Avoid Using This Common Kitchen Scrap For Floor Scuff Marks - We Know The Truth

There are certain things you don't want to see on your carpetless floors. Scuffs are pretty high up on the list, but so are banana peels. After all, cartoons have taught us how slippery those things can be when stepped on. Is it ironic then that a banana peel on a floor can be a good thing? Let me explain: There's a folk remedy for removing scuffs on floors by rubbing a banana peel on the offending mark. Bananas are a regular snack in our home, and there's a particularly offensive scuff mark on our kitchen floor. I had nothing to lose by giving the peel an extra purpose before sending it to the compost pile.

The trick involves rubbing the inside of a banana peel over the mark followed by a cleanup with a soft cloth. Supposedly, the natural waxes in the peel work against the scuff to both get rid of the mark and provide a bit of shine for the wood. We definitely don't bother trying to keep our wood flooring looking like new, so whatever finish is still on the floor is likely pretty thin, if any is left at all. Although I'm not 100% sure, it seems like the wood's thin or nonexistent finish might make the scuff harder to remove. With little lying between the wood and the scuff, this hack might not be as effective on a floor that hasn't been well maintained. This trick's instructions didn't come with any specifics about what condition the wood floor should be in — or any other details, for that matter. Because of this, I'm going to take a bit of artistic license when it comes to determining whether or not this banana peel trick actually works.

A fresh bunch of bananas sat on the counter, a little less ripe than I'd normally like for eating. Yet, I was impatient to find out if the black mark would go buh-bye after a banana peel wipedown. This was a conventionally-grown Dole banana and had come home from the supermarket two days prior to peeling. I grabbed a microfiber cloth and a bottle of my homemade white vinegar cleaning spray (such a versatile cleaning tool!) and wiped the grime away from the scuff so that the banana peel would only have a black mark to contend with.

I rubbed the fleshy interior of the banana peel over the length of the scuff, both with and against the woodgrain. Immediately afterward, I wiped at the scuff, and it stayed stubbornly in place. I reminded myself that a banana peel isn't a powerful lab-created formula meant to work in an instant. Instead, I rubbed the peel over the scuff again, this time with heavy pressure, and let it sit for one minute. As the timer sounded, I attacked the stain with the rag. To my dismay, the scuff stayed more or less unchanged.

I'm no scientist, but I thought a bit about the different levels of banana ripeness and how their chemistry changes throughout the ripening process, going from almost tart to extremely sweet as the peel turns brown. Would the extra sweetness in a nearly brown banana contain the little something extra needed to vanquish the scuff? I had an over-ripe Chiquita banana in the freezer awaiting a recipe that needed its enhanced sweetness. A quick thaw and a smoothie later, I applied the more mature peel over the scuff with a heavy hand. Again, since the directions for this trick were a bit scant on details, I set the timer for five minutes to see if both the extra ripeness of the peel and extra time would work better than the one minute of very fresh banana peel did.

At the beep of the timer, I rubbed at the scuff hopefully with the microfiber cloth. Alas, the scuff stayed put. The extra ripeness of this second banana peel didn't appear to make a bit of headway against the black line.

The scuff on our kitchen floor stood its ground firmly against the banana peel treatment, but I'm reluctant to write off this hack as ineffective. Because it didn't work to rid my poorly-maintained wood floor from its unwanted mark, I could possibly conclude that if your wood floors have little or no protective coating on them, a banana peel won't whisk away a scuff.

However, if a person with a nicely finished floor discovers a scuff and like eating bananas, there's nothing wrong with having a go at the mark with a banana peel. Unless you are averse to eating bananas, you have little to lose by giving this hack a try. Still, I wouldn't send someone to the store for a bunch with the sole purpose of scuff removal. I might try another home remedy to remove the scuff, but more likely than not, we'll keep treading upon it until it either fades away or gets worse. Whatever the outcome, the state of our wood floors has motivated me (a little) to take better care of my floors to protect them from scuffs and scratches.