Eco Friendly ways to Care for Your Furniture

Caring for your furniture is important, both to keep it looking in good condition and to extend its life. This is particularly true for wooden furniture, which reacts to its environment and can be damaged by damp, woodworm and heat.

(Remember – When it comes to the furniture itself, choose reclaimed wood or sustainably sourced items! For some ideas, click here.)

However a lot of furniture polishes, cleaners and treatments are not environmentally friendly. The bottles can be made of non-recyclable material, while the products can contain harsh chemicals (particularly preservatives) and toxins which harm the environment and the air quality in your room. Some even use ingredients which have been tested on animals.

It is possible to avoid the nasty chemicals though. Searching on the internet for eco friendly cleaning products will give you plenty of options. Look at the ingredients lists and avoid synthetic fragrances, silicones, solvents, butane and petroleum distillates. You can probably tell by their names that these are not natural, earth loving ingredients.

Natural and eco-friendly cleaners replace these chemicals. They often use essential oils which give a pleasing natural scent, and lovely ingredients for cleaning such as citrus from orange or lemon, and olive oil for shine. These kinds of ingredients are great for furniture, as they clean off marks and give wood a pleasing finish, while protecting the surface naturally. For example, olive oil helps to prevent the natural oak furniture from drying out and cracking.

Some people find that these natural cleaning products are a little more expensive than the cheap ones, but the cheaper ones are only less expensive because they use toxic ingredients. However if you cannot pay or you just want prefer to make things yourself, it is possible to create your own cleaners with lemon juice, olive oil and water. Make sure you remove the pulp from the lemon so it’s pure juice. You will have a totally eco-friendly, nice smelling and effective furniture polish.

Photo by Horia Varlan