Whether your kitchen is the heart of the home or the walkway to the fridge, the floor sees a lot of action throughout the day. Depending on whether you have stone, wood or laminate can dictate how often you clean them, and what with. Before you grab a bottle of chemicals from the shelf that says ‘floor cleaner’ it might be wise to do your research. In other words, check out the research we’ve already done for you.
Stone floors are expensive - something you probably already know - but they’re also delicate when it comes to cleaning products. Another reason to not buy any multi-purpose cleaning solutions from the shelf, but it’s also a red flag for whipping out some of your natural cleaning products - particularly acidic ones.
The first step to cleaning your stone floor is brushing as much dirt off as possible. Hoovering, sweeping and removing any of the dirt that has accumulated over time. Most stone floors are uneven, creating a lot of potentials for dirt to fall into grooves. Our top tip is to put the brush attachment on your hoover to make sure you pick it all up.
Once you’ve removed the big pieces, the time for cleaning has come. You’ll be surprised that all you need is some warm water and dish soap. More importantly, don’t soak the tiles.
We recommend putting the solution into a trigger spray bottle and then spraying your floors. Wipe it over with a mop, or get on your hands and knees with a cloth to softly scrub. Stone floors don’t need a lot of moisture to have dirt lifted from them. What’s more soaking them might damage them. So spray it bit by bit, using warm soapy water - simple!
Wooden floors need extra care to keep them shiny, but a bit of hot soapy water and you’ll find your kitchen quickly turns into an ice rink. Just as you would with other types of flooring, be sure to hoover and sweep them clear of dirt.
Wooden floors tend to be smooth unless they are old original floorboards. You might need to pop on a bristle brush to get all the dirt.
After most of the dirt has gone, it’s time to start mixing ingredients ready to clean. Lemon juice, warm water and a touch of olive oil is the perfect natural cleaning solution for cleaning wooden floors. By using a mop and a little bit of elbow grease you’ll be able to get the majority of dirt off. For the stubborn pieces, you might need to grab a sponge and clean them a little more aggressively.
The lemon juice will work to remove dirt and grease and the oil will leave a nice shine. Alternatively, you could also use vinegar instead of the lemon juice, and then to clean the tougher dirt, add a touch of baking soda to the mixture.
It’s important to note that laminate flooring is not designed to be soaked in water. Often the bubbling issues that arise from linoleum floors are down to one of two reasons. Either they weren’t fitted properly in the first place, or too much moisture has made its way into the material and caused it to warp.
So before you consider grabbing your bucket and mop, swap it out for your trigger spray and cloth - far more suitable for this type of flooring!
When it comes to the cleaning solutions for lino flooring there’s many to choose from. It’s a fairly durable material. Not delicate like stone and not needing extra attention like wood. Lino is perfect for a busy family creating lots of spills, but we have a particular recommendation for clearing them up using natural materials.
Due to the tough material, we love sprinkling baking soda on the floor and then scrubbing it with a vinegar cloth. Simply douse the cloth in white vinegar and get on those hands and knees. It’s the quickest way to cut through all the dirt and grime and lift it. Simply wipe with a clean damp cloth afterwards and you’ll have a sparkling clean floor.
If you are worried about the smell of the vinegar add a few drops of lemon juice to your cloth before cleaning. This will help lift off some grease but also leave you with a nicer smelling floor.
No matter what type of flooring you have there’s always a natural cleaning solution to suit it. While most natural cleaning solutions involve similar types of ingredients, they have differing properties. If you’re unsure about what type of natural products you can use on your floor, feel free to get in touch. We’d be happy to help if it involves avoiding the bottles filled with chemicals!
More about Purdy & Figg
If you liked this article we have many more including cleaning with lemon, cleaning with white vinegar, zero waste cleaning, refill not landfill, how to go plastic free, how to clean dishwasher with vinegar or how to clean toilet with citric acid in our Cleaning Advice Hub.
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