I’ve updated my wood floor cleaner recipe! Check out the new one here.

A basic search for ingredients in the leading hardwood floor cleaners (even the ones that claim to be environmentally friendly) reveals ingredients such as:

• Bis(carboxymethyl)-DL-alanine trisodium salt
• 4,4- Dimethyloxazolidine
• Potassium hydroxide
• 2-ethyl-2,5-dimethylhexanoic acid
• Olefin Sulfonates
• Isothiazolinone
• methoxyisopropyl acetate
• Lauryl alcohol ethoxylates

And that’s only the beginning of the list. The list of health effects from these ingredients range from mild skin irritants all the way to carcinogens. 4,4- Dimethyloxazolidine is classified by the EPA as a pesticide and is in the highest toxicity category. Directions for use of almost all of these ingredients say to limit exposure and wash off of skin with soap and water. Are these really what you want to be using in your home?

This is why I cannot suggest making your own floor cleaners more. You know what’s in it. You could ingest this wood floor cleaner without any worry, and it certainly won’t cause long term health or environmental effects.

This wood floor cleaner is my absolute favorite. We live in a beautiful apartment that was built in the 1920’s and has amazing hardwood floors. Of course, over all the years and many tenants, a lot of dirt has built up. You should have seen the floors when we moved in. That would be quite the before and after! Unfortunately I don’t have a picture.

Luckily, shortly after we moved in I found this wood floor recipe and haven’t looked back.

Before and after

The best part about this wood floor cleaner is the way it feels under your feet after it dries. I wish I could capture it in an image. It is so silky and smooth. It’s like the floor version of freshly-shaved and lotioned legs.

So- to clean the floor, you will probably need a microfiber spray mop with a refillable bottle.  I suppose you could also put the cleaner in a spray bottle and spray it on the floor and use any kind of mop to clean.

This is our mop:

Casabella Quick Scrub Doubled Sided Microfiber Spray Mop, Black

Here is the recipe:

The olive oil gives the wood the smooth silky texture. It is wonderful.

Try using this instead of your regular cleaner at least once, just to see how it goes. I bet you will surprise yourself with how much you like it. Let me know what you think!

Don’t forget to check out my updated wood floor cleaner recipe! 

supplies used in this post

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