How to Make Your Own Floor Cleaners

Making your own floor cleaner saves money and reduces chemicals in your home.

Making your own floor cleaners gives you control over the ingredients, allowing you to save money and protect your family's health and the environment. Common household items provide the basis for effective floor cleaners that are safe for children and pets. Different types of floors require different types of care, so you can create separate natural cleaning solutions for tile, wood and linoleum. With a few basic ingredients, you can make floor cleaners for every floor in your home.

Things You'll Need

• White vinegar
• Bucket
• Castile soap
• Peppermint oil
• Baby oil (optional)
• Borax (optional)

Instructions

1. Pour white vinegar into a mop bucket. Use 1/4 cup of vinegar for tile cleaner and 1 cup for brick or stone cleaner. Increase the amount of vinegar if there are grease, mud or scuff marks on the tiles. For example, use 1/2 cup of vinegar for a tile floor in the kitchen. Add 1 gallon of warm water to the vinegar. The combination of water and white vinegar removes dirt from tiles and grout without creating a soap film that dulls the appearance of tile, brick and stone floors.

2. Add 15 drops of peppermint oil to the basic vinegar and water floor cleaner to damp mop wood floors, the Vassar College website suggests. The oil will help polish wood floors without harming the finish.

3. Add 1 tbsp. of borax and 1 tsp. castile soap to the vinegar and water floor cleaner to clean floors in bathrooms and the nursery, or to clean up pet accidents, spilled juices from meat or poultry, or body fluids. Borax has disinfecting properties.

4. Mix 1 tsp. castile soap and 1 tsp. baby oil with 1 gallon of warm water for a linoleum or vinyl floor cleaner. The baby oil helps to preserve and polish these flooring materials.

Tips & Warnings

• Test the floor cleaner on an unobtrusive area of the floor to make sure it doesn't harm the finish.

• Peppermint castile soap leaves a fresh scent. Use unscented soap if anyone in the household is sensitive to scents.

• Use a clear water rinse on tile, brick or stone floors after mopping with vinegar floor cleaner.

• Natural food stores carry pure peppermint oil. It's a separate product from peppermint extract.

• Keep all cleaning products out of reach of children.

• Borax is harmful if swallowed.

References

• Environmental Protection Agency; Safer Cleaning; Sam Umscheid, M.S.W.
• Vassar College: Environmental Risks and Breast Cancer; Cleaning Products