Cleaning with homemade, natural cleaning products is in our home is important to me. In order to use simple ingredients as well as natural ingredients I use a lot of essential oils in my all purpose cleaner recipes. I want to embrace my home and family with healthy living by protecting them from harmful germs and bacteria as well as harsh chemical.

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. With the toxic chemicals in our store-bought cleaners the danger is in long time 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 from just the smell of bleach… 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 all 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 fresh scent but as the cleaning agent in the cleaner. Both the essential oil and the vinegar or soap 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 natural 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 routine. 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 bacterial growth without killing both the good and bad bacteria completely. Cleaning with essential oils benefits our immune system rather than harming it like the commercial cleaners full of toxic fumes do.

Essential Oils for Cleaning

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

Mix and Match

Some of these essential oils are stronger cleaners than other or have different cleaning abilities. 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 cleaners 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 household cleaning products.

How To Make An Essential Oil Cleaner

Here are 3 simple recipes for natural cleaners using essential oils   

1. Mix together 2 part water, 1 part rubbing alcohol 1 part cleaning vinegar or white vinegar into a reusable glass spray bottle. Add 15-25 drops of your preferred essential oil to your glass bottle. 
2. 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. 
3. Mix together 3 parts water to 1 part vinegar and add 15-25 drops of your preferred essential oil to your 12 -16 oz glass spray bottle.

For more all purpose cleaner recipes check out my post just on DIY Natural Cleaner Recipes for different types of cleaners using essential oil, baking soda, Castile soaps, rubbing alcohol, vinegar and olive oil.

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.

What brand of Essential Oils is Best?

Not all Essential Oil brands are made equal. For cleaning you want high quality essential oils. High quality essential oils are not always found at your local grocery store. Young Living, DoTERRA, Revive and Plant Therapy are all good, high quality brands you can trust for your diy cleaner. For more about these brands read Emma’s Post on the Top 10 Best Essential Oil Brands on her website, Essential Oil Haven.

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. Cleaning with essential oils is very effective and should be diluted to clean with. For best results mix with and non-toxic cleaners like Castile soaps, vinegar, witch hazel or rubbing alcohol to make your DIY cleaning spray.

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 of vinegar at all, maybe you used too much oil, or not enough vinegar. 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 homemade cleaning products. 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.