How to Make Homemade Floor Wax

Besides being expensive, store-bought cleaners contain a number of chemicals. These chemicals can be hazardous to your health and are not necessary to have a clean home. Making your own household cleaners saves money and ensures the ingredients are natural. Homemade floor wax smells good, is great for wood floor finishes and is good for the environment.

Things You'll Need

• Lavender oil
• Olive oil
• Pot
• Bowl
• Water
• Beeswax
• Carnauba wax
• Freezer bag
• Towel
• Rolling pin
• Wooden spoon
• Lemon oil
• Oven mitts
• Jar
• Funnel

Instructions

1. Add 20 drops of lavender essential oil to 1 cup of olive oil, stir and put aside. Prepare this ingredient 12 hours in advance of making the floor polish to ensure the lavender scent has fully mixed with the olive oil.

2. Create a double boiler using a cooking pot and an oven-safe bowl. Pour tap water into the pot, place the bowl on top and put the whole thing on the stove over low heat. The water in the pot should just touch the bottom of the bowl. A double boiler on top of the stove is a gentler way of melting items together and prevents burning.

3. Grate 1.5 ounces of beeswax into a bowl and break up 2 ounces of carnauba wax into the same bowl. To get small pieces of carnauba wax, place the block into a freezer bag, zip it closed, cover with a kitchen towel and pound firmly with a rolling pin. The wax should break apart easily into fine pieces. Both beeswax and carnauba wax are available online or at natural food stores.

4. Place the ingredients listed above into the bowl of the double boiler. This would include the olive oil-lavender mix as well as the two waxes.

5. Stir the ingredients together slowly using a wooden spoon until everything is fully mixed together. Stirring is an important step to the consistency of the finished product. The exact time it takes to melt the items together depends on altitude and individual stove-top temperature.

6. Drop 20 drops of lavender oil or lemon essential oil into the melted wax mixture and stir a few more times. This additional essential oil will only enhance the smell of the finished product and is not a necessary step.

7. Remove the bowl from the pot of water and switch off the stove. Be sure to use oven gloves when handling the bowl as it may be warm.

8. Allow the mixture to cool but not solidify. The floor wax should be fluid enough to pour into a container but not so hot it cannot be handled.

9. Pour the mixture into a clean dry glass jar. A plastic funnel makes the pouring a little easier and a lid is recommended for storage. Keep in a cool, dry place until use.

Tips & Warnings

• Intensify the scent of the polish by using dried lavender petals instead of oil.

• Use care when working with a hot stove.

References

• Earth Notes
• Greater Upper Valley Solid Waste District
• Green Footsteps

Resources

• Ecocycle.org