If you’ve currently got some hardwood floors that are in need of a good clean, then a mug of breakfast tea might not be the first thing that springs to mind!
Nevertheless, as it turns out, black tea has a myriad of benefits and plenty of versatility, which means that despite being one of the world’s favorite drinks to get cozy with – it also doubles up as a pretty great household cleaner.
Wondering why that is, exactly? Well, seeing as black tea has high levels of astringency properties, it means that tea (despite tasting pretty darn delicious) actually has the uncanny ability to be able to cut through grease, dust, and a variety of other surface debris with ease.
Not only that, but despite being able to clean away muck, tea even has the ability to impart a beautiful shine to furniture and flooring after cleaning it – so it should come as no surprise to hear that it’s part of cleaning collections of homeowners across the globe.
By the way, if you use Bona cleaner, check out why we recommend it.
So, if you’re currently tired of roaming the cleaning aisle for a miracle product that’s going to be able to spruce up your wooden flooring with ease, then we strongly recommend giving black tea a go.
Used for centuries as a way to mop up dirty wooden floors without actually causing any damage, black tea is exceptionally good at cleaning up hardwood floors due to the tannic acid that is present within the tea. When rubbed across a flooring such as a wooden floor, the acid is able to effectively mop up dirt while adding shine to wooden floors in need of rejuvenation.
Additionally, if there are any strong odors on your wooden flooring for whatever reason that you would like to get rid of, then you could additionally opt to steam some flavored, herbal tea such as lemon or peppermint.
As soon as you have strained the flavored tea leaves, you can then go ahead and sprinkle the strained tea leaves over the areas of your wooden flooring that have a strong odor and leave them for a few hours.
When you’re ready to clean the leaves away, you should find that any scent that was once on your wooden flooring should be gone and replaced with the scent of your chosen flavored tea leaves. We recommend citrusy scents such as lemon.
Not only that, but you can also use your black tea to clean a variety of other household furniture as even though the tannic acid is effective in sloughing away dirt, it is not so potent that it can damage surfaces or fabrics.
For this reason, alongside your wooden floors, you can also use your black tea to clean our kitchen countertops, fireplace, glass, and any carpets that you might have.
All you will need to do is mix a little bit of black tea into some water, pour it into a spray bottle, and then take a mop or sponge and clean in the way you normally would with any other kind of cleaning detergent.
In addition to all of that, you could even place a fresh tea bag in your drawers for a clean and refreshing scent every time you open them up, as well as place black tea bags inside any shoes you want to freshen up – especially if they have an odor that you don’t like!
Some people even go so far as to use black tea to freshen up their toilet area – just place one or two bags inside your toilet, leave them for a few hours and any odors that were once present will have gone.
How do you clean hardwood floors with tea?
If you would like to give your hardwood floors a rejuvenation, then cleaning them with tea is a simple yet effective way to spruce them up! Follow the steps below to clean your hardwood floors with tea correctly:
- To begin, start by boiling a pot of water and adding around five tea bags of your choice into the water. Once the water has been brought to a boil, turn off the heat and allow the tea bags to steep in the water for around 10-15 minutes – depending on how strong you want the tea to be.
- Once you have given the tea enough time to steep inside the water, carefully pour the tea into your mopping bucket. If you are still finding that the water is far too hot to clean your hardwood floors with, then you can add in a little bit of cold water if need be. Then, place your mop into the water and wring it out as you normally would.
- When you’re ready, we strongly recommend that you start out by carefully mopping a small portion of your hardwood floor, and then checking to see if you are noticing any discoloration in your hardwood floor. Though there is a low chance of this occurring, if you have a particularly potent blend of tea, you might notice that discoloration occurs, particularly if you have light wood floors.
- After you have done this and are happy to continue mopping your hardwood floors with the tea mixture, proceed to mop the floor in the same way that you normally would. While you are mopping, make sure that you are ensuring to ring your mop thoroughly each time that you dip it inside the bucket for the best results, as you do not want your mop to be soaking.
- Once you have finished mopping your hardwood floors, allow them to dry as you normally would before walking over them as usual once more.
As a side note, if you have any stubborn stains on your hardwood flooring that you are struggling to get rid of, then you could also choose to combine the tea with an additional cleaning solution to help get rid of the dirt.
In addition to this, it should also be noted that this method is only suitable for hardwood floors, and should not be used by those who have laminate.