What are the Best Essential Oils for Cleaning Recipes and Blends?
We’ve got the best essential oils for cleaning recipes and blends with a handy printable and 5 essential oil cleaner recipes.
If only one could count the many odors and bacteria that so easily linger in the home. The simple everyday task of cooking dinner can certainly leave odors and ick to hang in the air on surfaces. Especially when we cook meals like fried fish, broccoli cheddar soup, garlic pasta, or shrimp tacos.
Or take pets, for example; pet odors can really permeate the air and leave pet dander on just about any surface. Add to it musty laundry, the trash that needs to be taken out, and well, you get the picture.
Oftentimes many odors will go unnoticed by those in the home, but you can count on each and every visitor picking up on all of them!
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Related: How To Clean a Diffuser
Here’s a fact: Cleaning doesn’t have to be ALL or NOTHING
The good news is, cleaning doesn’t have to be all or nothing. There are many simple things we can do that don’t involve much effort.
Everyone likes a clean, fresh-smelling home. And the best essential oils for cleaning can do just that! Yes, we can de-funk any odor and keep our homes cleaner.
Related: Spring Essential Oil Blends
What makes an essential oil cleaning blend so potent?
Besides their unique plant-based benefits for cleaning any surface, essential oils can give us feelings of balance, relaxation, comfort, and even satisfaction. It all has to do with our olfactory system, in other words, our sense of smell.
As a matter of fact, scents play an important role in our lives. And it all begins in our olfactory system, where our brain makes fascinating connections between scent, emotions, and memory. Did you know that we can discriminate a scent from more than a trillion different scents?
With this ability, it’s not surprising that the scent alone of essential oils can make our homes feel cleaner!
The Best Essential Oils for Cleaning Recipes and Blends
What essential oils are good for cleaning? We’ve narrowed down the very best essential oils for cleaning to quickly and easily clean and freshen your home. You’ll find a printable of all of these essential oil blends below. As well as five of our favorite DIY essential oil cleaner recipes.
Just Washed
Rid musty laundry odors with this appealing blend of fresh florals. It’s the perfect choice for the homemade linen spray we share below.
2 drops lavender
2 drops bergamot
1 drop geranium
Clean Home
Create a space everyone will be delighted to be in with this clean home blend pillowing from the diffuser. (Want to learn more about how diffusers work and the benefits of diffusing essential oil? Just hop on over here.)
3 drops sweet orange
2 drops eucalyptus
2 drops lime
Minty Fresh
Welcome visitors with an uplifting essential oil blend of fresh mint and the zingy zest of lime. Each is a great uplifting essential oil that can encourage a good mood.
3 drops spearmint
2 drops peppermint
1 drop lime
So Clean
Peel back the layers of stink and lift stale and musty indoor odors in spaces like the mudroom or man cave with this essential oil blend.
3 drops citrus fresh
2 drops eucalyptus
Fresh Breeze
Just like a fresh breeze, bring the outdoor aroma indoors with this refreshing woodsy blend of essential oils.
3 drops eucalyptus
2 drops rosemary
2 drops tea tree
At Home
This powerful blend of essential oils for cleaning promotes an emotionally balanced home that smells great too.
2 drops lavender
2 drops rosemary
2 drops lemon
2 drops lime
Citrus Clean
This blend of citrus fresh essential oils can make your house smell clean without actually lifting a finger. Add it to our homemade all-purpose cleaner, or diffuse it in the kitchen after cooking dinner.
3 drops orange
2 drops grapefruit
1 drop lime
Bright Linens
This is my favorite essential oil blend for a wool dryer ball dropper cleaning recipe we share below. It brings a cleansing aroma to the laundry that eliminates odors.
5 drops lavender
3 drops eucalyptus
2 drops purification
Welcome Home
This warming citrus blend of essential oils for cleaning creates a friendly and welcoming environment in the diffuser, essential oil candle, or DIY room spray.
2 drops orange
2 drops clove
1 drop lemon
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Use these essential oils for cleaning blends to freshen your home anytime with our printable blend sheet from our Oily Chic Library. Then put them to work in one of our many DIY essential oil cleaner recipes below!
5 DIY Essential Oil Cleaner Recipes:
#1 Make a DIY Linen Spray
An essential oil linen spray can lift odor in things we don’t launder that often. Use this simple linen spray recipe to deodorize curtains, comforters, pillows, or throw blankets by spritzing with the recipe below.
- Combine equal parts of rubbing alcohol and distilled water in a spray bottle.
- Top with up to 30 drops total of any of the essential oil blends above. (My favorite blend for linen sprays is Just Washed.)
- Cap the bottle and shake it well to thoroughly incorporate the essential oils into the mixture.
#2 Essential Oil Hand Soap Recipe
Keep all the hands clean in your family with a gentle essential oil hand soap recipe. Wet your hands with warm or cold water. Turn off the tap, and apply one pump of soap. Lather your hands by rubbing them together with the soap. Cover the backs of your hands, between your fingers, and under your nails. Scrubbing for at least 20 seconds before rinsing.
- Add 1 part liquid castile soap with 3 parts water to a foaming soap dispenser.
- Top with 10 to 15 drops total of essential oil, leaving about an inch of space to breathe.
#3 Easy Wool Dryer Ball Dropper
Conventional dryer sheets contain artificial fragrances and other toxic ingredients I’d rather not add to our clean clothes. Wool dryer balls, on the other hand, are biodegradable, naturally antimicrobial and free of chemicals or dyes. They bounce around inside the clothes dryer, allowing hot air to circulate and reduce drying time. All the while, they naturally soften clothes, reduce wrinkles, and cut down on static.
But, you can even add to their goodness by making a wool dryer ball dropper. It’s the easiest and most environmentally friendly way to add a fresh scent to your clean clothes and linens.
- Fill one dropper bottle with up to 50 drops total of essential oil. (The Bright Linens blend has the best essential oils for laundry.)
- Place the dropper on the bottle and shake well to thoroughly blend.
- Fill the dryer with your wet wash. Then add 2 to 3 drops from your dropper bottle onto each wool dryer ball.
- Toss them on top of the wash and run a normal drying cycle.
#4 Essential Oil Multi-Purpose Surface Cleaner
Everyday clean-up never looked so pretty than with a glass reusable spray bottle. (This set even comes with waterproof labels.) Spray this essential oil cleaner recipe on countertops, cabinets, doorknobs, sinks, light switches, and more until your heart’s content.
- Combine 1 cup of white distilled vinegar with approximately 1 cup of distilled water into a 16-ounce spray bottle.
- Add a combination of 30 drops of essential oil to the spray bottle. (The Citrus Clean and Fresh Breezes essential oil blends above work incredibly well as a multi-purpose surface cleaner.)
- Place the spray nozzle on the bottle and shake it well to thoroughly combine all ingredients. Shake before each use.
#5 DIY Essential Oil Deep Clean Powder
How do you deodorize a room with essential oils? Make a dry deep clean powder with the world’s number 1 natural deodorizer – baking soda! (I buy it in a big box, so I never run out.) Apply this essential oil cleaner to carpets, rugs, couch cushions, and mattresses for a deep clean.
- Fill a mason jar with a shaker lid with 1 cup of baking soda, then stir in 30 drops total of essential oil. Make sure to break up any clumps before placing the cap on the jar.
- Sprinkle this deep clean powder onto fabrics that have stale or foul odors.
- Allow the mixture to settle into the fibers of the fabric for a minimum of 15-20 minutes. You can even let it sit for a few hours or overnight for stubborn odors.
- After allowing time for deodorizing, vacuum the powder up.
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When it comes to essential oils for cleaning, these are the best for making DIY essential oil cleaner recipes and blends to freshen the home. Pin these DIY cleaning recipes now, and don’t forget to grab your free printable above!
If you’ve never really thought about essential oils for anything other than smell before, read how I learned they are for more than just scent.
Have you tried one of these? Tag #oilychic on Instagram to share it with us.
Thank you. Some great essential oil blends here!
Thank you!