Murphy’s Oil Soap Users Anonymous
Jan 31st, 2007 by Karen
I admit it, I used to be a regular Murphy’s Oil Soap user.
Those commercials with the older ladies polishing the wooden pews and floors of that big ol’ church packed a powerful, underlying one-two message. Your mothers and grandmothers use Murphy’s Oil Soap religiously, and so should you! Or, how about this one: If it’s good enough for God’s house, it’s good enough for yours!
So I smiled when I came across a blog post written by a young professional woman who was in a cleaning frenzy for her parents’ impending arrival. The thought of her mom (the Queen of Clean) inspecting her new digs, had this woman reaching deep into her artillery of cleaning supplies to zap that dust, destroy those germs, and leave that tell-tale spit-and-polish look.
Murphy’s Oil Soap was one of her big guns.
In fact, don’t your mothers and many of your friends (and possibly you) all use Murphy’s Oil? It’s as ubiquitous as Windex. The problem, as I’ve learned since having my floors refinished, is that Murphy’s Oil leaves a residue buildup that eventually dulls the wood floor finish (as does Mop-n-Glow). Just the opposite of what its advertising would have us believe.
Here’s what the professional wood refinisher told me: To maintain finished wood floors use a neutral pH cleaner, like Bona, made specifically for this. (I’ve also checked out floor maintenance web sites for corroboration, and they all agree.) The general consensus of the pros is: If you don’t want to track down where to buy Bona, just use a glass-cleaning formula without Ammonia. Or a splash of white vinegar and a squirt of mild dish washing liquid in a bucket of water will do the trick if you make sure to dry the floor well after mopping.
Armed with this new information, I’ve kicked the Murphy’s Oil Soap habit. I invite you to join.
How funny.. when we bought our house, the previous owner told us to clean the floor with Windex… I used Murphys.. and my floors ARE dull…
I’ve since switched to the Hoover Floor Mate with the Old English stuff… but I think I’ll give them a once over with some ammonia..
of course, they could be dull because of the three huge thunderous beasts that live in my house!
That’s the thing. With all the four-footeds around here, I could make cleaning my floors a full-time job! LOL!
Nice to know. And yes, my mother swears by that stuff. :)
I’ve learned to consider the furry paws on the floor as a way to add patina to the floor. My antique books tell me never to remove the patina of aging. Which is my excuse not to clean floors often and I’m sticking to it.
I’ve always suspected that anything called “soap” was going to leave a soap scum. Thanks for confirming.
I once asked a jeweler for the best thing to clean the diamonds in my wedding ring. The first words out of his mouth were: Murphy’s Oil Soap!
He said to combine a teaspoon or so of Murphy’s Oil Soap with a bit of very HOT water in a small glass and use a toothbrush to get into the tight spots.
Afterwards, I always rinse the ring thoroughly with hot water.
I’ve been doing this for years now… It always makes my ring look like new again!
Anyone else use Murphy’s Oil Soap for anything other than floors???
Lynnette, just went for a little spin around Google and found an artist who mixes equal parts Murphy’s with water to soak brushes, before washing them out with Ivory soap.
One guy uses it as a pipe lubricant.
Lots of folks use it as a general purpose cleaner for washing countertops and walls.
One lady uses it as a pre-spot remover for her wash.
Now that’s some versatility.
Anybody else have other uses?
Speaking as one of the “Church Ladies”, everyone in my church thought the intricate woodwork in the Chapel of Our Lady was supposed to be black until two parishioners cleaned it with Murphy’s Oil Soap [and lots of toothbrushes and elbow grease]. Lo and behold, the “supposed to be black” was incense, grease, and big city dirt accumulated over the past eighty years. The wood underneath was rich, golden oak. To coin the phrase, the dirt was finished, but the finish was fine.
A parishioner friend of mine was braced to paint his T.V. room, kitchen and living room walls until he washed them down with Murphy’s Oil Soap as part of the prep work and realized the walls looked newly painted. No grease, no cigarette smoke, no nothin’. Just walls that looked newly painted.
Googling Murphy’s Oil Soap, I have come across diatribes against its use. I’m not sure all the accusations are well founded. Is this an urban myth? I started searching because the custodian where I work told me he used it to clean the glass surfaces in our office – I had asked how it got them to shine so beautifully. I tried it at home because Windex just doesn’t cut the dog slobber that accumulates on my windows. I tried MOS and they do sparkle! If this soap is so notorious for leaving an oily residue, how can it clean windows so brilliantly?
Confused in Peoria.
Other uses? OK..here we go. I was cleaning my vinyl tile floor with Murphy’s Oil soap (which I also use on furniture, woodwork and laundry with NO problems). Forgot to put on gloves, but kept scrubbing anyhow. Only thing is, I had a small wart starting on my finger, and guess what? After cleaining..no more wart! I know it sounds crazy, but I’ve recommended it to others, and it’s worked for them to.
Hi,
I read all the comments on here about Murphy’s Wood Oil Soap. I have been using it for the last 13 years on my hardwood foyer floor and my ceramic kitchen floor. My hardwood foyer shines and still looks as beautiful as it did when we built our house 13 years ago. I put a capful in a gallon of hot tap water to mop. I wring the mop out really well. I have no problems with it. Have a great day!
Tonya
My I suggest you visit the Murphy Oil Soap website. You will find a wealth of information regarding Murphy Oil Soap usage. In addtion, you will find independent testing documentation regarding the use of Murphy Oil Soap on wood flooring. Bottom line, Murphy Oil Soap is a gentle cleaner which is safe for cleaning sealed wood surfaces (such as wood flooring, cabinets, counters, walls etc.
Message to Laura, please note. Murphy Oil Soap does not contain oil (I know, what’s in the name – right). During the blending/manufacturing process the natural vegetable oil (from the Flax plant) is converted into a simple soap. Thus, no oil is remaining in the product you buy.
Here’s a simple test for you at home. Try mixing any oil with water. You will see they do not mix. Next, try mixing Murphy Oil soap with water (hot or cold). You will see that they mix perfectly well.
Check out this website for more information on Murphy’s Oil Soap. I’ve used MOS all my life, too, and so did my mom. But if you read my blog at http://www.blogiversity.org, you’ll find that one of the ingredients in MOS, potassium hydroxide, is used to remove warts. It has some other pretty scary uses too.
From now on, it’s vinegar and lemon juice for me!
(BTW: Why do we all call it Murphy’s when Colgate calls it Murphy?)
Potassium hydroxide is used to adujust pH. The pH of MOS is probably neutral (about 7) The scarey qualities of straight Potassium hydroxide are related to the very very high pH. When in a neutral pH environment you have Potassium (found in bananas) and hydrogen hydroxide also know as water. Chemical souding names can be scarey if you don’t know what thay mean. Look up acetic acid that’s scary too. vinegar is a %6 solution of acetic acid.
Thank – you, thank-you, thank-you “MOM WITH DOGS” for providing a vehicle for the continuation of the truth about Murphys! I am very appreciative of the intelligent people who have blogged on this site with actual true statements about Murphys…….not the propaganda/urban myth that you are passing along. Murphy’s always has been and always will be the best!!!! I especially respect the intelligent responses of #15 Martha; #13 Jim Alix; and #11 Tonya!!! Sharon, get a grip.
Jackie — LOL! Now that’s as talented a back-handed compliment as I’ve ever been given! There’s always room for disagreement here — as long as it’s done with a respectful tone. I’m happy for you that you’ve found a product you feel so passionate about.
Hey!
Has anyone heard about using Murphy Oil Soap (original) to wash your dogs? A friend at work told me that the vet told him to wash his female pit bull with Murphy Oil Soap to alleviate her skin condition. I have never heard of this…and can this be safe?
try this for houseplants suffering from powdery mildew:
750ml Water
~1 tsp Murphy’s Oil soap (a bit less than 1tsp)
2.5 tsp Baking Soda
combine in a spray bottle, shake, and give a light misting to foliage twice or three times a week. should clear up the powdery mildew in a few weeks. Hasn’t harmed my rosemary bonsai yet.
Jackie, your my hero! MOS is COMPLETELY non-toxic, safe, and one of the few true soaps on the market. The fact is that it starts out as a vegetable oil and is converted to a soap in much the same way as all TRUE soaps are. Vegetable oils are fat molecules (yes plants create fat molecules too, take a look at the nutritional label on a can of corn or any other labeled grain, nut, seed, legume, etc). When the fat molecule is treated with potassium hydroxide (lye, caustic agent, Low pH = all the same thing) it is hydrolyzed and yields alkali salts of fatty acids (crude soap) and glycerol. All of the potassium hydroxide is used in reaction with the fat source. To make sure of this, the solution is supperfatted, meaning that more fat is added to the solution than can be reacted with the amount of potassium hydroxide. This leaves the solution at the same pH as the fat or oil that was started with (neutral pH of 7)
The net effect is that when this soap is mixed with water it acts as an anionic surfactant. Soaps are useful for cleaning because soap molecules have both a hydrophilic end, which dissolves in water, as well as a hydrophobic end, which is able to dissolve nonpolar grease molecules. Although grease will normally adhere to skin or clothing, the soap molecules can form micelles which surround the grease particles and allow them to be dissolved in water. Applied to a soiled surface, soapy water effectively holds particles in colloidal suspension so it can be rinsed off with clean water. The hydrophobic portion (made up of a long hydrocarbon chain) dissolves dirt and oils, while the ionic end dissolves in water. Therefore, it allows water to remove normally-insoluble matter by emulsification. In other words, while normally oil and water do not mix, the addition of soap allows oils to dissolve in water, allowing them to be rinsed away.
Soap has been made this way for litterally thousands of years with both animal fats (rendered lamb, goat, beef, pork, etc.) and vegetable fats (olive oil, coconut, palm, cocoa, hemp, flax, shea, etc.). The old source of potassium hydroxide as a source of lye was called potash which refers to the ashes left after burning wood. This is where the chemical name potassium comes from. This process was probably the first true intentional chemical reaction performed by “chemists”. Ever wonder why the english still say they are going to the chemist when they mean they are going to a pharmacy? The “chemist” was the only place to get soap and other health and beauty products in the middle ages. Also why pharmacies still carry all that stuff in addition to pharmaceuticals.
Now, I know this was a long comment, but here is the point. Murphy’s Oil Soap is as gentle and as natural a product as you are ever going to use as a cleaner for anything. It has a neutral pH, is about 98% organic, 100% non-toxic (although your stomach will refuse to accept it and cause you to vomit), and the human population has been exposed to this, and other natural formulations of soap, for thousands of years. I have gone through this effort to explain the nature of MOS because there are so many uninformed people on the internet.
Here one item of clarification that always drives me crazy. Murphys Oil Soap is completely safe to bathe your dog with, and is recommended by many vets. It is safe to the pet yet a natural flee killer because of its surfactant properties. It suffocates the flees, ticks, mites, and any other insect that breathes with “book lungs”. It cleans away old oil from the skin that dries on the hair follicle without drying out the skin. Many dogs that have problems with itchy skin from pests or dry skin will scratch to the point of creating bare patches with no hair. This is a great product to solve many problems for most dog owners that isn’t some 30 dollar bottle of “special dog shampoo” sold to you by a crooked vet trying to take your money. This “special shampoo” is more often than not a natural soap, just like MOS. Natural soaps are safer and less likely to cause dry skin than modern shampoos and so called modern soaps which are nothing more than chemical detergents. If someone wanted to bath with MOS it would do your own skin a favor over the normal body washes and bar soaps commonly sold for human use. However, the smell is a little pungent. If you want to know how MOS is to your dogs skin try bathing with Castile soap or Marseille soap. These are a couple of the very few traditional soaps still hand made today. They are made the same way they have been made for more than a thousand years. They are expensive, but give them a try some time and you will FEEL the difference in your skin!