5 Simple Ways to Use Essential Oils in Your Home

Use essential oils around your home and swap natural for the chemical products you currently use. Natural homemade products are easy with essential oils. It’s not just better for us but it’s really easy to embark on your own ‘go natural’ journey! Here are five easy, awesome ways I use essential oils in my home.

1. Fabric Softener

I haven’t bought fabric softener for our laundry for months now. Many people are sensitive to shop bought fabric softeners and the smell of some can be overpowering.

And quite frankly, it’s expensive.

Instead, I use white vinegar with two drops of lavender oil. If you are not familiar with the multitude of uses for white vinegar in your home have a peek at this: Why You Should Add Vinegar to Your Laundry Load

2. Shower Gel, Shampoo and Soap

For more than a year, I have made my own shower gel and shampoo. The ingredients I use are simply castille soap, distilled water, essential oil and dead sea salt for my shower gel.

I usually use citrus essential oils to give me an energy boost in the mornings, but the awesome thing about making your own shower gel is that you decide how it smells!

The hand soap I make is made with similar ingredients. The difference is in the essential oils blend, which is an anti-bacterial recipe. Of all the products I now make myself, hand soap is the one I make most often. Which I take to be a good sign with three children in the house.

3. Spritzers

I hate the artificial smell of chemical air fresheners, to the point that some make me feel nauseous. Making my own spritzers solves that. It’s simply distilled water and an essential oil blend in a spray bottle.

The art behind making your own spritzer is learning about blending essential oils to create a harmonious scent that serves its purpose: freshening the air in a bathroom, cooling in hot weather, lifting your mood, relaxing you before bedtime, cooling sunburn, deodorising pet smells.

Beyond a doubt the spray I make for bites and stings is a family favourite. Simply because it works so well and instantly gives relief from those summer pesky mosquito bites.

4. Mirror and Glass Cleaner

This is one of my favourite homemade cleaning products with essential oils – and not because I enjoy cleaning windows and mirrors, far from it.

For years I struggled with cleaning windows. I finished up, thinking I had done a most excellent job only to discover the glass was left with smears across it, visible once the sun shone. It didn’t matter what I did or tried, the result was the same. That’s history.

Using white vinegar, distilled water (filtered is good too), essential oils and rubbing alcohol I now have a remedy that works. Smear free. So I spend less time cleaning mirrors and windows, hence why this is my personal favourite.

5. Use Essential Oils in Diffusers

I have saved the easiest for last. The easiest way to use essential oils in your home is in a diffuser. A few drops of oil in water in a diffuser – and it’s as simple as that. The range of diffusers now available is huge, so finding something that fits in your home is easy.

Once you learn the effect different oils have on the body you will soon learn to use different oils for different purposes.

My eldest asked me to make him a ‘sleep potion’ a few weeks back. That’s essentially lavender essential oil in the diffuser.

There are oils which help focus the mind, oils that boost a mood, reduce anxiety – or which simply smell nice and so put you in a happier frame of mind.

Getting Started with Essential Oils

The five ways above are just the tip of the iceberg. I make inhalers for relief from stuffed up noses, a roller blend for headaches and one for PMT, a salve for itchiness, mould remover, carpet cleaner, natural pesticide for the fruit, vegetable and herb garden and massage blends to help relax my children when it all gets too much. In fact, the list is huge. If you want help getting started check out these two resources:

Book Tip

I highly recommend The Encyclopedia of Essential Oils by Julia Lawless for a comprehensive overview of essential oils. It’s one of the bestselling books about essential oils – and there’s a good reason for it.

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*For your convenience, this post includes affiliate links to products and books I find useful for the HSK community. They cost you nothing more to buy, but I get a small commission.*