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Choosing natural floor cleaners allows you to clean and shine your floors without using harmful chemicals that can threaten human health and harm the environment.

Find it! Natural floor cleaners

How to make your own floor cleaner

Here are three do-it-yourself recipes for various floors to boost or even replace commercial floor cleaners and polishes:

1. Mix your own wood floor polish with a 50/50 blend of white vinegar and olive oil or food-grade linseed oil, being sure to follow the grain of the wood in long strokes. Buff to a shine with a clean mop or rag.
2. Mix a basic no-wax and no-rinse floor cleaner, which cleans, cuts grease, disinfects, and deodorizes: start with a quarter cup of vinegar per gallon of water in a bucket, and experiment with amounts. You can’t overdo it, and often less vinegar is needed than commercial solutions. Caution: vinegar will damage natural stone and pull up floor wax.
3. For a sudsy cleaner that won't pull up wax, add two or three squirts of herbal castile soap to a bucket of water. Peppermint, eucalyptus, and lavender-scented varieties have antibacterial and insect-repellent essential oils.
4. Trouble spots, grease, scuffs, and sticky blobs can be loosened by soaking in vinegar, then wiping up. Keep a spray bottle of full-strength vinegar handy for this. Remember this is a no-wax solution, as vinegar strips wax from floors.
5. If a soft-scrub is needed, sprinkle baking soda on the offending area and let sit a few minutes before scrubbing with a sponge. Repeat as necessary.

Choosing natural floor cleaning helps you go green because...

• Natural cleaners are biodegradable and do not contain harmful chemicals that can pollute soil and water systems.
• Using concentrated ingredients allows you to buy less and reduce packaging waste.
• You'll be able to breathe easier without the cocktail of volatile chemicals in commercial floor cleaners.

Products for household cleaning and maintenance that contain chemical solvents are just a few of many sources of indoor air pollution in the home.[1] Nitrobenzene, found in floor cleaners and polishes, can cause skin discoloration, difficulty breathing, vomiting, and is associated with cancer and birth defects.[2] Floor cleaners also contain petroleum solvents that can damage mucous membranes and nonylphenol ethoxylate, found in some all-purpose cleaners (shown to biodegrade into compounds that are even more toxic than the original form).[3]

In addition to health concerns inside the home, these chemicals are capable of harm when released into the environment. A 2002 US Geological Survey (USGS) study of contaminants in American stream water found 69 percent of streams sampled contained traces of detergents, while 66 percent contained disinfectants.[4]

External links

• Green Guide - Floor Finishes
• Grist - How to Clean Your House Without Hurting the Planet
• US Environmental Protection Agency - Environmentally Preferable Purchasing: Cleaning
• TreeHugger - How to Green Your Cleaning
• DIY Network - Green Cleaning
• AlterNet - Make Your Spring Cleaning Green