Environmentally Friendly Floor Cleaning Solutions

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.

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. 

Some Healthy & Safe Natural Floor Cleaners:
   

Safe & Natural Carpet Cleaning Tips

You’re constantly on it with and without shoes. Your kids and young family members sit on it, roll around on it and play on it. Your pets sleep on it, they chase toys on it and beg for treats on it.  You might be aware of all the activities that your carpet does handle. But you might be surprised at what hides in your carpet where you can’t see what’s going on.

You can see surface stains (and you get those up right away), but there are things in your carpet and living on the padding beneath it that you probably don’t want to know about - but you do know that you want your carpet to be clean.

 (Photo credit: Queen Of Light and Joy)

To test how clean and safe your carpet is, vacuum it once with a regular vacuum cleaner and look at the amount of debris that gets vacuumed up. Then go over it again with a vacuum cleaner designed with eco-friendly living in mind and see how much more debris is pulled up. That’s the stuff that you can’t see.

Now go over the floor again with an organic cleaner and see how dirty the water looks. That’s because no matter how many times you vacuum your carpet, no matter how powerful the vacuum, in order to stay truly clean, a carpet has to be cleaned with organic options in mind.

Using commercial cleaners to clean your carpet isn’t safe for you so you’re going to want to use natural methods. First, make sure you have a regularly scheduled vacuuming routine.

Always clean up any spills the moment they happen. You can use salt to absorb a spill, which is a natural way to keep a spill from becoming a stain. Use a damp (not wet) cloth to lighten stains like a wine spill, and then treat it with an organic stain remover.

Don’t use commercial cleaners to steam clean your carpet because the chemicals used are bad for the carpet and bad for your home - and bad for your family. Plus, by using steam cleaners, you run the risk of leaving the carpet padding wet, which can encourage the growth of natural toxins like mold and mildew.

Pets, especially cats, tend to leave a home and carpet smelling like you have pets - so use baking soda on the carpet to absorb any odors - then vacuum it up. You can also buy an organic formula just for pet stains and odors that are safer for pets than using baking soda - some animals have sensitive skin that may be irritated by baking soda.

(Photo credit: eddie.welker)

Choose a system to clean your carpets by getting a cleaning machine that has a low moisture option. By having a machine with a low moisture control, you won’t over soak the padding beneath the carpet and cause mold or mildew.

Use organic carpet cleaners that specifically state they’re for high traffic areas if that’s the carpet area you need cleaned, and make sure it states that it’s safe around pets. Some people prefer to save the expense of a carpet cleaning machine and use elbow grease instead!

Homemade carpet cleaning recipes can be as simple as a vinegar and water solution, so look for one that appeases you and start a routine that allows you to safely maintain clean and healthy carpets in your home.


Try These Natural Carpet Cleaning Products: