Conveniently Green–Reusable Swiffer Duster

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Do you love your Swiffer Duster? I do! I’ve got the duster with the extendable, telescoping handle, which is a fancy way of saying that it’s a long, plastic stick. The Swiffer Duster requires, of course, the Swiffer Refill, which is a disposable fluffy doo-dad that sucks up all of the dust and pet hair (in our house, emphasis on pet hair) and then you toss it in the trash.

And you know how much I love tossing things in the trash, right?

But I like the idea of a disposable duster, because the thought of using a feather duster and then having all that crap sitting around, or taking it outside and beating it on the porch and setting off my allergies and whatnot really grosses me out. Still, disposable? Are you serious? Surely there’s a better way.

I am serious, and don’t call me Shirley.

I suppose I could easily sew my own reusable duster, but I have no idea where my sewing machine is (somewhere in the garage, I think, or maybe we accidentally left it in the storage unit in San Jose). Thank God for Etsy.com. If you haven’t been there already, Etsy is a wonderful site of different sellers offering thousands of handmade items–everything from art to, well, dusters. Many Etsy sellers are moms, and if there’s one thing I love more than replacing a disposable item, it’s helping out another mom. I fell in love with the adorable fleece dusters at Mom and My Crafts. Sarah and her mom make all kinds of eco-friendly products, and I happen to know from personal experience that fleece is excellent at picking up all kinds of dust and hair. Excellent. Especially when you’re wearing it.

Well believe it or not, I really love dusting with my Swiffer Duster now. And trust me, I’m a person who hates to clean. The reusable duster performs like nobody’s business. In fact, I think it attracts and traps dust and hair even better than the disposables. And the fleece eliminates one of my biggest pet peeves with the disposables–getting snagged on corners or rough surfaces. It’s fun and cute, and I don’t have to wonder what kind of vegetation died to create it. I love it.

Yesterday I went on a dusting spree just to give you photographic evidence of how much I love these dusters. I tackled my problem areas: underneath the living room furniture, on top of the fan blades, along the baseboards, and of course, on the furniture itself. Not in that order. Check it out.

Before:

It's green! And pink! And adorable!

After:

Wow, that's gross!

The best part is that I just drop that bad boy in the laundry and I’m good to go for my next dusting spree.

The Scrivener

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