I had a friend ask me recently what I use to clean my floors. This natural homemade floor cleaner recipe is awesome. I used to buy the strong, antibacterial, colorful liquid that I would dilute in the sink but in my ongoing effort to reduce the chemicals in our home and make my own homemade cleaning products, like this All Purpose Cleaning Spray and this Scouring Powder, I have switched to this easy and effective cleaner. I have tile floors in my kitchen and linoleum floors in our small bathroom so this recipe works great for both.
I wouldn’t use it on hardwood or laminate floors without testing a spot first, for that I would use a mixture of 1/2 c. vinegar and 1 gallon of water and make sure you leave very little water behind.
I’m not a huge fan of the smell of vinegar so I don’t use it too often in cleaning recipes but with the added soap and essential oils of your choice you don’t notice the scent at all. I just cleaned my floors today and got them sparkling clean without a harsh strong chemical smell.
For the soap in this recipe you can use any dish soap you have on hand. I just use “natural” liquid dish soap at the grocery store and used it in this recipe. I’ve also used some from Costco and Seventh Generation Brand soap and also Earth Friendly Brand soap. I just like to switch it up and try new soaps. Unfortunately you are not supposed to use Dr. Bronner’s Liquid Castille soap with vinegar so in this recipe it’s out, unless you omit the vinegar which would definitely still work.
This recipe is not a science and you really don’t need to measure. Just a squirt of soap, a scoop of baking soda, a glug of vinegar and a few drops of your favorite oils all while filling your sink about halfway full with hot water.
Simple Natural Floor Cleaner-chemical free
2 gallons of hot water
1/4 vinegar
1/4 baking soda
1 T. liquid dish soap
Essential Oils of choice
Mix it all in your sink or a bucket and mop up the mess!
Pingback: Sunday Snippets
I wasn’t aware that you shouldn’t use Dr. Bronner’s with vinegar. I don’t use it together but where did you get that information?
Here is a link that talks about not mixing vinegar and Dr. Bronner’s: http://lisa.drbronner.com/?p=292 I couldn’t find anything on the actual Dr. Bronner’s website although when I mixed vinegar and Dr. Bronner’s in a previous recipe of mine after a while the mixture separated and the soap kind of turned to a cottage cheese like substance, the article in the link above says that because vinegar is an acid and Dr. Bronner’s is a base they cancel each other out so it’s best to use them one after the other. If you go to this link you can see what it will look like if you mix the two. http://www.liverenewed.com/2012/10/days-green-clean-common-green-cleaning-mistake.html, I’d be curious to actually call the company and ask them. I hope this helps, I think if you do mix and clean with both, it’s not the end of the world, and you’re still doing a great job by eliminating yucky chemicals I wouldn’t worry too much:)
Pretty! This was an extremely wonderful article.
Thank you for supplying these details.
This is the perfect website for anybody who really wants to find
out about this topic. You understand a whole lot
its almost tough to argue with you (not that I actually will need to…HaHa).
You definitely put a brand new spin on a subject that’s been
written about for a long time. Excellent stuff, just great!