It is important to care for and clean your hardwood floors. If you want to learn more, check out these tips on how to clean hardwood floors naturally.
If you want to know how to clean hardwood floors naturally, you’ve come to the right place! We’ll discuss the many different natural wood floor cleaning tips and alternatives for homemade hardwood floor cleaners and polishes. We recommend using these tips for finished hardwood floors versus unfinished or waxed floors.
How to Clean Hardwood Floors Naturally
It’s easy for you to make the best wood floor cleaner right from home. You can mix up your favorite hard surface floor cleaning product with one part vinegar to 3 to 4 parts water. You can also substitute the vinegar for vodka and add a bit of dish soap.
It’s very common to create a wood floor cleaner with vinegar. It’s one of the most effective methods as well. Some people have reported that this solution dulls the finish over time — to avoid this, make sure your solution is highly diluted with water.
The best wood floor cleaner is the vodka and water solution. You can also replace the vodka with rubbing alcohol if you’d prefer to keep drinking alcohol away from your home. Vodka is the most effective however because it disinfects, dries fast, prevents streaking, and won’t harm your finish since it’s pH neutral.
Another simple wood floor cleaner incorporates a few squirts of Castile or simple dish soap with water. You can also add this to your vinegar or vodka solution. All are effective with breaking up dirt and grime on your hardwood floors.
Natural Wood Floor Polishes
To add some extra shine to your wood floors the natural way, there are different cheap DIY options to get the job done. Polishing your wood floors not only adds shines but conditions the panels as well. It’s not something you need to do each time you clean them but should be used whenever you want to safely add an extra boost.
Create an oil polish with 1 to 2 tablespoons of oil with your vinegar or vodka solution. Some great oils are fractionated coconut oil or sweet almond oil. Or you can use olive oil — keep in mind how slippery your floors will be until they dry.
You can also create a black tea polish using 4 brewed bags of black tea. Cool the tea mixture and use this in place of the water in the DIY wood floor cleaning solutions. The tea has tannins that add shine and helps bring out the hardwood’s natural warm tones.
Both of these natural polishes are one-use products. They don’t store well. And keep in mind that the oil mixtures may clog sprayers attached to a wood floor mop.
Get Started on Cleaning Your Hardwood Floors Today!
Now you know exactly how to clean hardwood floors naturally. Always ensure that your floors are totally swept and vacuumed prior to cleaning. And as always, test out any of your DIY hardwood floor solutions on one spot of your floor before cleaning your entire space.
For more tips on taking care of hardwood floors, check out our website!