Nickie’s Nook: Oils and Books

I used to hate cleaning! And it wasn’t really the effort of doing the cleaning myself. With the level of chronic pain I deal with, it’s not something I can do for myself most of the time.

No, what I hated was the smell! The awful, strong, chemical smells of the cleaning products those who were helping me used because we didn’t know there were other options. The smells made my headaches worse and increased my nausea. And let’s face it, cleaning sucks on the best of days for those who do it even if they aren’t sensitive to strong chemicals. There’s gotta be another, better way!

Fortunately, with essential oils, there is a much better way. People don’t really think about essential oils as cleaning products, if they think about essential oils, they think about good smells, maybe stress reduction or help sleeping. But essential oils are actually great at killing microbes like bacteria and fungi. Essential oils are a plant’s medicine cabinet. They help the plant heal and one important part of healing is killing off bacteria and other nastiness. So why not start using the essential oils and their healing properties to clean the house without the awful smells of the chemicals from storebought products?

In the rest of this post, we’ll talk about some of the best oils to use, some premade products Doterra sells and some recipes we can make to customize our own cleaning products.

While I don’t do much (if any) of the cleaning myself, the people who help me seem to really like the way the DIY products work. And what I love is that my house smells clean and like a spa. There’s no need to open the window to air out the smells, if anything, we want to keep the smells around longer.

I’ll link to the Doterra products as pre-created cart with all products already inside. Since we’ll be talking about lots of different oils, just remove the ones you aren’t purchasing. Keep the wholesale membership, it’s like a Costco or Sam’s membership and you never need to renew or purchase other products unless you want more. If you find this blog helpful, please purchase oils from this link, rather than going to the Doterra main site as I do receive compensation.

Premade Doterra Solutions

Doterra has a whole series of cleaning products in its Abode line. It’s a blend of several oils that fight the nasty bacteria and other bugs. I’ll be honest and say that I don’t like the smell of the oregano in it, but when I know I need to kill off something nasty, such as in the bathroom, Abode is a great choice. Abode is available in an regular essential oil blend, a surface cleaner concentrate, laundry pods, dishwasher soap (with grapefruit which smells great!), and dishwasher pods. There’s also a foaming hand-soap and lotion, both are scented with the citrus bloom blend of wild orange, grapefruit, magnolia, lavender and roman chamomile. I love the smell of the hand soap and lotion!

The products are super easy to use, the most you have to do with the surface cleaner and hand soap is add water to the concentrates. Doterra has glass bottles which make it easy to get the right measurement of water to solution, but for those who can’t see the lines of where to fill to, I’ll say here that the hand soap is ½ cup concentrate to 1-½ cup of water and the cleaner concentrate is one bottle of the concentrate and then you fill the spray bottle the rest of the way up.

Do It Yourself options

For those like me who don’t like the smell of Abode, enjoy making your own products or find it cheaper to make your own products, here are some options for making your own. First, we’ll talk about oils that I find helpful for cleaning then I will share some recipes for surface cleaner, glass cleaner, and mopping solution that I ask my helpers to use in my home. I’ll also share a recipe for a toilet bowl cleaner I just found and already love!

Favorite Oils For Cleaning Products

The oils I use most are citrus oils like Wild Orange, Lemon, Lime or citrus blends like Citrus Bliss or Citrus Bloom I choose citrus oils because they are great for killing off bacteria and other bugs. I also like mints like spearmint or peppermint because they are also good for antibacterial purposes, but mint is also a freshening smell. Additionally, for extra fresh smells, I like eucalyptus. Eucalyptus is great for opening the airways and can be a wonderful tool to help with seasonal challenges like pollen and other seasonal threats.  Also, mint essential oil can help deter pests like ants. Another favorite is lavender. It has a springtime smell, but is also good at killing off bacteria. Also, if you find cleaning stressful, lavender promotes a relaxing atmosphere. The Onguard blend is our immune boosting blend which makes it a great blend for cleaning. Finally tea tree which is great for killing bugs of the microbial kind.

Some of my favorite blends are orange and spearmint, lavender, lemon and peppermint/spearmint or lime and spearmint. But I go with what feels right at the moment when I’m cleaning or someone is helping me clean.

Carpet cleaner and fridge freshener

This is one of the simplest ways to refresh your room or fridge. Take a cup of baking soda and add several drops of essential oil to it. Then either sprinkle it on your carpet or put it in an open jar and leave it in the fridge. I recommend lavender for your carpet or lemon for your fridge or lavender for your carpet. if you’re using it for your carpet, vacuum it up and it will refresh the smell of your room. In the fridge, it will get rid of any nasty odors.

Dusting spray

You’re so simple dusting spray and how to use it. 2 cups of water, one cup of white vinegar and whichever essential oils you’d like to use. I would use lemon or orange or any number of other citrus oils, but use what you think would be best for you. I have not yet tried this spray, but it seems quite simple. It’s recommended that you use all of it within a month, so you could very easily divide the spray into a smaller amount, such as one cup of water and a half cup of white vinegar, but do whatever you think you would use up. 

Toilet Bowl Cleaner

Here’s a simple, effective, and natural toilet cleaner recipe using essential oils. This recipe uses safe ingredients that clean, deodorize, and leave your bathroom smelling fresh:
DIY Essential Oil Toilet Cleaner Ingredients: • ½ cup baking soda
• ¼ cup white vinegar
• 10 drops Tea Tree (Melaleuca) essential oil – antibacterial
• 10 drops Lemon essential oil – cleansing and fresh scent
• Optional: 5 drops Peppermint or Eucalyptus – extra freshness Instructions: 1. Sprinkle the baking soda directly into the toilet bowl. 2. Add the essential oils on top of the baking soda. Let sit for 5–10 minutes. 3. Pour in the vinegar. It will fizz as it reacts with the baking soda. Let it sit for another 5 minutes. 4. Scrub the bowl with a toilet brush as the mixture works. 5. Flush to rinse. Enjoy the fresh scent and clean bowl! Tips: • For extra cleaning power, especially for stains, you can add a tablespoon of castile soap.
• You can also premix this into a paste (baking soda + essential oils) and store in a jar to have ready.
• Use once a week or as needed.

Simple Surface Spray

Making a surface spray with essential oils is super easy. All it takes is Castile soap, distilled water and your essential oils of choice, though I strongly recommend using citrus oils or tea tree oil as one of the oils in your blend. I’ve found that it only takes a small amount of castile soap to create an effective spray. Using too much can make the surface you clean sticky. I use about ¾ of a teaspoon of the soap and 30 drops of oil in a 16 oz spray bottle and fill the rest of it up with the distilled water. It works well for cleaning things like countertops, tables and anything else.

Glass Cleaner

I hate the smell of glass cleaners! Or at least I did until I started making my own. Now, I love the smell because I love the oils I use in my spray. Again, it doesn’t take many ingredients to make a glass cleaner, just the ever-useful distilled water, rubbing alcohol, and essential oils. Some people use added ingredients like white Vinegar and cornstarch, but I have found that I don’t need them. Just use 1 cup rubbing alcohol and one cup distilled water and 20 drops of lime essential oil and 10 drops of spearmint essential oil. Put use a microfiber cloth to clean the glass. It works quite well in my experience.

Where do you get the oils?

I love doTERRA essential oils for their purity and their ethical sourcing. They are high-quality and I know I can trust the product. When I talk about oils, I’m always talking about doTERRA essential oils. What I’ve done now is create a cart on the Doterra site. It has all of the products I’ve mentioned in this post, but again, just remove all the ones that you don’t need. By purchasing directly from this link or from any link to my. Doterra site, you are supporting me as a wellness advocate and also supporting this blog.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this blog post and I wish you many days of happy cleaning!