3 - Restore Wood Furniture with Modern Cleaning Formulas
To thoroughly clean heavy build-up and grime from your wooden furniture or cabinets, you’ll want to use microfiber and modern soaps.
Most dirty wood furniture can be brought back to life with any basic neutral pH cleaner like Mr. Clean or Fabuloso, some warm water, and a stack of microfiber towels. Just mix according to directions, then use one microfiber towel to scrub and another to dry.
Wood-specific formulas like Bona and Method work too, but they charge a ton extra for marketing and pre-diluting the soap for you, otherwise, their results are the same.
If you’ve noticed an improvement with these pre-diluted, it is likely because your tap water is very hard. If hard water is your real problem, it is far cheaper and equally effective to buy a gallon of distilled water and mix it yourself.
Just grab an empty spray bottle, dilute Mr. Clean or Fabuloso with the purified water, and you’ll have recreated the Bona experience for less than $0.50 a bottle. You're welcome!
Restoring extremely Grimy Surfaces
If your wood furniture and cabinets are extremely filthy with mold, grease, or cigarette smoke residue, you’ll need to pull out the big guns.
Howard Company is the King of wood restoration, and their products Clean-A-Finish and Restore-A-Finish, are the one-two punch professionals rely on to reclaim even the most neglected wood pieces.
Just dampen a microfiber towel with Clean-A-Finish and wipe away years of grime, smoke residue, mold, and more!
Once clean, breathe new life into the piece by buffing in Restore-A-Finish with a disposable microfiber towel, which will remove fine scratches, dullness, water spots, and more in just minutes.
Disposable microfiber towels are also great for the deep cleaning stage, especially when cleaning mold and mildew, as they eliminate the risk of spreading spores.
I ABSOLUTELY LOVE these towels. They work great at cleaning everything without leaving any lint or debris behind. They're great at not scratching up your furniture. I would recommend these to anyone! And the price is EXCELLENT! - Macho Men Maid Service, Verified Buyer
Restoring Neglected Wood
When restoring neglected wood, always test clean a hidden spot to find out what you're getting yourself into. Grimy pieces may sometimes be older than you think and actually coated with antique finishes.
Sometimes the piece has modern finishes, but the years of neglected soils have actually eaten through the finish and made it soft, gummy, and even worn bare in spots.
In many cases, you may be able to still save the piece with a thorough cleaning with Clean-A-Finish and a rub down in Restore-A-Finish to repair the finish that remains, but don’t be shy about bringing the piece to a professional if there is too little finish left to restore.
4 - Polish is Makeup, So Wear It Only if You Like It
For modern sealed wood furniture, polishes and waxes no longer nourish and protect dried-out wood, so you can safely skip them all together.
However, these products do still hold aesthetic value, especially if your modern finish is a little scratched up and dull or you just like an extra rich shiny glow.
Polishes and waxes have basically been demoted from protectants to makeup, but there’s nothing wrong with makeup if either you or the furniture look beautiful with it on.
If you enjoy the look of polish, here are the industry insider Pro tips you need to get the most out of it:
Avoid Aerosol Spray Polishes
First, always avoid aerosol spray polishes, as they are charging you for propellants and cans, not products.
Liquid oil polishes give you far more actual oils, so you can use way less and get the same if not better results (they can also do wonders for your stainless steel too). Remember, these are potent, so less is more if you don’t want your furniture to feel greasy.
Pre-Clean Before Polishing
Next, always pre-clean before you polish. You’d never keep applying fresh makeup over old makeup without washing the old stuff off, right?
Polishes do not clean, so if you smear them on really dirty wood furniture, you’re just treating the dirt and germs to an oil massage.
A quick wipe down with a damp microfiber towel and a drop of dish soap, or even a scrub down with Clean-A-Finish for the worst pieces, will ensure that you are enhancing the brightest, cleanest version of your wood finish possible. Just clean, dry, then buff in a little polish to shine.
Another insider tip, if you like oil polish, you may actually like wax even more. Liquid wax and Paste wax polishes create a far more durable layer of shine that lasts longer and can actually help protect your modern finish from developing as many surface scratches.
Just like with oil polish, you have to clean before you shine, but with waxes, it is even more critical because you’ll be trapping in the dirt even longer. Pre-clean and dry the wood furniture fully, then buff in the wax for a rich, long-lasting warm glow.
Use Detailing Polishing Towels
Finally, if you love polish, you’ll adore detailing polishing towels (coral fleece).
These incredibly luxurious towels feel like someone stole them from a teddy bear factory, absolutely babying your wood and eliminating any risk of scratches.
They buff a rich glow into the wood even when dry, but with polish, the results are epic. Best of all, the satin-trimmed edges ensure you remember which towel is for polishing.
The one big drawback of polish is that it is VERY difficult to wash out of microfiber, causing towels to lose absorbency over time.
By designating a polishing towel, you get the best of both worlds, as the polishing towel creates a beautiful shine and bonds to the oils, so they never infect the rest of your towels.