Apparently using polish is now considered old fashioned.

If you use water based things the wood tends to get bleached and dry out. Can’t beat a good wax polish, it protects your wooden furniture and makes it look lovely. Beeswax is good.

A good home should smell of Lemon Pledge, Gravy and dog!
I do sometimes use a wonderful coconut smell polish, and my home is very modern, but I still polish wooden surfaces.

I use Mr Sheen, Fabreeze, Zoflora but I can't abide most chemicals in most products.

Personally, I can't use pledge etc due to allergies but will make an exception for TV screens etc occasionally if someone else does it for me. I only use traditional waxes like beeswax as I've got a lot of antiques. One table was ruined by someone spraying pledge on to of the french polish, still trying to get the surface looking ok 20 years later. However, personally, I agree with OP, only use the products you like, avoid stuff you don't like. Who cares what your house smells like apart from you and your dog x

Greyduster

I use beeswax spray on my oak and pine furniture and a damp microfibre cloth on everything else.

Me too!

I do use wipes or multi surface cleaner on some surfaces but NEVER wood as I think it tends to dry it out and a residue is left over time. A dust or clean with a soapy woodwash in warm water, dry thoroughly and then a spray beeswax polish. Brings out the grain of the wood, gives it a lovely shine and a heavenly scent! My father, though would be horrified if he was still with us. He used to make his own polish with linseed oil, beeswax etc. He was a carpenter and loved wood!

I was delighted when the DD and SIL bought themselves a Georgian chest of drawers from Facebook marketplace (£50 what a bargain!) andI took over myWoodsilk and buffed it up for them. It’s beautiful - and another lovely piece rescued from the junkheap. All this ‘brown furniture’ will be back in fashion one day.

I use a wax polish or spray on my wooden furniture around once a month. I have mostly mid century furniture, but it is very good quality and made of solid wood. The rest of the time I use Mr. Sheen or similar - usually once a week. I do have allergies, bad try not to get them close to the spray. I’m obviously old fashioned. I can’t agree with the comment about a house also needing to smell of dog and coconut! I have a small dog and try to make sure that my house does not carry his particular aroma, and even the smell of coconut is enough to make me nauseous.

So many products being marketed these days are completely unnecessary.
They want us to buy these product so they have us thinking laundry smells even after it's washed... so add this or that.
We smell even after a good shower ....so put on this or that.
Our carpets and rooms smell... so spray on this or that.
* Most are just marketing gimmicks..... imho
I just use the old tried & true products.

I use Woodsilk on the best, more solid pieces but don't use it on everything after finding streaks on furniture that I couldn't get rid of. Because of this it's used infrequently and sparingly. I use Pledge on everything else.
Recently had some rugs and sofa professionally cleaned and the after smell made me feel really ill, headache almost straight away, still a faint whiff of it after a week.
Dettol and CIF bathroom products are the worst for me for smell, make me wheezy, I'm sure they can't be healthy.

I used to use spray pledge 50 years ago after I'd hidden any dirty dishes in the oven ,I sprayed the rooms with it and my late MIL always said ,someones been working hard....lol

Yes!! I wonder if we are genetically related, paddyann54

I am allergic to nearly all perfumes and a good many chemicals, so I stick to my tried and trusted cleaning products that I know do not upset me.

I am quite sure that most of the younger generation never use furniture polish, as most of their furniture is from Ikea or similar stores and none of that needs to be polished.

Anything with neutradol in it makes me nauseous.

My daughter is a Zoflora fan - must be a generational thing! I bought some in lockdown and it’s still sitting there.

Rub half a walnut into water stain in wood.

Can’t abide Zoflora! Love Method Wild Rhubarb floor cleaner.

Zoflora has been around for a long time which is why, I assume it was favoured by elderly people; isn’t it something that everyone’s granny had in their kitchen cupboard. I assume it has been used over the generations when there have been eg flu epidemics. I must admit that, if I’m going away for a while I will put some down the sink and in the loo. Going back to the subject of pets I did read that it’s important not to let them walk on wet floors that have been cleaned with Zoflora but it’s ok once dry. But then that also applies to most cleaning stuff, the exception probably being vinegar.

I have some good old lavender polish which I don’t use every week but oh, when I do rooms smell wonderful. You just don’t get that with spray polish.

I have used lavender wax polish for years - it brings a lovely shine to furniture and smells wonderful even with my asthma. I really suffer with any sprays which exacerbates the asthma and I am unwell for a few hours. I am also a fan of opening windows for fresh air even in the winter.

Merlotgran

"a wipe clean spray that you use with an e cloth"

Excuse me but, what on earth is an e cloth? I know it can't be an electronic cloth.

EEJit

Merlotgran

"a wipe clean spray that you use with an e cloth"

Excuse me but, what on earth is an e cloth? I know it can't be an electronic cloth.

It’s a microfibre cloth.

I have very good sense of smell, and so many memories are evoked by specific smells. Lavender is my grannys underwear and jumper drawers as they always had lavender bags made from her own lavender. Baking bread is of course my mothers baking day and having cold meat and bubble and squeak for dinner as she was too busy baking to do any fancy meal, but we would have a lovely (to us ) fancy jam tart , where she would put thin pastry on pyrex plate and then twisted pastry ropes to divide up the plate and it would have strawberry jam in 2 quarters and lemon curd (both home made) on the other quarters. We enjoyed choosing whether to have all red, all yellow , or a mix of both in our slice. My husband once said it was like living with the gestapo, as he arrived home from a journey of about 50 miles and I said "Oh can I have a polo too please?" and he replied I ate the last one before I set off home. How can you tell? My son had asthma and we moved to make sure he was in fresh air and of course we never smoke and am very against it. So one day he was about 14 I said to him "It is no good coming here if you are going to mix with boys who are all smoking" He said but I didnt smoke, and I said I know that etc so unfortunately for him I could tell if he had been eating sweets or smoking or whatever. There were negative effects for me too, as having teenage lads standing nearby at school who obviously thought that if you splash on far too much horrible Brut or Lynx or something , that meant you didnt need to wash at all!! Uggh!! So every day I can enjoy the many pleasant smells and I always dry my clothes outside. Whatever so called fresheners they advertise, they wont have me a s a customer. That lovely fresh outdoor smell is the one I love.

madeleine45 I also have a heightened sense of smell.

After going out for dinner I have to shower, wash my hair and all clothes go in laundry basket, I cannot abide waking up to smelling like an Indian, Chinese, Italian or any restaurant.

Other than baking (which I love the smell of) when cooking I have the extractor on, kitchen door and windows open in all weathers much to DH’s amazement (even after 40+ years 🤣)

Added to which being asthmatic and a migraine sufferer certain smells really floor me.

I've also moved to purdy and figg, it cleanser everything, well, and smells lovely

You are not alone, I use wax polish too. I love the smell and the finish it gives to furniture.( maybe we went into the ark two by two ?)