DIY Natural Wood Cleaner and Polish

The recipe and step-by-step DIY instructions below will show you how to make homemade natural wood cleaner and polish for wooden furniture, hardwood floors, and kitchen cabinets.

I have always wanted to make natural DIY cleaning products like this homemade wood cleaner and polish, but I’ll be honest. I’m not fond of cleaning, and the mere thought of taking time out of my day to make natural cleaning products such as this homemade furniture polish made this busy mom feel overwhelmed, exhausted, and lazy. Are you with me?

Just the thought of making homemade cleaning products, such as this DIY wood floor cleaner, prompted a million and one excuses to come flying out of my mouth before I even started. But you know what? The health of my family and our planet is more than worth it. Don’t you think?

The Problem with Most Natural Wood Floor Cleaners:

The harmful chemicals in many store-bought cleaners can be toxic. Even natural cleaning products seem pretty nasty when you read the ingredients list. Even worse, did you know that the term “natural” legally means nothing? Because the FDA, USDA, and EU don’t set regulations or standards for the term, harmful chemical additives are often included in so-called “natural” products.

When I researched the matter further, I found several popular natural cleaning products on supermarket shelves primarily made of unnatural ingredients, including harsh chemicals and harmful toxins. As I continued to pay attention to the ingredients list over the next several years, I constantly found things like sulfates and parabens in natural cleaning products, including wood polishes and cleaners, that are not natural or friendly to the environment in any way.

Essential Oils to the Rescue!

When I discovered essential oils, I found natural additives that help–and suddenly, my sense of inertia disappeared. Not only did I forget my excuses. I no longer felt overwhelmed or confused by it all. Instead, I raced into my kitchen to pull out all my supplies. Easy peasy, lemon squeezy–literally.

That was when it hit me. I’m not lazy. All I needed was essential oils at the ready in my home–and now I do. Today, I love making DIY natural cleaning products, such as this homemade wood cleaner recipe, because I always have everything I need, including my essential oils and handy dandy list of natural cleaning ingredients to make all my excuses disappear.

Best Natural Wood Furniture Polish and Floor Cleaner Recipe:

Olive oil is a fantastic natural cleaner for wood, so this recipe is the best mixture to clean wood around the house without harsh chemicals. Best of all, the lemon oil in this recipe helps your home smell fresh and clean. Add the optional lavender oil to the wood-cleaning mixture for even more of a fresh scent. Use the natural ingredients below to make DIY wood polish and cleaner great for wooden floors, kitchen cabinets, drawers, and furniture:

• 1 1/2 – 1 3/4 c distilled water
• 1/8 -1/4 c of vinegar (white or apple cider vinegar for dark wood)
• 2 tablespoons of olive oil
• 20 drops of lemon essential oil (natural cleaner & stain remover)
• 10-20 drops of lavender essential oil (optional–adds a complimentary fresh scent to the lemon oil)

Don’t use vegetable glycerin in your homemade wood polish:

Unlike other DIY wood cleaner recipes, I recommend leaving vegetable glycerin out of your homemade wood polish. While some homemade wood cleaner recipes include glycerine to act as a polish and give it a shine, I don’t recommend using it in your homemade wood cleaning mixture. Although it can help preserve driftwood and soften wood veneers, glycerine is generally not a good choice for finishing wood. It can attract moisture, lead to warping, and thus damage the wood over time. Therefore, I don’t advise using glycerine as an ingredient in your homemade wood finish or polish.

How to Make Natural Wood Cleaner and Polish with Essential Oils:

This all-natural wood cleaning recipe is the best natural cleaner for wood furniture (tables, desks, shelves, etc.), kitchen cabinets, and wooden floors. Use the simple step-by-step instructions below to make this easy DIY wood cleaner and polish:

1. Gather the wood cleaner ingredients listed in the wood cleaning recipe above.
2. Pour each DIY wood cleaner ingredient from the recipe above (distilled water, vinegar, olive oil, and essential oils) into a 16-ounce spray bottle. (Glass is best for storing essential oils; spray bottles can be protected with a silicone sleeve.)
3. Give the bottle a gentle shake and a swirl, or use a chopstick to stir it before cleaning wooden cabinets, drawers, furniture, and floors with the step-by-step directions below.

Please test your homemade wood cleaner before use:

Please use any wood cleaner or polish with vinegar or real lemon squeezed into it sparingly on antiques and other delicate wood surfaces–if at all. Different finishes (varnish, lacquer, or oil) require different care methods. Before using it, always test your homemade DIY wood cleaner on a small section of your floor, cabinets, drawers, or furniture.

How to Use Homemade Wood Cleaner and Polish on Wooden Furniture, Kitchen Cabinets, and Hardwood Floors:

1. Grab a microfiber cloth or wood polishing rag for furniture and kitchen cabinets, and you will be ready for some serious wood cleaning and polishing!
2. Or use a microfiber mop with a telescoping handle and double-sided reusable and washable microfiber cloth refills for hardwood floors, as shown in the photograph below.
3. Spray the homemade wood floor cleaner and polish on the microfiber cloth or mop head (recommended) or directly onto wood floors and wooden furniture to clean and polish easily.

Please use Wood cleaners and Polishes sparingly. Most of the time, dry dusting wood is more than enough to clean wooden surfaces:

The best thing you can use to wipe down kitchen cabinets and wooden furniture regularly is a microfiber cloth for wood. You can dampen it with water if it doesn’t pick up the dust well enough, but be sure to squeeze it out so it doesn’t dampen the wood or leave it wet because damp wood usually equals damaged wooden furniture, cabinets, and floors.

So, I often tell my daughter, “Sometimes a simple dust cloth will do every other week or two.” In other words, dry dust most of the time, and get out the wood cleaner and polish every so often. When you want the wood in your house to sparkle and shine, such as when guests visit, get out your homemade wood cleaner recipe to make a fresh batch of polish to give every piece of wood in your home a subtle glow, as shown in the photograph of the wooden surface below.

How the ingredients in this homemade furniture polish and wood floor cleaner work:

Olive oil is included in this recipe to help hydrate naturally and polish wood floors, cabinets, and furniture so they look new again without using harsh chemicals. It also won’t leave behind a filmy surface that will only attract more grime as other wood polishing products, such as furniture wax or beeswax, can. It can also help mitigate any drying or damaging effects of white vinegar (or ACV) as it works to clean and disinfect your hardwood floors, wooden cabinets, and natural wood furniture over time.

Although white vinegar is an excellent cleaner and natural disinfectant for almost anything, it can harm the varnish on wooden floors, cabinets, and antique furniture when used as an undiluted cleaning agent, especially over time. Use this natural wood floor cleaner recipe to protect, clean, disinfect, and polish your wood floors, kitchen cabinets, drawers, and furniture to a subtle, clean shine that will impress even your mother-in-law. However, I don’t recommend using it every time you clean. Use a microfiber cloth with a bit of water, or nothing at all, most of the time.

How to Store Natural Cleaners:

To store natural cleaners such as this homemade wood polish, I like to use a clear spray bottle for our glass cleaner, a cobalt or blue spray bottle for our all-purpose cleaning solution, and a brown or amber bottle for the wood floor cleaner and furniture polish recipe included here. Silicone sleeves can help prevent them from breaking.

I store them in glass because essential oils and other natural cleaning agents are stored much better in glass bottles and containers. Color coding our homemade natural cleaning products in different colored glass bottles also helps everyone in the house know at first glance which to grab, which is quite liberating.

Another nice bonus of using glass bottles is that we don’t mind them sitting around the house ready to use. They look lovely displayed on countertops and shelves instead of plastic bottles with ugly logos and disclaimers. Best of all, beautiful bottles of natural cleaning products, such as this DIY wood floor cleaner, strategically placed around the house, make my husband and children more likely to use them. You can’t get any better than that–trust me!

Keep Wood Clean Naturally with Essential Oils and Other Natural Cleaning Products!

Essential oils have also been one of the many tickets to my homemade DIY cleaner success. Use them as potent cleaning agents that make everything smell wonderful–Naturally. But unlike some natural cleaning products, I know, I mean it.

Once again, I recommend testing your DIY wood cleaner on every piece of wood you intend to clean or polish before using it, or you can risk damaging sensitive wood, lacquers, and veneers. Be especially careful before using it on antiques. Visit “How to Make Natural Cleaning Products to learn about more natural products you likely already have in your cabinets to clean your home without harsh chemical additives.

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More About Essential Oils:

• Natural DIY All-Purpose Cleaner
• DIY Wood Cleaner and Polish
• Essential Oils for a Healthy Home
• How to Make Natural Cleaning Products
• DIY Cleaning Kit for Kids
• Homemade Glass Cleaner