The floors in your home handle a lot of
foot traffic, and if you have pets, you can also add paw traffic. It’s no wonder that floors can be
tough to keep clean.
Besides foot traffic, there’s human
hair, pet hair, dust and anything tracked in from the outside that
can build up. Plus, you also have to take care of any accidental
spills, and make sure you get up liquids that stain the floor. Some
stains get ground in and can be tougher to get out if you didn’t
know they had occurred.
Bamboo flooring. (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
It’s easy to buy into the belief that
using a steam cleaner is the only way to truly clean carpets. And you
might also think that chemical cleaners are the best product to use
on wood or tile flooring, but you would be wrong.
Many commercial floor cleaners have too many dangerous
chemicals to use in your home, and the water used after a chemical
steam cleaning ends up in the sewer system, while the
non-biodegradable containers end up in the landfill. Not only are
these chemicals bad for you and the earth, they don’t do the best
job at cleaning, either.
You want floors that are safe and clean
enough to walk on barefoot, and you also want floors clean enough for
your children to be able to sit on or crawl on - especially if you have little
infants learning how to navigate the world.
Luckily, there are a number of natural floor cleaning products available that are much safer for you and your family.
Luckily, there are a number of natural floor cleaning products available that are much safer for you and your family.
Starting with carpets, you’ll first
want to use a natural stain remover. You can find organic stain
removers that don’t have any fumes, so there’s no chemical odors,
and they don’t contain toxins so they’re great for the
environment, too.
Once you’ve gone over any stains on
the carpet, you can apply the carpet cleaner. Most organic cleaners
are concentrated so a little bit can keep your carpets looking new all
year long.
Even if you use a carpet-cleaning
machine that doesn’t use heat, organic carpet cleaners will still
work for you. Some of the carpet cleaners can be specially mixed in a
small dish and used as a stain remover, so you can even skip the
pretreatment of stains depending on the brand you get. Look for
cleaners that have soap bark and great smelling natural scents like sage.
For tile floors, get a cleaner that’s
multi-purpose and contains linseed oil. This is safe to use on marble
flooring as well. If you have hardwood flooring, make sure the
organic cleaner you buy specifically lists hardwood flooring, because
not all organic ingredients are suitable for hardwood.
Some organic cleaners will contain
vinegar and an essential oil, which are good for cleaning and shining wood
floors. For any floor polishes that you use, make sure they’re
vegetable based.
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