Cleaner Floors Today!

I've introduced you to the few products I use to clean my house, and here's another great way to use them to clean your floors.

In our house we have dark ceramic floors and hardwood in the living room.  The ceramic tiles are fairly low maintenance.  A quick sweep and they usually 'looked' clean.  I would once a week or so use a Swiffer Sweeper with a wet mopping cloth attached at the end.  Although the floors would be clean, they would leave a very strong chemical smell behind and almost a sheen on our floors.  The Swiffer replacement wet mopping cloths were expensive to purchase and I would easily go through 3 during one clean!  There had to be a better, more natural and not to mention cheaper way to clean our floors.

Of course there is, and the best part it is very similar to the All Purpose Cleaner (no extra products required).

B's Floor Cleaner: 
Large Bucket
Mop
4 tbsp Castile Soap (can be substituted with liquid dishwashing soap)
Warm to hot water (depends on how much floor there is to clean)
10-15 drops of Tea Tree Oil
2-3 cups Vinegar (depends on how much floor there is to clean)

Instructions:
In your bucket first add the castile soap and then warm to hot water depending on how much floor you have to clean, then add in the tea tree oil and stir.  Finally add the vinegar to this mixture (make sure the water is still warm to prevent curdling).  Soak your mop and clean away!

My floors have never looked cleaner, without any residue or chemicals left behind and there's even a nice shine to them.  Don't be worried about the smell of vinegar on the floors as the floors won't smell once dry.

Word of advice:  For hardwood floors I do use the same mixture however you have to be careful of not soaking your floors with too much water.  Make sure to rinse as much of the excess water, and the best way to dry and buff (to ensure the shine is there) your hardwood floors is to go over them with a mop that has a Swiffer duster/microfiber type attachment.  I also go old school and sometimes get down on my hands and knees to buff them with my All Purpose Cleaner in hand.

Now I didn't want to take a before and after of floors, because well how exciting is that?  Here's a picture of some flowers I just got that will definitely brighten our home for spring and this lackluster post on floor cleaners!