Making Your Own Natural Furniture Polish for Green Cleaning

Commercially sold furniture polish contains many questionable ingredients such as phenol and nitrobenzene, both known to cause a multitude of health problems. The solution to this is to make your own furniture polish. It is really quite simple. Making any homemade furniture polish follows the same basic process, regardless of the specific ingredients used. Read over the instructions below and then make your own green cleaning furniture polish and rest easy knowing that your loved ones are living in a home cleaned with nontoxic, safe ingredients.

Before using any homemade furniture polish throughout your home, it is very important that you understand what the different ingredients are doing. I strongly suggest that you test your homemade furniture polish on a small, out-of-the-way area of your furniture before using it in great quantity.

Most homemade furniture polish contains either vinegar, lemon juice or both. These both act as cleansers but lemon juice can also lighten wood, so use sparingly. If you decide it isn't getting the job done, you can always add a little more later. Start small and protect your wood furniture.

Every furniture polish needs a good oil in it to enrich and polish wood to a shine. Popular choices include olive oil, jojoba oil, linseed and coconut oils. They all work well, so pick your favorite based on the scent.

Use either white vinegar or lemon juice to clean the wood. The amount you use will depend on whether you want your furniture polish to act more as a cleanser or more as a heavy, oil-based polish. Lemon juice has a clean, fresh smell to it and works great to remove greasy grime. White vinegar is an antifungal and antiviral.

Mix your chosen oil with your chosen cleanser in a ratio of 3 parts oil to 1 part vinegar or lemon juice. This creates a heavy polish. Use a ratio of 1 part oil to 2 parts vinegar or lemon juice to create more of a cleansing furniture polish. As mentioned before, go easy on the lemon juice, as it may take the color out of wood.

If you want your furniture polish to be scented, try essential oils. They come in a wide variety of fragrances and work great in homemade green cleaners. Popular choices for wood polish include citrus, lavender and lemongrass. Add approximately three drops of the essential oil you've chosen and shake well. You can add more as desired to obtain the strength of fragrance you prefer.