Essential Oils | For Cleaning and Disinfecting

When you think about it, I mean really think about it, we are surrounded by toxins. And maybe the thought of that is too overwhelming so we block it out. Or maybe it’s just unknown, because how can companies get away with continuing to sell products with such harmful chemicals, right?

From the foods we are eating, to the soaps we wash our bodies with, to the cleansers we use to clean our homes…and everything in between. Toxic chemicals are everywhere. Seriously, check out the ingredient lists for all that you are using and start researching what those ingredients are.

Our bodies have a great natural immune system to fight illnesses (which these chemical contribute to), but it can only do and take so much. And when our body is getting overloaded with toxins, we start to see the affect of this in some form of disease. And now it takes the hard, long work to detox from these toxins… Doable? Yes. But even better if we can be proactive to prevent this from getting to that stage.

How Chemicals Affect Your Health

I encourage you to really starting looking at the ingredients listed in the cleaning products you are using in your home. I mean, if you can’t pronounce the ingredient, you probably shouldn’t be cleaning your home with it.

When these toxic cleaning products touch our skin, or even just linger in the air in our home, these chemicals get into our system…and over time can be major contributors to disease within the body.

The ingredients you’ll see listed can cause cancer, disrupt hormones, respiratory issues, skin rashes, liver and kidney abnormalities, lymphatic issues, and this is to name a few. I don’t want to scare you, but these are some serious side-effects that have come from our household cleaning products.

Best Oils for Cleaning

There are many essential oils that are amazing, and effective, to create your own natural cleaning products. Here are a few that are multi-functional within the home (medicinally also) that are perfect to get you started.

With a few other staple natural products and these essential oils, you’ll have your home clean and healthy in no time.

Lemon Essential Oil
This oil is probably the most versatile of them all, and well known for its antiviral and antibacterial properties making for an effective cleaner. The clean and fresh odour that lingers when you are finished is just the icing on the cake.

Tea Tree (Melaluca) Essential Oil
With its antibacterial, antifungal and antiviral properties, Tree Tree essential oil makes for a great cleaner, particularly in the bathroom.

Toilet Cleaner: ¼ cup vinegar, ½ cup baking soda, 10 drops Tea Tree essential oil. Mix everything together.

Lavender Essential Oil
While Lavender essential oil boasts antibacterial properties, making it ideal for cleaning the nasties around the house, it’s best known for its calming properties. It’s also a great odour eliminator, so spraying it around the house and on your linens as an air freshener is win/win.

Air Freshener: 1 ½ – 2 cups distilled water, 1 tablespoon baking soda, 6 drops Lavender essential oil. Stir soda and oils together, put into spray bottle and add water.

Orange Essential Oil
Similar to Lemon, Orange essential oil is a cleaning all-rounder, particularly great at cutting through grease in the kitchen. And it smells amazing too!

All-Purpose Cleaner: ¾ cup white vinegar, ¾ cup distilled water, ¾ tablespoon baking soda, 30 drops orange essential oil (or 15 drops orange + 15 drops lemon). Mix everything into a spray bottle.

Eucalyptus Essential Oil
This oil has highly effective antiseptic, anti-inflammatory and antimicrobial properties making it a strong fighter against germs that cause colds and flus. It’s also great at fighting mold and mildew.

Mold & Mildew Cleaner: 1 cup vinegar, 1 cup distilled water, 5 drops Eucalyptus essential oil. Mix everything into a spray bottle.

Young Living Thieves

As you know, I’m a Young Living supporter so needless to say I love their Thieves range of household products. This option is a great alternative if you are not into making your own cleaning products.

Thieves oil itself is a Young Living blend of essential oils, that is a medicinal power house on its own. Young Living has then used this oil blend to create an amazing plant-based cleaning product range using natural ingredients.

Products are purchased as a concentrate, so you can alter the strength depending on what you need to clean and they last longer.

Making your own natural cleaning products is not only healthier for you and your family, but it’s easy and less expensive. And it couldn’t be any easier with the copious amount of information and recipes on the internet.

It may feel a little overwhelming at first, but it will be so worth it and you’ll feel fantastic that you are creating a much healthier, non-toxic space.

Thanks for reading!