Essential Oils

You don’t have to be a patchouli-wearing hippy to gain the many benefits of essential oils.

Pure essential oils not only have a wide range of therapeutic and healths benefits, but are easier on the environment and save you money when it comes to household cleaning, laundry, and filtering your tap water.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) claims that 80% of chemical exposure occurs in your home. They also state that cleaning and personal care products are three times more likely to cause cancer than outdoor air pollution (www.epa.gov).

Since you only have to use a small amount, creating your own cleaning and personal care products is easy and relatively inexpensive, especially when compared to the cost of the chemical based, store bought products.

Here are a variety of ways to use the benefits of pure essential oils in and around the house:

Water Filters
Essential oils can be added to the post-filter side of water purifiers to help purify the water. Use peppermint, lemon, clove, or cinnamon.

Cleaning
Essential oils can be used to create many effective non-toxic (and wonderfully fragrant) cleansers and disinfectants. The oils that are excellent for cleaning include:

• Cinnamon
• Clove
• Eucalyptus
• Thyme
• Spruce
• Lemon
• Lemongrass
• Grapefruit

Here's a recipe for a good, basic household disinfectant:

• Fill a spray bottle with water and a squirt of dishwashing soap.
• Add 3-5 drops each of lavender, lemon and pine essential oils.
• Shake well.

Floor cleaner:

• Add 1/4 cup white vinegar to a bucket of water.
• Add 5-10 drops lemon, pine, spruce, melaleuca or Purification.

Hard Floor
To clean hard floors, add 1/4 cup of white vinegar to a bucket of water. Then add 5-10 drops of lemon, pine, spruce, melaleuca, Purification, or any other suitable oil. If the floor is especially dirty, add several drops of dishwashing soap. This will clean even the dirtiest floor.
1/4 cup white vinegar to a bucket of water
5-10 drops lemon, pine, spruce, melaleuca, Purification, or other oil
Dishwashing soap if needed

To freshen a vacuum cleaner:
Sprinkle several drops of lemon or Purification onto half a tissue. Let the vacuum cleaner suck it up or place it into the collecting bag. If your vacuum cleaner has a water reservoir, add a few drops of oil into it before cleaning.

Fighting dust mites
Recent research has shown that eucalyptus oil kills dust mites that live in bedding. 25 drops of eucalyptus essential oil added to each load of laundry or 1/2 ounce to a jug of laundry detergent is all you need.

Hot tubs and saunas:
Use 3 drops per person of lavender, cinnamon, clove, eucalyptus, thyme, lemon, or grapefruit to disinfect and fragrance the water.
For saunas, add several drops rosemary, thyme, pine, or lavender to a spray bottle with water and spray surfaces. This water can also be used to splash onto hot sauna stones.

Kitchens and bathrooms:
The kitchen and bathroom are often a source of odors and bacteria. Use the following mixtures to freshen, deodorize, and disinfect the air, work areas, cupboards, bathroom fixtures, sinks, tiles, woodwork, carpets, etc. These blends are safe for the family and for the environment.

Since the oils separate easily from water, always shake well and keep on shaking the bottle as you use these mixtures. They will deodorize and clean the air instead of covering the odors.

Single oils: Rosemary with lemon, Eucalyptus globulus, and lavender.
Blends: Lavender with Purification

• 2 drops rosemary
• 4 drops lemon
• 3 drops Eucalyptus globulus
• 4 drops lavender with 1 quart water
• Shake well and put in a spray bottle.
• 3-4 drops lavender
• 5-6 drops Purification with 1 quart of water
• Shake well and put in a spray bottle.
• Pine with chamomile, melaleuca alternifolia, lemongrass, or clove

The following recipes are excellent cleansers for work areas, cupboards, bathroom fixtures, sinks, tiles, woodwork, carpets and more. They clean bacteria and odors; freshen, deodorize and disinfect the air.

Mix into 1 quart water:

• 2 drops rosemary
• 4 drops lemon
• 3 drops eucalyptus
• 4 drops lavender

Shake well and put into a spray bottle. Shake again before using.

Another recipe for cleaning:

Mix into 1 quart water:

• 3 - 4 drops lavender
• 5 - 6 drops Purification

Shake well and put into a spray bottle. Shake again before using.

Another all-purpose cleaner:

• Water
• 2 Tablespoons Borax
• 1 Teaspoon Castile Soap
• 15-20 drops Essential Oils such as Pine, Lemon, Melaleuca, Citronella, or Lemongrass (or any combination of the above)

Add Borax to a 1 quart spray bottle.
Fill with warm water.
Add Castile soap and Essential Oils.
Shake and use.
Can also be made with Purification

Window cleaner

Mix in 1 quart spray bottle:

• 1 cup White Vinegar
• 10-15 drops of Lemon Essential Oil
• Water

Mix vinegar and water in spray bottle.
Add essential oil.
Shake and use.

Laundry

Stain Remover
Use a drop or two of Lemon oil on a stain. Let it sit a few minutes and rub off with a clean cloth or throw into laundry cycle.

In the Dryer
Instead of using toxic and irritating softening sheets in the dryer, toss in a dampened washcloth with 10 drops of lavender, lemon, melaleuca, bergamot, or other oils added. While the oils will not reduce static cling, they will impart a lovely fragrance to the clothes.

Painting
Adding essential oil to paint will counteract the unpleasant smell. And because essential oils are not fatty oils, they will leave no oil spots on the walls. Add a 5 ml. bottle of your favorite essential oil, such as White Angelica, Abundance, or Sacred Mountain, to 1 gallon of paint. Mix well.