The floors in your home handle a lot of foot traffic and if you have pets, you can also add paw traffic to the load that floors handle. It’s no wonder that floors can be tough to keep clean.

Besides foot traffic, there’s human hair, pet hair, dust and anything tracked in from the outside that can build up. Plus, you also have to take care of any accidental spills and make sure you get up liquids that stain the floor. Some stains get ground in and can be tougher to get out if you didn’t know they had occurred.

It’s easy to buy into the belief that using a steam cleaner is the only way to truly clean carpets. And you might also think that chemical cleaners are the best product to use on wood or tile flooring, but you would be wrong.

Cleaners have too many dangerous chemicals to use in your home and the water used after a chemical steam cleaning ends up in the sewer system, while the non-biodegradable containers end up in the landfill. Not only are these chemicals bad for you and the earth, but they don’t do the best job at cleaning.

You want floors that are safe and clean enough to walk barefoot on and you also want floors clean enough for your children to be able to sit on or crawl on if you have little infants learning how to navigate the world.

Starting with carpets, you’ll first want to use an organic stain remover. You’ll find organic stain removers that don’t have any fumes, so there’s no odor for you and they don’t have any toxins so they’re great for the environment, too.

Once you’ve gone over any stains on the carpet, you can apply the carpet cleaner. Most organic cleaners are concentrated so a little can keep your carpets looking new all year long.

Even if you use a carpet cleaning machine that doesn’t use heat, organic carpet cleaners will still work for you. Some of the carpet cleaners can be specially mixed in a small dish and used as a stain remover, so you can even skip the pretreatment of stains depending on the brand you get. Look for cleaners that have soap bark and great smelling scents like sage.

For tile floors, get a cleaner that’s multi-purpose and contains linseed oil. This is safe to use on marble flooring as well. If you have hardwood flooring, make sure the organic cleaner you buy specifically lists hardwood flooring, because not all organic ingredients are suitable for hardwood.

Some organic cleaners will contain vinegar and an essence, which are good for cleaning and shining wood floors. For any floor polishes that you use, make sure they’re vegetable based.