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hardwood - warm water, vinegar and either lavender or peppermint
tile - hot water, castille soap (dr bs), and bergamot, some times i throw in some GSE.
I just use a spray bottle filled with water and a squirt of liquid dishwashing detergent. When it's around, I use liquid soap- Dr B's. In a week or so, I'll be trying EO/WF liquid soap. It works just fine.
If you haven't any lemon eo on hand, you can use a vegetable peeler to peel the yellow rind off a lemon, and drop it into the bottle. Also, you can squirt some lemon juice from the rinded lemon, into the bottle. For that matter, any citrus on hand would do the trick, I think.
I've read that women ue oranges halves, cut side down, wiped across wooden floors, in the Caribbean. ( Oranges, John Mcphee) ( reading list post)
I would think you would need some sort of detergent or soap, just a tiny bit, to lift the dirt. I don't know, I am just guessing.
ari
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I use a linseed oil soap, I think it's Ecover, might be another brand. Murphy's oil soap is the same thing, but I rarely go to grocery stores anymore, so I just get it at the HFS.
Soaps are BAD for wood floors. When we just had ours done, they told us NO SOAP ever, and especially none of the floor shiner mop & shine type stuff. We were told 4:1 ratio of water to vinegar for mopping, and windex for sticky spots.
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Mary,
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And Ciara 1-14-06
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I never used anything on my 2600 sq ft of hardwood. I always just used my ecolovables mop with water. It worked 95% of the time, the other times I used a sponge with water and perhaps soap residue from the dishes to get up tough spots.
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Val; Living the dream we have been working towards for over 5 years.
Mama to Alex, Cyan, and Logan. Wife to my very best friend.
I heard someplce that Murphy's oil soap is not good for hardwood that does not have a GOOD finish on it, cause if and when someone wants to put a good finish on them, it takes so much more sanding and replacing sandpaper to get it all up to reveal the raw wood.
it smells SO GOOD though, I find it hard to resist when I have lived in places with hardwood floors.
When I clean houses, I usually use diluted spray cleaners, depending on how dirty the floors are-sometimes a tiny bit of bleach for really nasty and germy kitchen/bathrooms.
(ooh I know bleach is bad!!)
At home, hot hot water and a tiny bit of dishsoap possibly with vinegar are all I need.
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Becky,
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I can see the cleaning with oranges on floors. Orange oils are awesome for cleaning everything. That is why I buy orange essential oil in bulk. It has even taken pen mark off of some surfaces.
Tawnya, your memory lives on in your children.
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