Episode 11: Natural Cleaning Solutions

Hey, I'm Julie Davey, and I've been using doTERRA for about six years now. I was introduced and immediately fell in love. One of the important things to me as I was beginning to learn about the products was how I could use them in cleaning my home and in making it a little bit of a safer environment, free of toxins and chemicals, which as a mom and a wife was really, really important to me. And to learn that I could not only use these products to improve my health, to maybe support any issues that I had going on, but also to clean my home in not only a safe, but effective way was just really exciting for me.

Cleaning Products and Chemicals

I was thinking about a time when I used to not use so natural such natural cleaning products. My kids are 12 now—I have twins a boy and a girl—and I can remember a time when they were young and I would use all the normal cleaners to clean my home and I would have to go in the bathroom and actually lock the door so that they couldn't come in and be exposed to all those chemicals. And I distinctly remember, you know they tap on the door the whole time, and I distinctly remember feeling a little bit short of breath. Sometimes my lips would even get tingly from the things that I was breathing in and knowing that it wasn't really great for me. 

Natural Cleaning Products for the Home

But again, I wanted my home to be really clean. I'm in the medical field; I'm actually a nurse practitioner, and I wanted to make sure that that everything is really clean in my home. So once I began using doTERRA’s products to clean, it was just really life changing. So fast forward to now my kids are twelve and empowering them to learn how to clean their bathroom, clean the kitchen, has just been really great. It makes me feel really good as a mom to be able to give them a cleaner to go and use to clean their bathroom knowing that if they get something on their hands or you know what they're breathing in is super clean and it's actually not causing them harm; it actually has health benefits. That's, that's pretty amazing. 

On Guard^® Cleaner Concentrate

So I'd love to share kind of what my favorite cleaning products are that I use in my home. Probably the number one is On Guard Cleaner Concentrate. If you have just this one product you can literally clean your whole house. So what I like to do is I like to just take about a 24 ounce spray bottle and I'll put two tablespoons of the On Guard Cleaner Concentrate and fill it with water and that's kind of like an all-purpose spray so that can be used in anywhere in your home, kitchen, bathroom. 

Now, if you want to upgrade that just a little bit, I'm going to share a secret with you. You can add a little Spearmint. Spearmint is really refreshing; it smells amazing. I'll add about 10 drops of Spearmint to that spray bottle and it really makes cleaning kind of a joy. It makes it fun. So that's kind of my little secret. 

Laundry

Another way that I like to use the On Guard Cleaner Concentrate is in my laundry. It actually helps to kind of boost the laundry in terms of odors and stains. So, I'll just put a little bit, maybe about a teaspoon in each load of laundry, just a little squirt out of the bottle. And that really helps to kind of boost the laundry. And if you have a stain in a specific area, a stain, on your clothing, I'll just get a couple of drops of that On Guard Cleaner Concentrate right on the area with a little bit of water. Give it a little scrub and that works really well.

Lemon Essential Oil

Now the next oil that I think is really essential to have on hand is Lemon. Lemon is really uplifting. It's super bright. All of these oils really help to kind of rid your home of any icky stuff that you don't want around, so to speak. So, Lemon I like to use in the kitchen especially because it's great to cut through grease and oil, and if you've been cooking something it really is a great degreaser. It also works really well for cleaning windows and glass. 

So kind of a little preparation that I like to make is just a simple spray bottle with half vinegar, half water, maybe 10 drops of Lemon essential oil and now you've got a cleaner that will—you can clean surfaces with it as well—but glass and mirrors that works beautifully on. 

Natural Bathroom Cleaner

The next thing that I like to make is something to clean my bathrooms with, like sinks, toilets, tubs, showers. I like to make a little bit of a scrub. And this is just with simple household items that you probably already have, things like baking soda and vinegar. 

So I'll take a glass jar and I'll put some baking soda. You can really make as little or as much of this as you like because it stores really well. I'll put the baking soda in, and then I'll start to pour the vinegar in. Now, of course, you have to be really careful with this because otherwise you can have a big explosion. So just a little bit of vinegar at a time as you stir. And then you get to kind of the consistency that you want—make it a little bit of a paste—and then I'll add in my essential oils. I'll add Lemon. Again, Lemon you'll hear me talk about it; I use it for tons of different things, but about 10 drops of lemon in that. And then to that, my favorite thing to add is Melaleuca or Tea Tree oil. 

Natural Floor Cleaner

The next thing that I like to make is something to clean my floors with. Now for hardwood, tile, it's again just really simple. I take a big gallon of water, warm water, about a cup of vinegar, 10 drops of Wild Orange. That's my favorite to clean the floor with. So Wild Orange is very invigorating. It's uplifting, and it's just wonderful. It smells wonderful to clean your floors with. 

Natural Carpet Cleaner

If you have carpet or rugs and you want them to be a little bit fresher, I like to make just a little carpet deodorizer, and that's simply baking soda, a few drops of Lemon. You could also use Wild Orange in with that and just sprinkle it right on the carpet and then leave it. Let it sit for about 10 or 15 minutes, and then vacuum it up. And that just freshens your carpet and just makes your house gets rid of any odors and makes your home smell really good. 

Natural Wood Polish

The next thing that is really nice I get asked about a lot is how do I clean my wood furniture. Sometimes we're used to the different sprays and things that we might use you know to clean the wood in our home. I like to kind of make something that almost mimics that a little bit. 

So, I'll take a small spray bottle, maybe eight ounces, and I'll put about a fourth of a cup of olive oil in that and then fill it with water. And the two oils that I like to add to that—two essential oils—are Lemon, again super fresh, works great, and then Arborvitae is another one. Arborvitae has a really woodsy, earthy scent, and it is really uplifting. So I like to add about five drops of the Arborvitae to that and that will polish your wood. You only a small amount at a time. So that works really well. 

Purify

And then probably the final essential oil that is kind of a must have for me in keeping my home clean and rid of any icky stuff that I don't want there is Purify. Purify is known as the Cleansing blend and it has essential oils in it like Lemon, Lime, Melaleuca, many of the ones we've talked about, and also Siberian Fir, Cilantro, and the thing that Purify is really great for is getting rid of odors. 

So one way that I love to use it is in my kitchen. You know sometimes we cook things like fish, for instance, and we don't really want our home to smell like fish, right? So I'll just take my diffuser and put two or three drops of Purify in the diffuser and let it sit maybe overnight in the kitchen and it just makes the whole kitchen, the whole home smell amazing. 

And then one final way to use the Purify that works really well is sometimes our trash cans don't smell really great. So I like to just take a paper towel drop a few drops of Purify—two or three drops—put it right in the trash can and then put my trash bag in there and it just keeps all of the odors away. 

Safe and Affordable Cleaning

So those are my favorite ways to use essential oils to keep my home clean in a really safe and effective way. And also, I should mention that these solutions are extremely affordable. They're so much more affordable than maybe some of the chemicals and toxins that I used to use to clean my home. I hope that this information was helpful to you and that you will consider incorporating some of these tools into your home.