Make Lemon Furniture Polish

Smarten up your kitchen cabinets or wood furniture with baby oil. Just wipe it on, leave it for a few minutes, and then wipe off the residue. Make it part of a maintenance program by prepping your cabinets with a wood cleaning product like Murphy's Oil Soap first.

Because I'm a dedicated herber, I make my own polish using a cup of baby oil and lemon balm, lemon verbena, or lemon eucalyptus.

Lemon Furniture Polish Recipe

Spray Bottle
Jar with a tight fitting lid (two cup capacity)
Pan
Heat resistant bowl
Cheesecloth or mesh strainer
1-1/2 to 2 Cups lemon balm leaves
1-1/2 Cups Baby Oil

Directions for Making Lemon Furniture Polish

Heat baby oil in a pan till it starts to glimmer or bubble a little.

While the baby oil is heating, add lemon balm to the bowl.

Pour baby oil over the lemon balm and stir gently. Set aside.

Allow mixture to come to room temperature. Pour oil, leaves and all, into a jar.

Seal and place the jar in a warm spot to cure for two weeks to a month. Shake daily.

Strain mixture and pour into a bottle.

Pour a little oil on a soft cloth monthly and apply to your wood cabinets to keep them looking and smelling fresh and clean.

Your homemade brew will be less expensive than retail polishes and won't contain chemical additives. Although baby oil is a petroleum product, it is gentle on your wood. One of the advantages it has over an organic oil is that it will not go rancid, so your wood will always smell fresh and clean.




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Photo1 - LemonBalm1_Wiki.jpg By Datkins (Own work) [CC-BY-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/07/Lemon_balm_2.JPG http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3ALemon_balm_2.JPG

Photo2 - LemonBalm2_Wiki.jpg  By Datkins (Own work) [CC-BY-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/36/Lemon_balm_%282%29.jpg http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3ALemon_balm_(2).jpg

Photo3 - Courtesy of Morguefile.com