Households urged to rub walnuts on floors

Rub walnuts on the floor? A bit of an odd idea, some might say. But for the DIY experts of Family Handyman, it is an ultimate hack and will improve your home’s appearance. Who knew the walnut had magic healing abilities? But by simply rubbing a walnut on the floor several times, you can reduce the appearance of, if not make it totally disappear, light scratches on your flooring.

It is inevitable that you’re furniture will get beaten up over time, which may add character to your home, but you are less likely to want to live with unsightly scratches. But with the help of one simple but, it is possible to remove years of damage.

Family Handyman said: “Simply rub a walnut over a scratch in wood several times. Then, with your fingers, rub the scratched area. This will help the wood absorb the oil from the nut. Lastly, use a soft cloth to buff the area. Now the scratch is sealed and gone.”

To confirm whether this hack works, we turned to Reddit to see what experiences people have had when trying to improve their homes.

One user said: “Read this post while sitting at my kitchen table. It had a pretty nasty scratch on the surface from a recent move. Grabbed a walnut from the freezer, rubbed it on the scratch, and yep. It works.”

Another revealed the science behind the trick: “It’s the oil in the nut. We use beeswax to coat all of our wood.”

Another user offered a warning: “Careful, though. We gouged the wood floors when we moved in. I used a pecan (any nut will do), and the oil darkened the gouge.”

The helpful home DIY website has also created advice to help you repair larger gouges in wood, here.