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 10+ 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
I’ve been diffusing oils around the home for over 10 years and if you ask me what on earth I use oils for, this is always the first thing that comes up. It’s something we do literally every day. From lavender in the bedrooms at night to help with a calm sleep, to tea tree and peppermint when everyone has the sniffles, to frankincense (perhaps my favourite) in the living room just because I love it… 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.
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.
Not just for heavy duty craft marathon clean-ups, essential oils are great for everyday cleaning and can be used in a multitude of ways to enhance your DIY cleaning products.
I use a few drops of peppermint in the mop bucket with hot water to give the house a clean, fresh appearance and scent. Thieves essential oil is perfect for wiping benches, dirt marks from door frames, toilets and more.
Clove oil is also highly recommended for mould prevention and while I don’t particulary love the smell, it certainly does the job. Like all good quality essential oils, clove is extremely potent so you don’t need much.
CLICK HERE for more ways to incorporate essential oils into your cleaning routine.
Craft
Using play dough is one of my children’s favourite sensory activities and after many (many, many) failed attempts to create the perfect play dough, I’ve settled on this great recipe which lasts for months in the fridge.
2 cups of plain flour
2 tablespoons of vegetable oil
½ a cup of salt
2 tablespoons of cream of tartar
1 – 2 cups of boiling water*
6 drops of essential oil (lavender is a favourite here)
Natural food colouring
Mix the flour, salt and cream of tartar in a bowl, making a well in the centre for the water, vegetable oil and essential oil. Bring the water to boil and add the vegetable oil and essential oil to the boiling water. Add the liquid mix incrementally into the dry mix until the mixture comes away from the sides of the bowl. Tip onto a lightly floured bench and knead until the consistency is soft but not sticky. *You will likely only need around 1.5 cups of the water, so ensure you add slowly and only as required.
We also use a few drops of lavender oil in kinetic sand. It adds a calming element to the play sand without affecting the integrity of it.
Cooking
There are so many gorgeous oils that can be used in cooking – from choc mint truffles (using peppermint oil), to choc-orange brownie (using orange oil, as well as fresh oranges) to gorgeous lamb roasts (using rosemary oil when the fresh rosemary on my verandah is struggling to keep up!). Remember that essential oils are derived from plants and are highly concentrated, so please refer to the label of your essential oil before incorporating it into your cooking.
This post has more information about incorporating essential oils into your cooking.
Fun fact: It takes around 75 lemons to fill a 15mL essential oil bottle. A little goes a long way.
Massage and Topical
A new addition to our essential oil usage is for massage. I created a few different massage blends using V-6 carrier oil (available from Young Living) and several specific oils depending on the intended usage.
For relaxation massage, I use V-6 carrier oil with lavender and chamomile. For sport massage, I use V-6 carrier oil with eucalyptus and kunzea.
Topically, we use tea tree oil for mosquito bites and I’m experimenting at the moment with a few different insect repellant recipes that use essential oils, but the key is to remember that you only ever need a very small amount of essential oil to bring about a desired affect. This means that even small bottles of essential oil can last you for many months with regular use.
Perfume
You can use essential oil directly on the skin as a perfume, but the pure potency of the straight oils can be very strong, so it’s helpful to use them mixed or with a carrier oil.
Personally, I use and love the Stress Away essential oil roller from Young Living because the smell is amazing and because my kids actually think it makes me calmer!
Plus, being a roller means there’s no residue waste as there is with spray perfumes and it lasts for many months.
If you’re using essential oils directly on the skin, be sure to dilute with a carrier oil and spot test on the inside of your wrist. Learn more about natural perfume and some beautiful blends HERE.
Gifts
Essential oils make the most gorgeous gifts! There are so many ways you can incorporate oil into handmade gifts and this year, I’m making rollers, candles, heat packs and home-baked goods for Christmas gifting and all of these things include the use of gorgeous essential oils.
Get started with oils HERE.
