A Guide to the 7 Best Essential Oils for Cleaning and to Boost Effectiveness of Homemade Cleaners

So you want to find out about using essential oils in your cleaning routine?

Well, essential oils are good for so many things, but one HUGE benefit is that they will boost your natural cleaning recipes and steps by making your cleaning products much more effective! Here’s what the addition of essential oils does to your cleaning products: they are “anti-bacterial (prevents/slows bacterial growth), anti-fungal (fights fungal infections), anti-infectious (prevents germs from spreading), anti-microbial (kills and prevents pathogenic microorganisms), anti-septic (kills and prevents microbes) and anti-viral (slows the growth of a virus).

We have and will continue to share our many homemade cleaning products recipes to make at home and to make for pennies on the dollar.  We have the shopping list for these items in our other post HERE that can be bought for very little money at your local stores.

However, you cannot get essential oils in any store.  It has to be a health food store. Essential oils are different than fragrance oils.  They are used for many, many ancient medicinal purposes – but totally natural and safe when used properly, especially when compared to chemical counter parts.  If you want to know more about essential oils, you can check out this link on FAQ and Intro to Essential Oils HERE.

I am a germ-a-phobe (Alex too!) and I used to clean with chemical products.  But after years of research I determined there were valid health reasons to stop using the chemical products (it is a long story and one that I will share another day).  So with that, for the past several years, I have used natural cleaning products and have been making them on my own.

Not only are there great health benefits to kicking the chemical cleaners to the curb, they actually end up being cheaper too – yes, even with essential oils! What a blessing that is! It isn’t often that doing the healthier thing is less money!

Well, we are going to try to help you make it even less money with a few tips and tricks that we have learned.

I am going to show you how to get seven 100% pure essential oils for that you can use for your cleaning products, diffusing into the air, etc. for a good price.  I have done this EXACT purchase probably six times in the past several years.  I use several different oils a day for different purposes.

A couple of things to remember about essential oils:

• If you have never used them, don’t worry, they are completely safe when used properly (like in homemade cleaning products) and in fact yield many health benefits. Essential oils are the liquids distilled from plants and plant parts (like seeds, bark, leaves, roots, flowers, etc.) That is the shortest answer possible. 🙂 But in essence, it is totally natural and healthy!
• Also, they come in small bottles.  The most common for cleaning grade is a 15 ml. which is about a 1/2 oz. I know that sounds like it is nothing and will not get you far….but they will probably last you a couple of years in making your own cleaning products for the full two-years. Why?  Well, most essential oils have 25-30 drops in 1 ml, that means that a 15 ml bottle contains about 375-450 drops of oil!  Most cleaning product recipes I will be sharing require about 10-30 drops per bottle, this means that you can make about 14-15 bottles of cleaner per essential oil bottle!

So, from my years of research and determining the best products to use for being the agents in the list above it is these top 7 in order of best for this purpose (again, my own rating and order):

• Oregano
• Cassia (from the cinnamon family, but extracted from a different part of the plant)
• Cinnamon
• Melaleuca (also know as Tea Tree Essential Oil)
• Lemon
• Lavender
• Peppermint

Now, if you were to pick just two, the two most popular are Lemon and Lavender and that is because they both have many of the benefits listed above, but they also have a fantastic, pleasant smell.  I like the cinnamon and peppermint too, but it is a very strong smell.   The others don’t have the best smell, but they are effective at naturally solving many of those issues in our list above.  So I have found that using a combination of these oils is a fantastic happy medium between getting the job done most effectively and with a pleasant smell too!

So, I would highly encourage you to have a stash of cleaning grade essential oils to mix n’ match in your cleaning product batch! 😉

The better news is that I can show you how to get these seven oils for much less than most every source and even better price for first time buyers.

To get this deal:

First, you will want to claim a FREE $10 off $30 or more coupon from Vitacost!  This will work for anything on the Vitacost site and they are literally a huge vitamin, supplement, natural and organic grocery and household online warehouse where you can find pretty much anything you may need in the natural health and organic category!

They will have some awesome sales and clearances and we have been buying from them for the past four years for many of our everyday needs at their sale and clearance prices.  Plus we get these great deals and shop from home, which is even better!

So you can head to the Vitacost site through this link HERE  to claim your $10 off coupon on an order of $30 or more (essentially a FREE $10 gift card!).

Option #1 – The full set….

• Head to the Vitacost site through this link HERE  to claim your $10 off coupon on an order of $30 or more
• Then search for each of these oils and add them to your cart: ( I like Nature’s Alchemy brand) – *Note:prices can change at any time, but they are in the ball park!
  • Nature’s Alchemy Lemon Essential Oil – (.5 oz for $3.19)
  • Nature’s Alchemy Lavender Essential Oil – (.5 oz for $7.29)
  • Aura Cacia Cassia Bark Essential Oil – (.5 oz for $5.34)
  • Nature’s Alchemy Cinnamon Leaf Essential Oil – (.5 oz for $4.29)
  • Nature’s Alchemy Tea Tree (Melaleuca) Essential Oil – (.5 oz for $5.19)
  • Nature’s Alchemy Peppermint Essential Oil – (.5 oz for $4.99)
  • Heritage Products Oregano Essential Oil – (1 oz – which is twice the size of the other oils for $14.69, it is a great option, just twice the oil :))
• This will total:  $44.98 – shipping is $4.99 or FREE with a $49 or more order.  So…one of the items that is on the other store shopping list is castile soap to make your own hand soaps and other cleaning products. I like using liquid castile. Search for: Vitacost – globaby Baby Liquid Castile Soap Unscented — 32 fl oz for $6.99 and add this to your cart!
• Your final total is $51.97 

• *If you are a first time buyer to Vitacost with your FREE $10 to spend = $46.96 shipped! ($41.97 + $4.99 shipping, you don’t get free shipping with the first time buyers $10 promo)

Option #2 – Modified, but effective set…. (no oregano and a one cinnamon blend to save $20)

• Head to the Vitacost site through this link HERE  to claim your $10 off coupon on an order of $10 or more
• Then search for each of these oils and add them to your cart: ( I like Nature’s Alchemy brand)
  • • Nature’s Alchemy Lemon Essential Oil – (.5 oz for $3.19)
    • Nature’s Alchemy Lavender Essential Oil – (.5 oz for $7.29)
    • Nature’s Alchemy Cinnamon Leaf Essential Oil – (.5 oz for $4.29)
    • Nature’s Alchemy Tea Tree (Melaleuca) Essential Oil – (.5 oz for $5.19)
    • Nature’s Alchemy Peppermint Essential Oil – (.5 oz for $4.99)
• Your final total is $24.95 plus $4.99 shipping = $29.94

• *If you are a first time buyer to Vitacost with your FREE $10 to spend (you will need to spend $30 in your FIRST ORDER – So add the castile soap at $6.99 so you don’t lose the $10! = $26.93 shipped! ($31.94 – $10 = $21.94 + $4.99 shipping, you don’t get free shipping with the first time buyers $10 promo)

Returning Vitacost Customers shop through this link HERE for the oils instead. Only new customers get the $10 off!

Don’t forget to see the other shopping list HERE for 26 Homemade Cleaning Products with 9 Ingredients and for $12 to complete your homemade cleaning closet!

See our full list of Homemade Cleaners and Personal Care Items HERE