USING ESSENTIAL OILS TO CLEAN YOUR HOME
Do any of you have a hard time being around chemicals when cleaning your home? It has always been a challenge for me to find an all purpose cleaner of good quality that doesn't make me feel like I'm suffocating while cleaning my home. Using chemicals of any kind can be toxic, especially when cleaning enclosed spaces, such as restrooms, because there isn't an outlet for the fumes to escape so you're breathing them all in! (insert scrunchy, pinched bleh face here) There have been times when I've had to leave the room because I couldn't breathe!
I decided to take matters into my own hands, BOOM! I've been talking about it for weeks, so I finally buckled down this weekend and made my own all-purpose cleaner using simple ingredients I already had at home that are non-toxic, affordable, and anti-bacterial. A close friend of mine and I have recently jumped into the pool of using essential oils so I decided to utilize some of the ones I have at home to create it, and it smells UH-mazing!
Ingredients you need are:
Distilled Water
White Vinegar
Lemon Essential Oil
Tea Tree Essential Oil
Lavender Essential Oil
Peppermint Essential Oil
Spray Bottle
First, fill the spray bottle with 8 parts distilled water and 1 part white vinegar. Vinegar is a natural disinfectant to sanitize what you're cleaning, however, it does NOT smell pretty. SO...adding the essential oils not only makes it smell prettier but the oils are also chock-full of health benefits for us! (I'll explain the benefits of each below)
Next, add the essential oils: 20 drops of lemon, 10 drops of tea tree, 10 drops of lavender, and 15 drops of peppermint.
Last note, SHAKE BEFORE YOU SPRAY! The distilled water/vinegar mix will not mesh with oil since oil & water do not mix, naturally. Be sure to shake before you spray to get a good mix out onto what you're cleaning.
Eureka! You've got yourself an all-natural homemade, non-toxic, all-purpose cleaner! :O) Not only does it disinfect, but it smells superb and adds an aromatic mental pick-me-up while you're cleaning, giving you the energy to actually WANT to be cleaning! In my book, that is an A+! This is something you can definitely be proud of, knowing you created something that actually protects you and your loved ones from breathing in toxic fumes of unnatural ingredients.
If you're curious about the essential oils, here is some information about each oil that I used for you to know the full extent of the benefits you're receiving while you're cleaning:
Lavender essential oil
Properties: Lavender essential oil can be calming, sleep inducing, analgesic, disinfectant, antiinflammatory, antiseptic, and antifungal.
Health benefits: This oil is beneficial for treatment of issues with the nervous system, insomnia, pain relief, urine flow, respiratory disorders, skin care, hair care, blood circulation, indigestion, and immune system health.
Lemon essential oil
Properties: Lemon essential oil is an antiseptic, antiviral, astringent, aperitif, bactericidal, disinfectant, febrifuge, haemostatic, restorative, and a tonic.
Health benefits: This oil protects from wounds becoming septic, while inhibiting viral and bacterial growth, strengthening gums, and stopping hair loss. Furthermore, it lifts skin, induces firmness in muscles, stops hemorrhaging, fights infections, and cures fevers.
Peppermint essential oil
Properties: Peppermint oil is used as an analgesic, anesthetic, antiseptic, antigalactogogue, antiphlogistic, antispasmodic, astringent, carminative, cephalic, cholagogue, cordial, decongestant, emenagogue, expectorant, febrifuge, hepatic, nervine, stimulant, stomachic, sudorific, vasoconstrictor and as a vermifuge.
Health benefits: It is commonly used in the treatment of pain relief, as a way to induce numbness, protect against sepsis, reduce milk flow and discharge, relax spasm, strengthen gums, stop hair loss, and lifts skin. Also, it induces firmness in muscles, stops hemorrhaging, removes gas, is good for brain and memory health, and promotes bile discharge, clears congestion and eases breathing. Furthermore, peppermint essential oil relieves obstructed menstruation, expels phlegm & catarrh, reduces fever, is good for the liver, nerves, and stomach, while promoting perspiration and slight contraction of the blood vessels.
Tea Tree essential oil
Properties: Tea tree essential oil is antibacterial, antimicrobial, antiviral, fungicide, insecticide, antiseptic, balsamic, cicatrisant, expectorant, stimulant, and sudorific in nature.
Health benefits: This oil is often used to inhibit bacterial, microbial, and viral infections, while also killing insects, protecting wounds from becoming septic, promoting absorption of nutrients, speeding up the healing rate of scars and after marks. Finally, it can cure coughs and colds, and it stimulates systemic functions and appropriate discharges.
I hope you enjoy this recipe for a wonderful, safe all-purpose cleaner that you can be motivated to clean with knowing it won't harm you or your loved ones! Please share with me any recipes you've created, I'd love to try them! :O)
Love & Light to all of you!
~Cassie
