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Homemade Floor Cleaner

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You probably already have all of the ingredients needed to make your homemade floor cleaner. This mopping solution gets your wood, tile, laminate or vinyl just as shiny and streak-free as the commercial stuff without introducing irritants to your home.

That’s one of the great things about making natural homemade cleaners: you don’t need a lot of different products that only clean one kind of surface. So, once you’ve got your standard cleaning ingredients on hand, it’s easy to mix up a variety of homemade cleaning products.

The Best Homemade Floor Cleaner

Person mopping wood floor

Safer for Indoor Air-Quality

Commercial cleaning products contribute significantly to indoor air pollution. For people with allergies or asthma, indoor air quality is critical to good health.

Companies that manufacture cleaning products aren’t required to disclose their ingredients on the label. As a result, there’s no way to tell at a glance whether a product contains volatile organic compounds (VOCs) that may cause irritation or even cancer.

Switching to homemade natural cleaners lets you know exactly what you’re using in your home, so you can avoid dangerous combinations of cleaning ingredients that can harm your family’s health.

Fabric mop and bucket of homemade floor cleaner

Easier on Your Budget

If that’s not enough to convince you to switch to a homemade floor cleaner, consider how much money you’ll save. The cost of commercial floor cleaners is crazy!

Using a Swiffer mop, for instance, runs about $0.32 per wet pad — and you have to use two or three of them in even a small kitchen or bathroom. Even bottles of commercial mopping products run anywhere from $4 to $15, depending on the brand.

Over time, those expenses add up. Cleaning shouldn’t cost a fortune, and it doesn’t when you use this homemade mopping solution.

Homemade Floor Cleaner for ALL Hard Flooring

This homemade mopping solution cleans any kind of hard flooring.

✓ It works on laminate.
✓ It works on hardwood.
✓ It works on vinyl, linoleum, and tile.
✓ Yep, you can use it on marble or granite.
✓ It even works on cement!

Have I mentioned that, after powering through grime, it also leaves a gorgeous shine?

Mopping hard wood floor

It Works With Mopping Robots, Too!

I’ve written before about my search to find the best floor cleaning robots. One of my requirements was being able to use a homemade floor cleaner.

After spending that kind of money on a mopping robot, I didn’t want to be stuck buying a special floor cleaning solution or wet mopping pads all the time.

I’ve been using it in my mopping robot for over two years now, and I’m thrilled with the results.

Homemade Floor Cleaner Recipe

Homemade Floor Cleaner Recipe

Homemade Floor Cleaner

Course: homemade cleaner
Keyword: homemade cleaner
Prep Time: 2 minutes
Total Time: 2 minutes
Servings: 22 ounces
Inexpensive but powerful mopping solution that cleans all types of hard floors. Works on wood, tile, laminate, vinyl, even marble, and stone.
Print Recipe
US Customary – Metric

Ingredients

  • 2 cups warm water
  • 1/2 cup distilled white vinegar
  • 1/4 cup isopropyl (70%) rubbing alcohol
  • 1/8 tsp liquid dish soap (See notes)
  • 5-10 drops essential oils optional

Instructions

To Use in a Spray Bottle

  • Add all of the ingredients above and gently swirl to mix. Lightly spray 3-foot sections then wipe with a mop. This is best for small areas or touch-up mopping.

To Use in a Bucket

  • Scale the recipe depending on the size of your bucket. A 1-gallon bucket holds 128 ounces (US) to 160 ounces (UK). Use the “Serving Size” slider to select your needed amount. You may need to scale more than once to select your desired amount.

For Both Methods

  • You do not need to rinse after use.
  • Allow the floors to completely dry before walking on them.
  • Store unused homemade floor cleaner in a cool, dark spot. Use within 1 month.

Notes

Do not use a liquid dish detergent that contains moisturizing, anti-bacterial, or oxygenated bleach ingredients. Also, do not swap Castile soap for the dish detergent since it is an oil-based soap and will leave streaks.

What the Ingredients Do

  • Water: Loosens grime and acts helps the other ingredients combine.
  • White vinegar: Degreases and provides mild disinfection. At this dilution, it’s safe for natural stone surfaces because it’s not acidic enough to cause etching. I’ve been using this on marble and granite for years without a problem. If you have any concerns, don’t use it.
  • Isopropyl (70%) rubbing alcohol: Speeds up evaporation to avoid streaks. Degreases and helps disinfect. (In the UK, if you can’t find it inexpensively at the chemist it’s available online.)
  • Liquid dish soap: Dissolves bonds between dirt and floor, degreases and cleans. Don’t use a dish soap that contains moisturizers, antibacterial ingredients, or “oxygen bleach.” I use Dawn Original (Classic). (Fairy is the UK substitute.) Please don’t swap Castille soap for the dish soap. Castille is an oil-based soap and will leave streaks and smears.
  • Essential oils: Optional ingredient to offset the smell of vinegar and rubbing alcohol. If you have pets or children, verify the safety of any essential oil you use. Be sure they aren’t compounds (i.e., those with fragrance added to grapeseed or some other form of oil). I buy these from Amazon.

Remember, there are reasons for using the specific ingredients in this homemade cleaning recipe. If you change them, you’re changing the formula, and that may alter your results.

More How-Tos:

Pin this Homemade Floor Cleaner Recipe for later!

Homemade Floor Cleaner for All Types of Floors

Comments

  1. I’m confused. The ingredient list gives specific amounts of water, vinegar, and alcohol, but the instructions say to combine equal parts. Which is it? I tried it with the amounts on the ingredient list and it seemed to work fine. My only problem is it smelled like straight vinegar and I couldn’t smell the essential oils at all. Anything to help with that?

    Reply

    • My apologies, Michelle. I’d posted the “equal parts” recipe to begin with then, as people with flooring types other than my own began to have problems, tinkered with the recipe — and used it on different flooring types — until I came up with a specific one, which has worked well for me in trials on ceramic, porcelain, laminate, linoleum, vinyl, and hard wood.

      As for the vinegar smell, there are a number of factors to consider. First, vinegar always gives a strong scent initially but that disappears as it dries; by the time you’re done mopping it won’t be noticeable. If you’d prefer not to smell the vinegar at ALL you can add more essential oil, but keep in mind that when you do you are adding additional oil which might affect the shine and lead to streaking.

      I personally just ignore the vinegar smell and get on with the mopping. Thirty minutes later there’s no trace of the vinegar in the air. (I’ve had company confirm this.)

  2. I just tried this on my ceramic tile floors and it’s great! I also did the peppermint & orange essential oils…which smelled nice! My floors look very clean, clean, clean! Thanks for this non-toxic cleaner.

    Reply

  3. Can you please tell me specifically about how much water, vinegar, rubbing alcohol, and liquid soap to use? I know that the amount of water, vinegar, and rubbing alcohol must be equal, but what about the liquid soap? Does it have to be only three drops or more? Does it depend on the amount of water, vinegar, and rubbing alcohol used?

    Reply

  5. Great advice! I am just wondering if this works well on vinyl wood planks. Over time my floor has built up a film that I hate. The shine is gone. I feel it never looks clean even though I just mopped it. Any suggestions? Thanks

    Reply

    • It should definitely clean them, but whether it removes that film or haze depends on its cause. Sometimes that film is the result of detergent buildup, and this formula would definitely remove that. You could even skip the liquid dish soap for the first mopping or two if you’re concerned.

  6. Hi Katie, the reviews for this floor cleaner are exciting, as it is so discouraging to try a new product, homemade or commercial, and get poor results. My question is, is this a no-rinse recipe? I really don’t like the idea of mopping twice, once to clean and then again to rinse. The use of dishsoap is what makes me question this. Please let me know. thanks for your tips.

    Reply

    • Yep, it’s a no-rinse solution IF you only use the small amount of soap called for. Too much soap will actually attract dirt if you don’t rinse it off, but this recipe involves very little. Just enough to help lift dirt.

    • Castile soap is a base, and so it shouldn’t be used with an acid like vinegar (or lemon juice) because they’ll cancel each other out. The vinegar will just turn the castile soap into its original oils, and those will leave streaks on your floor.

  7. Thank you for the idea! Just wondering how much of each item in the recipe do you use? I know it says equal parts, but not sure how much exactly. Please let me know. Thanks!

    Reply

  8. Thank you for the wonderful website and for your tips and advices. One question, what is your opinion about steamers, steam mops and similar products? They also don’t use chemicals, only pure steam. But do they really desinfect? Anyway, I will start using your home made products with vinegar. Thank you again.

    Reply

    • I just gathered up 4 (yes 4) “steam cleaners” to throw away. They all worked great for a couple months and then would clog even though I used distilled water. I would put them in the garage and buy another. Now I am trying to be frugal as well as green. I bought an O Cedar mop with spinning basket and am going to try this floor cleaner. Steam cleaners are a waste of money.

  9. Well, I’ll be darned!

    I was reading your latest post and thought, okay, the furniture polish, air freshener and vinegar tips have been amazing, but alcohol and vinegar (mixed together) on my floors…well, let’s say I was skeptical.

    Mixed up a trusty spray bottle of this concoction, and lo and behold, it is fantastic! You are right, it dries to a beautiful shine and the kitchen smells delightful. If it works this well on my hardwoods I will be ecstatic.

    Thanks for another huge money saver, especially one which honestly does what is advertised.

    I hope you and your family are having a wonderful summer.

    Reply

    • I’m so glad you gave it a try, Sue! I love the way it cleans my white ceramic tile floors. Those things are the bane of my existence! How’d it work on your hardwood?

    • I did the hardwood floors this afternoon and this mixture did a beautiful job.

      These floors are light oak and no matter the care, they pick up everything that comes down the pike and with a house well used by family and friends the everything adds up quickly.

      Hubby thought the kitchen and hallway tile I did last night looked great but after I finished the hardwood today, he was even more impressed.

      Having used the peppermint oil in this mixture, I was curious if the combination you mention above gives the same fresh scent, or does the citrus in the orange overpower the peppermint? Thanks!

    • I have sprayed my cerami c tile floors with rubbing alcohol and mopped with hot water for years , they still look new,

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