Cleaning hardwood floors is one of those chores that can be a bit tricky, especially when you open your closet and find you’re out of floor cleaner. Fortunately for any tea drinker, you can just look in your kitchen cupboards for black tea, according to cleaning enthusiasts on the Our Old House Facebook page.
Posting a picture of her hardwood floor gleaming, group member Hirley Shaw wrote: “My 77-year-old unfinished hardwood floor. I clean them with a gallon of lukewarm black tea.” Fellow cleaning lovers took to the comments section to share their positive reviews on using black tea to restore wooden floors. Thanks to its high tannin content, black tea can bring out the natural tones of the wood, giving it a refreshed look. What’s more, the compound can lift and cut through dust and grime, keeping your floors cleaner for longer.
Deborah Hertz wrote: “My mother cleaned our floors with black tea water. The floors were all dried up and faded when we bought our old house. Years later, when we moved out, they were a rich, beautiful colour. She added a drop or two of lavender. Our place smelled so good!”
Norma Barber recalled: “After events at our old church, I always remember as a young child, the kitchen ladies cleaning the old wooden kitchen floor with black tea, before, and it kept the dust down.”
Sharing their method for using black to clean wooden floors, Korie Elrod wrote: “Brew one gallon of water on the stove and drop eight tea bags. Remove the tea bags and let them steep for five minutes.
“Allow the water to fully cool before using it to clean your floor, or else you risk marring it. Transfer the brew into a mop bucket, and you’re ready to begin.”
Aside from making them shine, cleaning enthusiasts noted that black tea can also help mask scuffs and scratches on wooden floors.
Glenda Headrick wrote: “If I ever had a scuff mark, I would use a used wet tea bag and rub it over the area until it stains it.”
Thomas Marallo commented, “My grandfather worked all his life in a large furniture store. He used to say they used black tea for cleaning and to cover scratches.”
Jesse Cook said, “I’ve used tea as a stain many times. It’s amazing at glossing over any scratches or marks.”
Laura, who runs a lifestyle blog based around sustainability called Our Oily House, has shared how she likes to use black tea to make wooden floors “shine”. She said, “It doesn’t take much to make a natural homemade wood floor cleaner.
“It may seem odd to use steeped tea to clean your floors, but it’s actually the perfect cleaner for wood! Black tea is slightly acidic, so it will cut through grease and grime without being too harsh on the floors. Tea also has antibacterial properties that will help to wash and disinfect the floors.”
As well as black tea, Laura recommends adding olive oil to the mix. This is to “condition the wood floors and make them shine”.
To make this floor cleaner, bring water to the boil before adding six tea bags to it and letting them steep for at least 10 minutes.
Remove and discard tea bags, allow to cool, then stir in the olive oil if using. Transfer to a mop bucket or spray bottle and mop in the direction of the grain.
