November 15, 2012

How To Clean Hardwood Floors Naturally

Vinegar + Hot Water = The best hardwood floor cleaner out there.
One of the features we were stoked about our house havingwere the hardwood floors. The entire first story is wall-to-wall hardwood.


How to Clean Hardwood Floors Naturally


Originally posted on November 1, 2011

We have  pet rabbits who live inside our home and eat hay. Have you ever experienced hayinside your home? It’s a downright disaster, especially on carpet.


Needless to say, we were more than excited for the hardwoodfloors. Then we lived with them for a year and discovered that they’re not all that simple to maintain.



  • The previous owners left us a bottle of

  • BonaHardwood Floor Cleaner. After sustaining a wicked hand cramp from sprayingfloor cleaner over the large surface area I abandoned the overpriced stuff.

  • Wet Swiffer mops were not only tiny and took ahundred to accomplish anything, they also left the floors streaky.

  •   Someone recommended Mop ‘n Glo, which seemed towork pretty well so I settled for the pungent chemical smells for awhile. Itleft the floors greasy and smelled for days. And why is it fluorescent?


While researching natural cleaning methods I came acrossvinegar and hot water as a floor cleaner. I used this mixture to clean mybaseboards back when I was nesting before the baby shower and loved theresults. So I whipped out my microfiber mop and hit the floors with the vinegarmixture:


1 cup vinegar to 1 gallon hot (boiling) water


I will never go back.


They’ve never been cleaner. Truth be told I had no idea myfloors were even dirty before cleaning with vinegar. Seeing how clean theyshould be made me 1.) a little embarrassed and 2.) a die hard fan of vinegar.


Tips:



  • The hotter the water the better. But if you don’t have time to boil it, just use hot water from the tap, it does the job.



  • If you’re wondering about the smell, it certainly does smelllike vinegar. This isn’t the best smell in the world but beats the headachethat comes from the chemical cleaners and it doesn’t linger.




  • I use an oversizedmicrofiber mop (Costco, Walmart, Target) that I dip it into a bucket full of the mixture. Wearingdish gloves I take the mop and squeeze the excess moisture out. I alwaysimagine a regular mop would make things a little easier but like how I canthrow the microfiber part into the washer in between cleanings. 




  • I eyeballed the mixture a couple of times and noticed thefloors were streaky when I did it, so if you can, be sure to measure. I’vefound that milk jugs can’t handle the heat of the water and collapse. The largevinegar bottles are actually a gallon and quite sturdy.



So there you have it. Vinegar and hot water, it’s cheap, it’s effective and you should use it immediately.



 

No comments: