what do i use to clean my kitchen floors?

[bunny's mama]

hi all. i'm now very lucky to have two very wonderful women who help me clean my house every other week. they are totally willing to use whatever products i buy, so i am free to get the less toxic stuff.

my question is: what can i use to clean my kitchen floor (it is made of the nasty old-style stuff, sorta soft tile, not ceramic)? the cleaning women suggest ammonia b/c everything else we've tried (pine cleaner, dr. bronner's soap) leaves it feeling sticky.

any suggestions for something that won't smell horrible like ammonia and won't kill us when we're mopping, won't kill dd if she licks the floor, etc.???

[ekblad9]

I like Ecover floor soap or Ecover All Purpose Cleaner. I also have tried Earth Friendly Products orange cleaner. All have worked well for me and don't have much smell at all! Good luck!

Amy

[friend of mine]

i just poor a bunch of vinegar in my hot water mop bucket. that's what my grandma does too. my grandma is the queen of cleaning

[emmaline]

vinegar and hot water too - with a spray of an orange oilbased cleaner on any really grotty bits. never sticky! won't choke your cleaners while they mop!

[Lori]

ditto vinegar

This never leaves that sticky feeling.I was having problems with that too when I started the vinegar.

[Irishmommy]

Am I overdoing it if I also suggest vinegar? We use it on all our non-carpet floors, and it's great.

[AmyG]

I use vinegar too. I learned it from my mom, who could care less if something says it's antibacterial or has bleach in it. She doesn't even want to be natural, but that's what she used because it cleaned well and made the floors feel good. If you use too much, the house will smell like salad for a while, but that's not such a bad thing.

[bunny's mama]

so vineagar it is then, thank you all so much!!

[javamama]

vinegar , but you can scent it with essential oils (I like tea tree). It doesn't make the smell disappear, but it does leave a nice scent. I learned about this in Clean House, Clean Planet which I came here to post about. I am really excited about this book!!
She also recommends that if you still want to use soap for your floors, to use a vinegar rinse to remove all the soap. Otherwise dirt will stick to it and make the problem worse.
happy cleaning!
Heather

[Maribel]

ya know, I'm new to all this Healthy Home stuff. I tried the Vinegar and water, worked great, but I couldn't stand the smell of vinegar. It was really strong. You think I used too much? How much should I use? 1c to 1gallon? I have no clue. I used a squirt bottle and used 1/4 vinegar and 3/4 water. Is that too much.

[Corriander]

You know, I'm going to buck the trend here and suggest that IF THE VINEGAR DOESN'T WORK...

Go ahead and use the amonia, but you'll only have to do it once. It sounds like you have linolium floors which need to be waxed if you want them to have any kind of finish on them. The stickiness you described is probably old wax build up. Amonia is used to strip the old wax, which is the only way to really clean a floor with old wax on it. After that you can leave them without finish and just damp mop when they get dirty. This is what I do, they look dull and get dirtier faster but I cannot be bothered to wax and strip them over and over again.

We will be redoing our kitchen soon and I will be rid of these floors.

[bunny's mama]

corey, AH HA! i had no idea about the build-up, but that makes total sense to me. the floor *is* lineoleum, and i think it's prolly about 30 years old (looks like 70s stuff). we rent or else i'd definitely get rid of it. it is nasty!

thanks for the input!

[Kelso]

Lucky Me!!

I came home with dd on Sat. and dh was just about to wash the kitchen floor!!!!!!!!!!(I didn't even have to ask!!!!!)
Anyway he only had the hot water in the bucket and ds was crawling around on the floor with him I suggested we .
use vinegar instead of Lysol(we've got a big bottle of it [vinegar]in the basement for cloth diapers) and he said "sure!! that way its not bad for our babies" (all on his own!!!!!I'm soooooo proud ) Anyway, It worked great. A little elbow grease with a scrub brush and the floor is clean.

[Kelso]

Oops!

I couldn't get that right. It's supposed to be because dh washed the floor on his own