Cleaning your home is vitally important, but sometimes you either don’t have an appropriate floor cleaner, or you just don’t want to use a floor cleaner with chemicals and ingredients that you can’t pronounce. And then there’s your family. Floor cleaners can have ingredients that are toxic to your pets and children, as well as the adults in your home.
One great way to avoid those chemicals and ingredients that negatively impact your health is to make your own floor cleaner. It’s easy to do, and you can use it without worrying that you’re poisoning someone in your home. Even better, homemade floor cleaner is often more affordable than other types of cleaners.
With all those pros, you’ll definitely want to know how to DIY this. Read on for more!
Ingredients To Look For In DIY Cleaners
If you are just looking for cleansers now, there are some ingredients that you want to look for—these are some of the only ingredients that work best when cleaning your floors. When checking a cleaning product’s recipe, keep an eye out for these handy ingredients.
Water
Of course, your recipe needs to contain water. This helps to give you enough liquid to clean your floor, and it combines all of the other ingredients.
White Vinegar
This is probably the most common ingredient in all DIY floor cleaners, and it’s the best option for kitchens and areas that get a little greasy. It is safe for wood and natural stone. The more you dilute it, the safer it will be. You can also use it on other types of floors, but you should check it before you use it, especially on laminates. Remember to use white vinegar, not apple cider vinegar, which will leave streaks.
Dish Soap
Dish soap of any kind can help to eliminate a lot of the grime and dirt on our floors. You want to avoid any dish soaps that have dyes in them, moisturizers, or antibacterial properties because they just won’t get the job done.
Rubbing Alcohol
Another common household ingredient that many people reach to put into some of their DIY cleaners is good old rubbing alcohol. This helps to speed up the drying process, and it helps with avoiding streaking and patchiness. Even better? Alcohol can also help disinfect your floors, especially in the bathroom.
Baking Soda
Do you have pets that like to go potty on your floors? Or did you buy a house with doggy stains on the floors? If so, baking soda can help to soak up some of that and even deodorize for stains that haven’t been there a long time.
The longer you allow the baking soda to sit, the better it will work. Vacuum up the baking soda once you have left it to sit for at least eight hours (if possible) before you try to use a liquid cleanser. Baking soda works like a charm. It’s a must-have for homes with pets.
Essential Oils
Who doesn’t love essential oils? Luckily, there are many recipes that have optional essential oils in them. As you can see, a lot of the ingredients used in homemade floor cleaner don’t have pleasant smells. Essential oils, especially in citrus or floral scents, can help to eliminate those smells. Just be careful about using essential oils if you have children or pets because some oils can be toxic.
For the Best Clean, Start with Sweeping
The first thing you want to do is stay by sweeping your floors dry. You can use an old-fashioned brush or a dry mop. This will just get all of the loose debris, dust, and particles off the ground. If you try to use a liquid cleaner on floors that have too much debris, it could end up “gunking” up your floors and making them even harder to clean. Most people just end up spreading dirty water and not really getting a completely clean floor.
You may also want to try to get the visible grime off your floors too. For example, if you know that your kitchen has sticky spots, then you may want to scrape or wipe off the visibly caked-on spaghetti sauce first.
Once this is done, then you can move onto using a DIY floor cleaner. One word of caution: always test your DIY floor cleaners on a section of your floor that you don’t see or on a spare piece of your flooring that you have. Even though they are natural, they can strip your floors or cause them to change colors.
The Basic Wood Floor Cleaner
There is a pretty basic floor cleaning recipe out there that everyone has a version of. All you need to use is a quarter cup of white vinegar, a gallon of warm (not hot) water, and some of your favorite essential oils. You can use whatever you like, but the most popular options are grapefruit, lemon, or lavender because they help to cancel out the scent of the vinegar. You can use as much or as little as you want.
It’s good to know that vinegar is the key ingredient here because it actually disinfects the floor, helping to eliminate bacteria and grime. You need to be careful when you measure out the vinegar, however. If you use too much vinegar and not enough water, you can actually eat away at the surface of the hardwood, which is never a great idea.
When you use this cleaner, don’t allow the water to floor the ground. Instead, use a rag that has been slightly dampened, not soaked, or ensure that your mop is of the highest quality.
Castile Soap Floor Cleaner
Caution: this is one of those DIY recipes that you absolutely need to test on a hidden piece of your flooring before spreading it all over your beautiful floors.
Some people can’t stand the smell of vinegar, and that’s completely understandable. Another option is to use castile soap. This soap is gentle but effective at eliminating dirt, grime, and smell. You will need about four cups of warm (again, not hot) water, a teaspoon of castile soap, and a few drops of your favorite essential oil. Simply combine all of the ingredients and put the mixture in a spray bottle. Mix well, or the oils can sit on top, and you’ll end up spraying just oil on your floors.
Next, use a microfiber mop and your spray bottle to clean your floors. Spray the mixture on your floor and then mop as you go. You will want to use a clean cloth to dry off your floors.
Can You Use Homemade Floor Cleaner with a Spray Mop?
Many people don’t want to use a mop and bucket or a rag and bucket, which is completely understandable. Who wants to get down on their knees and scrub? However, you probably don’t want to use homemade cleaners with those spray mops. You can use a spray bottle and get the same effect; you’ll just have to juggle the mop and bottle as you work (still better than crawling around a half damp, half dirty floor).
DIY Your Floor Cleaner and Clean Those Floors Your Way
Whether you want to use a mop, a cloth, or an old t-shirt that has seen better days, you want to clean your floors regularly to avoid having to really get down there and scrub. Cleaning your floors should be a part of your overall maintenance, which should include oiling, checking for loose boards, and of course, cleaning. If you love the idea of safe cleaning products but don’t love the idea of making one yourself, there are plenty of safe and high-quality cleaning agents on the market.
Taking your health and wellness into your own hands is important, and these DIY floor cleaners will help you get the job done while skipping those harsh chemicals. And that’s a total win-win in our book!
Sources:
Homemade Floor Cleaner | Bob Vila
5 Best Homemade Floor Cleaners for DIYers (2021 Guide) | OhSoSpotless
How to Use Cleaning Vinegar to Clean (Almost) Anything | Real Simple
