Which essential oils are best for Spring cleaning?

With Spring arriving soon, many of us are looking to do a little Spring cleaning. Which essential oils are best for Spring cleaning? What tips do you need to get you started? And what recipes are safe to use?

Before I share which essential oils you can use, let’s look at a few tips and safety concerns. 

Always wear gloves when cleaning with essential oils. 

This is important because some essential oils can be quite irritating to the skin. A few examples are cinnamon, cassia, and lemongrass. Additionally, if your cleaning recipe doesn’t include a diluent, you could be getting undiluted essential oils on your skin which can lead to sensitization.

Always use a properly formulated base for cleaning that allows for the addition of essential oils.

Any base you use should have some sort of preservative if it has water listed as an ingredient. Without a preservative, the nasties can grow and you end up cleaning your counters and walls with the nasties. That definitely won’t make them clean!

Wear a mask.

I know, I know. We wear masks when we’re out and about now so who wants to wear one to clean with, right? Well, if you’re using expired essential oils or ones high in aldehydes, you really should wear a mask. The volatile chemical constituents that make essential oils so great therapeutically, over time, can oxidize and become irritating aldehydes. Some essential oils naturally have high levels of these aldehydes, so again, wear the mask or skip the expired or high in aldehyde essential oils.

So what essentials are great for cleaning?

Citruses tend to be amazing because of their limonene content. If you look at most household cleaners they have limonene listed as an ingredient because it makes a great degreaser and is antimicrobial and antibacterial.

It’s spring, so add in a floral like geranium! Geranium has a small amount of aldehydes but is fantastic at bringing that Spring cleaning feeling while uplifting you. Pink Grapefruit and Geranium essential oils are brilliant together.

One more great combo you’ll want to try is Basil and Lemongrass. Lemongrass does have a good amount of aldehydes while basil is high in linalool. The linalool content in some studies has been reported to have minor antimicrobial and antibacterial effects which make basil a great option.

I hope these tips help! I’m off to order a cleaning base so I can get ready for my own spring cleaning!