After a few years of installation, you may find yourself staring at your wood floor and forgetting what it originally looked like. Years of general wear and tear on floors, muddy shoes, dust, and other factors can leave them far from clean and the original shine that you fell in love with. 

But you don’t have to suffer from dull and dirty wood floors in your home for much longer, as there is a simple homemade way to get your floor looking new. Taking to Facebook, Annette Griffin, who regularly shares household tips, has posted about a nifty “all-natural” solution, and that’s to use black tea. She claimed that it’s not only effective, but it’s a cheap method too.

Sharing a photo of her polished hardwood flooring, Annette wrote: “Clean your hardwood floors with tea! Looking for an all-natural way to keep wood floors and furniture shiny, clean and dust-free for longer? 

“Look no further than your morning cup of tea! Due to its tannin content, brewed tea is perfect for adding extra lustre to your wooden decor on the cheap. 

“As an added bonus, you’ll also ditch the cleaning product smell and still get results you’ll love.” 

For this method, simply boil a large pot of water and place two tea bags into the water and let them steep for several minutes. 

Allow water to cool to room temperature and damp mop as usual with tea mixture to “clean and help bring out the richness of the wood”.

Flooring specialists at Just Wood also recommended using tea to clean hardwood floors. They explained: “Black tea works great to clean and polish floors. This is due to the tannic acid in black tea that helps to remove dirt and leave your floors shiny and new.”

They instructed: “Boil a litre of water and add three tea bags, allowing it to steep for around ten minutes. Then dip a cleaning pad into the solution and begin to clean your floors.”

Another option they suggested was to use vinegar. They said, “White vinegar is one of the most versatile cleaners you can find. Simply add 100 millilitres of white vinegar to 3.5 litres of water, dip a sponge in and wipe across your floors. Make sure you then take a dry cloth and wipe any damp areas. “

If you’d like your floors to smell fresh and cover the smell of the vinegar, add a few drops of essential oil to your mixture before you start cleaning.