Green Cleaning - Cleaning wood and tile floors

We recently had company and so I gave our home a thorough cleaning.  I washed the floors, carpets, walls, etc.  Probably cleaning more than I would do for myself this time of year.  The floors were the hardest to clean, as we have cats and I have been tracking in some dirt from the garden these past couple months.

That put me on a tangent of thought.  What is good to clean the floors that will not harm them, me or the cats.  Here was what I came up with:

In our old house we had wood floors, real wood floors, not pergola.  These were finished with varnish and tung oil, so as a result I used mineral spirits or Murphy’s oil soap with water.  I infused the water with herbs for disinfecting.  I like to use thyme water as thyme is a natural germ fighter (thymol -essence of thyme- is the main ingredient in items like Lysol).  Herbal waters are herbs steeped in warm water for a long period, like a concentrated tea.

Here is the recipe I use to make a Murphy’s oil soap cleaner.

Versatile Cleaner Concentrate –

This concentrate can be mixed with herbal waters or vinegars for more powerful cleaning.

1 Tablespoon essential oil (you can use your favorite scent or a combination of scents) 

1/2 cup concentrated oil soap paste

Mix the soap paste (like Murphy's Concentrate available at the hardware store) with the essential oil in a glass container with a metal or plastic spoon.  Blend until the oil stops separating (sometimes a bit more paste is needed to get a good consistency and no separation).  I use lemon oil as a first choice, but a combination with thyme oil, grapefruit or other citrus oils will also work well.

TO USE -- Dilute by adding 1 to 3 teaspoons of concentrate to 4 cups of plain or herbal water. 

I also make vinegar cleaners, but you should never use vinegar on a wood floor, as this will discolor the finish or sealant.  Murphy’s Oil Soap will work with vinegar too.  I like a thyme or lemon herb vinegar using the recipe above on my tile floors (vinyl and ceramic) in the bathroom and kitchen.