This furniture polish is easy to make. You'll need turpentine, boiled linseed oil and lemon juice (or vinegar).
Ingredients
Put all the ingredients in a glass jar. Put the lid on the jar and shake until mixed. Then apply to furniture using a lightly damp cloth. Dip the cloth in the furniture polish and apply to your furniture. Let sit for 30 minutes and then polish with a soft, clean cloth. Pretest mixture on an inconspicuous part of your furniture if you have not used this polish before. If you have a big job you can make a bigger batch but don't make more than you need, this mixture doesn't store well.
Do you have a furniture polish recipe? Post it below or submit it to our tip contest.
This page contains the following solutions.
Here is a great tip on saving money on furniture polish. Combine the olive oil and lemon juice in the spray bottle. Shake well before using.
This solution will clean and polish. If your cabinets are pretty dirty, you will probably want to use the Wood Cabinet Cleaner first.
In a screw-top jar, mix equal parts: denatured alcohol (from a hardware store) strained fresh lemon juice (not canned or frozen) olive oil
Here are the questions asked by community members. Read on to see the answers provided by the ThriftyFun community.
When making homemade furniture cleaner, does it make a difference if I use distilled water or water from my faucet?
Thanks.
I've never made furniture cleaner, but I know a tad about water.
If you don't want any minerals deposited into your cleaning solution, you'd want to use distilled, which they're removed in that.
Minerals in our water are actually good for us to drink, but, for fabrics (for your furniture cleaning solution) I don't think you'd want those in there as they'd deposit on anything you used it on.
The minerals are ever so slight in tap water, but enough that we can see the scale build up on our faucets and anything tap water is consistent with.
Wood does not do well with water at all, but if you are making something and need a liquid, distilled would be better.
I know they are made from plastics (which makes me crazy) but I find microfiber clothes are the best dust catchers and do a nice job on my wood furniture without any chemicals.
I wash them in a load with other rags, for a short cycle, on cold with just a drop of Tide and they last for a long time. I know this is probably me rationalizing...but if I have to pick between plastics and chemicals in this case, I will pick plastics (the microfiber clothes as chemicals are so bad for us and our pets.
The clothes we have are old and still work. I feel I save money doing this in the long run.
I have never heard of using water. Some people use linseed oil.
Can I use safflower oil instead of olive oil?
Yes, you can. Add some lemon juice to make it smell good.
I would like to get a recipe for homemade furniture polish. I am going as organic and natural as possible.
By Rita
Recipes are listed in the Archives.
I mix together about 1/4 cup white vinegar and a good tablespoon of jojoba oil in a bowl, then apply with a soft rag. Then take a dry corner and buff it to wipe off excess oil. You don't really need much oil to make a good furniture polish and this way it doesn't turn out too greasy. For scent I add a couple drops of cedar essential oil, though lemon would be nice too.
Jojoba oil is light and doesn't go rancid like olive oil. It's also great for the skin so it's nice to have around.
Can I make a homemade recipe with lemon oil and vinegar for my furniture?
Carol from Fayetteville, NC
Try www.prohardware.com. They have lots of recipes for homemade concoctions.
I'd forget the Vinegar(a weak acid) MIXED with Lemon Oil, because I believe it would just partially dissolve the Oil, wouldn't it? I'd use lemon oil straight as I have for an antique Piano I own. It's just great and doesn't bleach at all.
Can I use vegetable oil instead of olive oil for the recipe that calls for lemon juice and olive oil?
ThriftyFun is one of the longest running frugal living communities on the Internet. These are archives of older discussions.
This is an excellent furniture polish and most everyone has these two products in their home. Use equal parts of olive oil and vinegar. (like 1/4 cup olive oil and 1/4 cup vinegar).
I need a homemade recipe for furniture "cleaner/polish" that will not hurt some of my older wooden pieces.
