Essential Oils - Clean Without Chemicals

I found this wonderful article in a magazine for home-made cleaners that will clean your home (and my home) without using chemicals. This is important to me because I have some pretty wicked allergies … and chemicals and perfumes make me cough. It’s so bad that I don’t even have any pretty perfume to wear. It’s not worth it for me. This article provided recipes for cleaners using essential oils which, first and foremost, can be expensive. But they are also natural and many have antimicrobial properties so they can disinfect and smell great, too.

Note: not all oils are created equal … make sure that you are buying 100% pure essential oils (not fragrance oils or nature-identical or perfume oils which may be oils combined with chemicals.) Also, buy oils in dark glass bottles without rubber stopper tops which can degrade oils. Buying oils in small (4 oz or smaller) dark or opaque glass bottles.

Anyway, I wanted to share these recipes with you (and, honestly, I want to throw away the little piece of paper that I saved, too.)

Surface cleaner – 2 cups of water in a spay bottle and add seven drops of one of the following essential oils (lavender, eucalyptus, tea tree, cinnamon, clove, thyme, pine, grapefruit or oregano). Spray on surfaces.

Kitchen Cleaner – 2 cups of water in a spray bottle and add eight drops of essential oils mixture. Spray on surfaces. (The mixture is as follows: 8 drops lavender,10 drops lemon, 5 drops eucalyptus, 8 drops rosewood,and 3 drops palma rose.)

Floor Cleaner – Combine 1/4 cup white vinegar with 10 drops lemon oil and 4 drops oregano oil. Add to a bucket of water. For extra cleaning strength, add several drops of dish soap (but follow with a clean-water mop so floors are not slippery!)

Flea Killer – Mix 2 cups borax with 10 to 15 drops of essential oils. Try pine or balsam fir in the winter; lemongrass or lavender or a citrus oil in the spring and summer. Sprinkle on carpets … wait a few minutes and then vacuum.

So, there you go! A few recipes for chemical-free cleaners. We work hard to keep our house clean for ourselves and our pets (and the kids when they visit) and I plan to try a few of these to see how they work – if you try them, let me know!

Gone knitting!