Essential oils are widely recognised for supporting wellness across a huge range of physical, emotional and psychological needs. Certainly we’ve found that to be the case in our home, and over the past 16 years of using oils, we’ve discovered that there’s not actually a whole lot that you can’t use oils for.
Here are my top 7 ways that I use oils in and around my home.
Diffusing
Diffusing oils is one of the little luxuries of daily life in our family and adds an element of calm to a busy home. If you do nothing else with oils, I recommend diffusing them.
Diffusing essential oils can trigger memories and moods and eliminate odours. Scents can have a powerful impact on us and diffusing essential oils is a beautiful, luxurious way to slow down and allow ourselves to be grounded in the moment.
So much of life and parenting is spent rushing from one task to the next, but consciously and consistently diffusing quality essential oils gently forces us to slow down and savour the little things. HERE are some beautiful diffuser blends you might like to try.
Cleaning
After a big craft session, our dining room and kitchen looks much like a giant rainbow unicorn came in and threw up all over the place. Glitter, glue, paint, sticky tape, felt, cardboard, stickers and more!
Apart from bleach, which smells pretty rancid, the only thing that gets sticky tape residue or superglue from a kitchen bench is tea tree oil, lemon oil or Young Living’s Thieves blend, and I cannot recommend these highly enough as staples for your oil collection.
A few drops of pine essential oil can be used with olive oil as a furniture polish, and clove oil is great for helping to keep mould at bay.
Gardening
Plants aren’t chosen at random by pests. The plants give off a specific chemical signal (pheromones) so the idea of using essential oils is that they conceal the natural scents that attract bugs. The oils that I’ve found that help the most are lemongrass, rosemary and peppermint.
10 drops Lemongrass
10 drops Rosemary
10 drops Peppermint
1 teaspoon of no-tox dishwashing detergent (to disperse the oil)
Top with distilled water
Check the weather forecast, and spray at the base of your plants and on the leaves when you have a few clear days ahead.
Gifting
If you’ve been around here for long, you’ll know I love a good DIY. And I love turning a DIY into a sweet gift.
There are so many beautiful ways to incorporate essential oils into your gifts. Think: perfume rollers, scented bath salts, baking, balms, handmade diffusers, candles, heat packs, soap, body scrubs and more.
CLICK HERE for lots of recipes and ideas.
Perfume
Commercially available perfumes are a cocktail of ingredients that we spray onto our skin, over the thyroid gland and near our face, every single day. We’re breathing it in, absorbing it through our skin and pumping it into the air. It’s incredibly important to be opting for low-tox alternatives of this product, and essential oils are a great alternative because you can create your own signature scents (dozens of them even!) for the same price as a bottle of perfume from the pharmacy.
For more information and some beautiful recipes, check out THIS POST.
Baking
While fresh from the garden is always best, sometimes it’s just not possible. Herbs aren’t always in season and having a selection of culinary oils on hand means you can still enjoy a variety of flavours – and the health benefits of those plants – year-round.
Adding culinary essential oils to food and drinks dilutes them so that they are safe to ingest, however it is important that the recommended usage quantities are followed.
Be sure to only cook using essential oils that are approved for use as flavouring under the Food Standard Australia and New Zealand (FSANZ) legislation.
Whether it’s a drop of ginger in the chicken soup, basil in the spaghetti, lemon in the dessert or bergamot in wellness gummies, there are so many beautiful ways to enjoy the benefits of plants year-round with a handful of culinary oils.
For more information about using oils in cooking, see THIS POST.
