Tuesday, May 28, 2013

Cleaning Tip: Hardwood Floors

Sorry in advance for this post being so short - I've been incredibly busy lately and haven't had a lot of time to post to the blog, but I wanted to put up this quick post about a cleaning tip.

If you have hardwood floors in your home, especially new ones, you've probably discovered that not all cleaning products are created alike. I discovered this the hard way. I have new (about a year old) flooring that came pre-finished. I was using Mr. Clean floor cleaner (the orange one that you dilute) in a refillable O'Cedar mop to clean them on a daily basis. I thought it was working great and my floors smelled awesome.... until they didn't. That cleaner doesn't work on hardwood floors. It builds up and forms a sticky layer that makes your shoes, socks and everything else stick. Not only would feet stick, but so would dirt, pet hair and anything my kids dropped. It was nasty.

I noticed it did the same thing in tiled areas.

So I searched the internet for a solution and found several popular DIY cleaners consisting of baking soda, hydrogen peroxide and just about anything you can find in your medicine cabinet or under the sink. I didn't want to make a DIY cleaner with a lot of ingredients that may or may not work, so I kept searching...

Then I found a post that changed my life.



Vinegar. That's it. That's the secret. Just a little bit of vinegar diluted in a lot of water will clean the floors better than anything you can buy. I was skeptical, but since vinegar is cheap and I clean with it anyway, I went ahead and tried it. Rinsing the old Mr. Clean (oh the irony) concoction out of my mop was the hardest part.

The vinegar solution worked like a charm. It cut through the layers of sticky, nasty, grossness on my floors and redeemed them. It took a few moppings for it to get all of the sticky off, but it did work. My husband was home the first time and complained of an overly strong vinegar smell, but I didn't mind it too much. It kind of smelled like salad for a while. After about 1/2 an hour it was gone and the floors were beautiful again.

The only thing I didn't like is that it didn't leave that shine like other floor cleaners do. It just cleaned them. No fuss, no muss. I guess I can give up the shine if it means losing the sticky feeling and using a product that's natural and safe.

If you have hardwood floors, you should try this! It works, it's cheap, and it's safe. What better combination could you ask for?


3 comments:

  1. I really appreciate this post. I have been looking all over for this! Thank goodness I found it on Google. You have made my day! Thanks again.
    Tiles and Grout Cleaning

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  2. I only use vinegar too! But if I need shine (like want to sell the house) I will use a small amount of Murphy's oil soap.

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  3. Great tip! I'll have to try that. :-)

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