The day I pretty much RUINED our hardwood floors...

So, when we bought our home, the living room looked like this:

It isn't bad but the green carpet and yellow walls just weren't our style. I personally feel that green carpet with yellow and red walls shouldn't be anyone's style. (I say this and I am sure that tomorrow I will look on Pinterest and see an ah-mazing room that has green carper and yellow & red walls). 

Before we moved into the house, we had all the carpet taken up and hardwood put down in the living area. When we moved in, the house looked like this:

My husband kindly painted the living room while I was out of town and just forgot/didn't feel like doing the cut-in. Try not to be jealous of the classiness we have going on here (and at Christmas time to boot). 

If you look closely enough at those pictures you will see that our floors are clean and shiny.  They were beautiful! Then we had H.... that kids spills anything and everything. He spills stuff I didn't even know could spill and he spills it out of spill proof cups! It is a great skill that he was just born with. 

Before we had kids, we could polish the floor a great floor cleaner but you had to do it on your hands and knees. It didn't happen often before we had kids and it hasn't happened since. Who has time to go over the whole house on their hands and knees?

So, when I saw this Pin for natural hardwood cleaners and polisher, I had to try it. 

Via

We have 2 kids and a dog, so I figured I would try to "heavy duty" floor cleaner with white vinegar and baking soda.  I waited until the kids went down for a nap and mixed everything together per instructions. First off, the stuff didn't mix together no matter what I did so the baking soda appeared to sit at the bottom of my bucket and 1 Litre of water didn't appear to be enough. But, I am a rule follower, so I went with it. 

I swept the floor to make sure I got as much loose dirt up as possible.  I moved all the furniture so that the floor space was completely clear and then I took my mop and cleaned the floors of the whole house.  I didn't really notice anything crazy until it started to dry. I noticed white marks on the floor and a sandpaper-y feel to the floor. Oh my word, it was awful. 

Do you see that grim on my wonderful hardwood floors!!?!?!

H (a 2 year old) woke up from his nap and as soon as he saw the floor he said "messy. nasty." My 2 year old, who has played with his own feces, thought the floor was nasty. To say that I was freaking out would be an understatement.  I tried to invent games to play on the floor in hopes that walking on it would take the grittiness off it. Nope. You stuck to the floor like crazy. Poor H was so used to moving around on hardwood that he fell like 4 times because his feet and socks would stick to the floor. 

Seriously... when a 2 year old calls the floor dirty, it's dirty. 

Luckily JJ had a work happy hour so he was going to be home late. I was hoping that I could either fix it or that he would come home with enough alcohol in him that he wouldn't notice. That last part was just wishful thinking because to not notice the floors he would actually have to be so drunk he was passed out somewhere other than our house. 

When I had calmed down a little bit I looked at the sight again and saw a different way to clean that was also supposed to polish the floor. So, after I put the kids to bed, I mixed my lemon and olive oil with water and said a little prayer. 

Right away I could tell a difference. I was able to feel the lemon and olive oil cleaning off the baking soda. It was actually kinda nice to get instant gratification while mopping and being able to not only see but feel were I had already mopped. 

You can totally see the difference in the 2 photos above. It was so nice not to see all the grime.

I mopped the whole house and it looks better. It is still a little dull but at least we won't stick to the floor.  I think that I am going to have to suck it up and get on my hands and knees and polish the house to fix what damage I done. 

Now my floor looks like this:

The floor is pretty again!

I never thought I would be so happy to see a dull but clean floor. 

Lesson learned. I am not an au-natural person to begin with. I should just stick with what I know (the stuff that comes in the bottle) and call it a day. I was trying to be environmentally safe and it almost killed me and my pretty floors. 

Now my floors and living room look normal again!!

Have you ever had an experience like that? How do you clean & polish your hardwood floors? Clearly I am open to trying anything as long as it isn't on your hands and knees. 

KK