Cleaning with essential oils and all-purpose cleaner made with natural products in our home is important to me. I want to embrace my home and family with healthy living by protecting them from harmful germs and bacteria as well as harsh chemical.

Jump to how to make homemade essential oil cleaner

Are Chemical Cleaners Bad?

YES!!! VERY BAD! …okay, maybe I’m overreacting… Let me just say right now, I have Bleach and Comet (Natural version here) and even Windex in my house right now that I use. Now, you are not going to keel over and die from them as your spray your window to clean it. The danger is in long term exposure.

Lets use bleach for example. Breathing in bleach fumes irritates your lungs. Sometimes while cleaning with bleach you might cough a little, feel a burning in your noes or throat… that is the chemicals burning your lungs. The feeling might goes away with a drink of water or some fresh air but that doesn’t mean there’s no damage. Healing is needed. Breathing in bleach everyday keeps the healing from happening. The more chemical burn your experience the longer its going to take to heal. Then you get a cold… and your lungs struggle. The coughing hurts, it turns in to bronchitis and then it goes crazy and you have lung cancer. It’s the constant damage, without healing that causing tissue and cell damage. To learn more read “Is Breathing in Bleach Bad?“

Yes, I keep these bad cancer causing chemical cleaners in my house. No, I do not use them daily, or even weekly. My daily and weekly cleaning needs are met with more natural cleaning products.

Does Cleaning with essential oils really work?

YES!

In all honesty I wouldn’t clean with only essential oils. I will always pair them with vinegar, soap or rubbing alcohol. But don’t get me wrong, I’m not using essential oils just for the fragrance and the cleaning agent as the cleaner. They both work to clean. Essential oils have cleaning, cleansing, antibacterial properties that really do work. For best all purpose cleaning in your home it will be best to combine them with another cleaning agent.

What Essential Oils can I use to Clean with?

There are so many great essential oils that you can use in your daily cleaning. The oils you want to use are oils that have antibacterial properties. Antibacterial essential oils stop the growth of bacteria. Keeping you home clean from bacteria growth without killing both the good and bad bacteria completely. By cleaning with essential oils benefit our immune system rather than harming it like the chemical cleaners do.

Essential Oils for Cleaning

• Eucalyptus has antibacterial properties
• Peppermint contains anti fungal and antibacterial properties
• Lavender has powerful antimicrobial properties
• Cloves contains both anti fungal and antibacterial properties, a great at disinfecting and cleaning mold.
• Lemongrass has both anti fungal and antibacterial properties, brakes down grease and grime.
• Cinnamon is one of the most powerful antibacterials and anti fungal of the essential oils.
• Tea tree (Melaleuca) has both anti fungal and antibacterial properties.
• Bergamot is another antibacterial with a large amount of limonene, which is also found in citrus oils.
• Oregano has strong antibacterial properties
• Thyme has antiseptic properties
• Basil has antimicrobial properties and repels insects
• Rosemary has antibacterial and antiseptic properties
• Geranium helps remove dirt and grime
• Wild Orange cuts through grease and dirt and is antibacterial
• Lemon antibacterial properties
• Grapefruit natural de-greaser and has antimicrobial properties
• Lime high in limonene helping disinfect bacteria
• and more I’m sure….

Mix and Match

Some of these essential oils are stronger cleaner than other or have different strengths. Some being better de-greasers, some being better for molds and fungal. To make a all-purpose cleaner you can combine oils to create your own cleaner that fits your needs.

Some essential oil companies have blends already that are specially for cleaning. Young living has blends like ‘Thieves’ and ‘Purification’. DoTerra has ‘On Guard’ and ‘Purify’. Revive has ‘Clean’, ‘Purify’ and ‘Immunity Boost’. You can make things simple and buy one of these blends or you can create your own.

How To Make An Essential Oil Cleaner

Mix together 2 part water, 1 part rubbing alcohol 1 part vinegar into a glass spray bottle. Add 15-25 drops of your preferred essential oil to your spray bottle.

OR

Mix together 3 parts water with 1 part Castile soap and add 15-25 drops of your preferred essential oil to your glass spray bottle.

OR

Mix together 3 parts water to 1 part vinegar and add 15-25 drops of your preferred essential oil to your glass spray bottle.

For more natural cleaner recipes check out my post just on cleaner recipes.

Is Homemade all-purpose cleaners cheaper?

Lets do some math…
-1/4 gallon, Lysol All-Purpose Cleaner, Sanitizing and Disinfecting Spray, Lemon Breeze Scent, 32oz – $3.97, $1.98 per 16 oz bottle.
-DoTERRA’s Multi-Purpose On Guard Cleaner Concentrate 12 oz, makes about 9, 16 oz spray bottles, $24 $2.67 per 16 oz bottle
-1.5 gallons, Homemade Vinegar All-Purpose Cleaner – Cleaning Vinegar 64oz, $2.62 + Rubbing Alcohol 91%, 32oz, $3.98 (x2) + On Guard Essential Oils, DoTERRA, 15ml $52OR Revive 30ml $28. TOTAL (with revive) is $38.58 at check out. 64oz of vinegar, 64oz of rubbing alcohol, 64oz water makes 12, 16oz spray bottles. When using 15 drops of oil per 16 oz spray bottle the total comes to about $1.78 per 16 oz bottle.

30ml of essential oil is approximately 500 drops. That is about 6 cents per drop. 15 drops per 16 oz spray bottle comes to 90 cents per bottle.

So yeah, its pretty cheap.

Mistakes when Cleaning with Essential Oils

Mixing with bleach

Bleach and essential oils are completely different ways of cleaning. They do not mix well, its not considered to be safe. Bleach will overpower the sent of the essential oils. Essential oils are meant to be breathed in, benefiting the whole body. Bleach is not to be breathed in or put on your skin. Just don’t do it. It doesn’t make since to mix the two.

Using by themself

Essential oils alone are not are compete cleaner or disinfectant. They are best paired with water along side Castile soaps, vinegar or rubbing alcohol. Cleaning with essential oils is very effective when used along side other cleaning agents.

Using too much/using too little

There no absolutely right amount of oils to use but there is a wrong. I typically find people use too little, trying to save the expensive oil. But its also true that you don’t need to over do it. 5 drops is not enough for a 16 oz spray bottle but 30-35 may also be more than enough, therefore being wasteful. Use your nose. If you put 15 drops in but you can’t smell the oils when you spray it, then its not enough. Add 3-5 more till you can smell it. If you use Vinegar along with your oil and you can’t smell the strong vinegar at all, maybe you used too much oil. I am always looking for both smells while not letting either one over power the other.

Using low quality oils

One of the biggest mistakes I think you can do buying poor quality essential oils for your cleaning. You need 100% pure essential oils or they oil will not have enough or any of the antibacterial, antimicrobial, anti-fungal, antiseptic, de-greasing properties to them. Don’t use oils that are not 100% pure, or have other ingredients listed other that oils, like ‘fragrance’. Check out these 7 simple test to tell if you oil is pure or not.

Improper Storage

You should store your essential oils in a cool dark place. Using glass bottles, best if they are dark glass but not always necessary if you keep in a dark cabinet. UV rays can cause the oils to brake down and the dark glass helps keep them safe.
Plastic bottle react with the oils. The plastic can even start braking down and mixing the plastic toxins in with your oils. The oils can also pass through the plastic as it is more porous than glass. In both cases makes your oils not as pure or effective in their cleaning.

Forgetting to shake the bottle

Oils like to separate from water when sitting in the cabinet, shake for an even mixture before cleaning.