and gave me more scrubbing power when I needed it. I also used fewer cloths than I do wipes. 



I forgot to add the VERY. BEST. PART. 



You can put them in the washing machine and start over when you're finished! :)


Was this project effective?: you bet!
Will I do this again?: Absolutely!


Do you have a topic you would like me to do a post on? Leave me a comment and let me know!