re-nest Green Cleaning Tip: Make Your Own All Natural Wood Polish
23rd June, 2011 - Posted by katherine - 1 Comment
Earlier this week I posted a link to 25 green cleaning recipes from re-nest’s website. Anyone who has been to my house knows I like to keep it pretty tidy, and I won’t use green products unless they really work. So far I’ve switched to some green products: I use all natural surface cleaners (7th Generation is my first choice- the smell of it reminds me of saxophone reeds, which is a weird smell but makes me happy because it reminds me of 6th grade band), Mrs. Meyer’s toilet bowl cleaner in lavender, Kirkland brand (Costco) environmentally friendly liquid detergent, and Bona hardwood floor cleaner. In addition to a vacuum and a Shark steam floor cleaner, those are pretty much the only cleaning products I use aside from Pledge, fabric softener sheets, the occasional bleach-based bathroom cleaner for the shower, and regular dish detergent (haven’t found a green one yet that works well). So I”m excited to explore some of the ideas on the re-nest website and see if I can replace some of those latter products with something greener (and maybe even less expensive).
Anywho, I know Pledge is probably full of chemicals but it smells so nice and toxic-y at the same time. So when I saw the re-nest post, the first thing I wanted to try was the DIY wood polish, which I tried today. It’s very simply, just lemon juice, olive oil, and water. You can find the recipe here. I quickly made up a batch and had enough to use it on our coffee table and dining room table.
I thought it seemed to work pretty well. The olive oil definitely made the wood look nice and polished, and like Pledge, it stayed shiny looking for quite some time after I had cleaned it. Did my living room smell a little like salad dressing afterward though? Yes. It surely did. Plus whatever you make in a batch is supposed to be used up that same day, so you can’t make a large quantity ahead of time and use it up over several weeks. So I think it is something I will try from time to time when I happen to have an extra half lemon to use up, but I probably will also look for some other commercial wood cleaner that’s greener than Pledge as well.
But look how shiny!
1 Comment
Wax Furniture Polish
July 12th, 2011 at 7:15 am
Natural furniture polish provides an inexpensive and effective way to care for your furniture and protect your family and the environment at the same time. The benefits of using homemade furniture polish are plentiful and these alternatives are chemical-free, contain no irritating fragrances.
Wax Furniture Polish
Leave a reply