Cleaning hardwood floors, or, Homemade Floor Cleaner

I have wood floors. I hate hate hate wood floors. Yes, they are pretty. Yes, spills clean up nicely from them. Yes, they don’t collect the dirt like carpet. So why do I loathe wood floors so intensely? They are impossible to keep clean and streak free! Really, I vacuum and mop and then catch streaks of cleaning solution in a glare or infinitesimal crumbs everywhere .

Enough! I decided to try two things to combat this. First, I dumped my old mop (both of them, a Swifter mop and a steam mop) and tried Hoover’s Floormate(It was a lovely anniversary gift from my darling, thoughtful, and caring husband ). I will get to a review on the Floormate in just a bit. Second, I made my own floor cleaner. Again, I will get to this in the next few paragraphs.

Back to the Floormate. The Floormate has three settings: Vacuum, Mop, and Dry. After opening the box and setting up, I tried a dry vacuum. Ultimate fail on the after-lunch mess from my kids. I set it aside with every intention of returning it. Interestingly enough, I was also babysitting my neighbor’s kid around the same time and always mopped right before she came over.

Wait, you don’t frantically clean your food-covered, kid infested floors before witnesses arrive? You also don’t require visitors to provide you with a specific arrival time so you can ensure maximum cleanliness when they show up? Ok, so I like to pretend that I have it all together, it is like a grown-up version of dress-up and playing house in one. Getting side tracked, back to the Floormate.

 So one random day before my neighbor friend came over, I decided to give the Floormate mop setting a chance (I hadn’t gotten around to returning it yet). I threw some homemade floor cleaner in it and went to town. Again, I was not really happy. It felt like it took forever, just like shampooing carpets except wood floor version. HOWEVER this same day my friend compliments how great my floor looks. Really, she had never done this once before. Not one compliment after many visits on my freshly and laboriously cleaned floors until this day. I was sold, hands down, on the Floormate mop.

 

               My floor before mopping tonight. Gross right? What is that????

                              Ahhh, much better. Post mop.

Some things I enjoy about the Floormate after using it for a few months:

#1: Automatic drying feature-not perfect but still fantastic!

#2: Seeing the dirty water tank. Yes, it is gross but I love seeing all the crap that is permanently off my floors!

#3: This machine sucks up the little particles my dry vacuum misses while I mop!

#4: The numerous compliments I get about how great/clean the floors look!

#5:  I do not feel like mopping takes forever. I feel like it takes the same amount of time as steam mopping.

 

       Dirty water ONE DAY since last floor cleaning. Another EEEWWWW!

Ok, so back to the homemade floor cleaner. I don’t have an exact recipe. If I did measure, this is what I guess it would be:

5-6 cups water

1-2 cups white vinegar  (My go-to cleaner for just about everything!)

¼- ½ cup rubbing alcohol (completely optional-I do this because alcohol helps dry up moisture. I feel this reduces mopping streaks)

3-4 drops peppermint oil (Hawaii has lots of bugs, this is my natural bug deterrent)

5-10 drops (possibly way more than that) lavender oil (antibacterial, anti-fungal, and so much more!)

And that is it. I put it in an empty juice container, shake, and use! The essential oils mask the vinegar smell (my husband hates this smell) and I kind of enjoy the peppermint/lavender combo.

  All the ingredients to a great floor cleaner!

Another note, I am not a wood flood expert. I don’t know if our floors are laminate or real wood, or if that makes any difference when using this cleaner. To be safe, I recommend finding a small test area to mop before taking on your entire floor.

Needless to say, after several wood floor mopping fails, I am excited and happy to mop now! I hope you find this information useful and that it helps make your own life a little easier, cleaner, and greener!  Happy Mopping!!

Don’t miss next week’s post about houseplants and cleaner air! I promise it will be worth the wait!!

 As always, if you enjoy please share, follow, and talk about it!
                                                          Yours Truly,
                                                             Isabelle