How do you take care of wood furniture & floors?
By scorpiobabes
@scorpiobabes (7225)
United States
March 26, 2007 6:36am CST
I've got wood cabinets (all handmade), wood floors and some wood furniture. I used to use lemon Pledge but it dried it out. I then used a polishing spray with moisturizer in it (I forget the name but it came in a dark brown can) but it needed to be wiped constantly. I've been using Murphy's Oil (liquid on a soft rag and now the spray) and all I can say is WOW! My kitchen cabinets look so much better and the Murphy's takes off the grease and oil build up. It also conditions and moisturizes the wood (I've got some older pieces that need some TLC). I'd love to find something frugal though--does anyone have any ideas?
4 people like this
4 responses
@SageMother (2277)
• United States
28 Mar 07
What I do with wood cabinets is use Murphy's oil soap to clean, like you do. Then, coat them with Future Floor Wax. Future is actually an inexpensive acrylic that will protect the wood. This way, you slow the wood's drying out and give it a nice satiny glow. You can then dust regularly and use just a little oil on the dust cloth.
Linseed oil is good but I bet there are others that work just as well. You can buy the oil and put it in a spray bottle and spray it on the cloth, or if the sprayer can be adjusted to mist, you can spray a very light mist on and then polish.
I find this works out well!
1 person likes this
@scorpiobabes (7225)
• United States
28 Mar 07
I remember during my antique business era (just a few years ago!) some of the others using linseed oil (but being so young, no one felt the need to educate me!) I'll have to check out the Future Floor Wax on the cabinets idea--sounds like it's something that would work and help make clean up easier. Thanks for sharing!
@cynddvs (2948)
• United States
27 Mar 07
I used to live in a house with hardwood floors throughout the entire house. I would use Murphy's Oil. I could never find anything that worked better. It made the floors shine so well. Main that house was a pain to keep clean though. Wood attracts so much dust it's ridiculous!
1 person likes this
@scorpiobabes (7225)
• United States
27 Mar 07
I agree--it must be God's punishment for those beautiful floors! Did you use a dust mop or something similar to help keep dust at bay inbetween cleanings?
@patootie (3592)
•
8 Apr 07
If you have real wood then you really do need to cosset and care for it properly .. none of the modern spray polishes (like Pledge, Sheen etc) will do real wood any good at all as they are forumlated only for plastics and other hard surfaces .. not real wood which needs to breathe .. the other sprays will merely clog it up and dull the surface with the build up ...
Murphys is a highly recommended wood cleaner, preserver and polisher ..
@recycledgoth (9894)
•
26 Mar 07
I have been using citronella oil, originally bought to use in lamps to keep the bugs at bay. I mixed it in with some cheap sunflower oil and use it on my wooden furniture and it brought out the true beauty of the wood. The bonus is the lovely smell of lemons in the house. It worked out very cheap too, the citronella came in a one litre bottle for only 99p
1 person likes this
@scorpiobabes (7225)
• United States
26 Mar 07
What's your recipe--how much citronella oil and how much sunflower oil? Sounds great (and this will help repell the boyfriend, since he does NOT like lemons!)
