AFFFILIATE DISCLOSURE: In order for me to support my blogging and social media activities, I may receive monetary compensation for links to products from this post. However, I only recommend products that I personally love and use myself!.
Moving seems to be one of the skills that I am BEST at. As a military brat, I practically spent my childhood moving around, and now as an adult who loves apartment life, I have found myself moving around town, almost as much. This year has been no exception. The Boyfriend, Syfy, and I made a move into a new apartment this summer and boy has it been interesting combining two households! Fortunately, I was able to lighten our load with my easy green cleaning methods throughout our new home, and today I am sharing with you my favorite ways to clean using simple non-toxic methods and essential oils!
A fresh start for the Hippy Family
After The Boyfriend moved in with me back in April, we collectively decided that we needed to find a new apartment ASAP after reading https://www.readysteadysell.co.uk/we-buy-any-house/ a few times and realizing the importance, and boy am I glad we made that decision! We really needed a fresh start for our new family and our new apartment was exactly the breath of fresh air that we were craving! With an awesome layout that faces a private golf course, we now have so much natural light that lights up a kitchen fit for LIVE videos! The only stressor? Unpacking and cleaning the entire apartment, AND keeping it clean! Isn't that ALWAYS the problem with moving? All the cleaning! Guess what? It's really not that hard to clean your home naturally! Read on to learn more about how I keep my home clean and green!
Using essential oils to clean
We all know that aromatherapy is all about smells, but did you know that essential oils can be used to clean, disinfect, degrease, and defunkify your home? There are MANY essential oils that have antibacterial, antifungal, and/or antiseptic properties, making them great additions to your homemade cleaning products. My favorite essential oils to keep on hand for all my cleaning needs are lavender, citrus of any kind (sweet orange, lemon, grapefruit, etc.), and sweet marjoram. Tea tree is another great oil to keep on hand and is very effective, but I am personally not a fan of the smell. I like to use oils that complete the job AND appeal to my own preferences! It helps me to associate cleaning and chores with pleasantness rather than distaste!
Plant Therapy's Cleaning Set saves
I want to make the big job of keeping an entire household clean, as easy as possible. Fortunately for me (and you too), Plant Therapy has made life easier for all of us with their Essential Oil Cleaning Set! It is a 6 piece essential oil set that contains all the essential oils you could possibly need to clean, disinfect, and freshen up your home. My absolute favorite oil to use all over my house is their Citrus Burst synergy!!! It seriously smells amazing AND cleans every room like a pro!
Plant Therapy Cleaning Set Contains:
- Tea Tree Essential Oil - Tea tree essential oil is fantastic to use when disinfecting surfaces, cleaning mold, and fighting germs. It's highly antibacterial, antiviral, and antifungal, making it a great essential oil in the bathroom and kitchen!
- Lavender Essential Oil - Lavender essential oil is every bit as awesome as tea tree, except it smells better (in my opinion) and also adds an extra boost of calming to the package. It's great to use when cleaning and disinfecting surfaces in the nursery/kid's room, kitchen, and bathroom!
- Peppermint Essential Oil - Peppermint essential oil is a favorite in cleaning because of its ability to combat any kind of stench, freshen up the air, and still kill germs in the process. It has antibacterial and antiviral properties, but caution should be used with it when using it around young children, under the age of 6 years old.
- Lemon Essential Oil - Lemon essential oil is one of the most widely used essential oils for cleaning the home. Not only is it naturally antibacterial/antiviral but it's also really great at cutting grease, making goo be gone, and even fighting stains all while lifting your spirits with its lemony fresh scent!
- Plant Therapy's Germ Fighter Essential Oil - Plant Therapy's Germ Fighter essential oil synergy is basically their own version of Thieves Oil/On Guard and can be used as such! This is a blend of antibacterial/antiviral essential oils that are fantastic at keeping the germs at bay during the cold/flu season and basically smells like Christmas. If you have little ones in the home, they also have a kid-safe version, Germ Destroyer essential oil synergy, that is blended with young children in mind!
- Plant Therapy's Citrus Burst Essential Oil - Plant Therapy's Citrus Burst essential oil synergy is probably one of my favorite blends that they create. Any citrus lovers out there? You will absolutely LOVE this blend. It's not only effective at cleaning surfaces, cutting grease, attacking stains, and kicking sticky messes to the curb, but its citrusy scent is also a powerful air freshener and will cleanse the air of bad smells, germs, and even smoke!
Branch Basics makes cleaning easy
I have spent the last 6 years trying all kinds of natural and eco-friendly cleaning supplies. Some of them worked OK and smelled great, others barely worked at all, and even some caused more problems and ended up smelling terrible. Then one day on my quest to find natural, eco-friendly, vegetable based cleaners that ACTUALLY WORK miracles in my home, I came across Branch Basics and I was in LOVE! I can't believe no one else is doing what they are doing! They sell their plant-based cleaner in a concentrate along with their reusable bottles that clearly mark how much water/soap concentrate to fill in each bottle, and you can even add your favorite cleaning essential oils to the mixture! The best part? You don't have to buy a million different cleaners for each little job in your home AND you save money and the environment at the same time! It's win-win-win! You can find everything you need to effectively green clean your home on their website, branchbasics.com.
- All-Purpose Cleaner - Works great for appliances, dishes, granite, grills, highchairs, jewelry, marble, natural stone, pacifiers, pots & pans, stains, stovetops, sticky spills, tennis shoes, yoga mats, car dashes, and so much more! I like to pair the All-Purpose cleaner with 25 drops of Plant Therapy's Citrus Burst essential oil synergy. It smells Uh-mazing and has the uber cleaning power of multiple different citrus oils!
- Bathroom Cleaner - Works great for tile, grout, countertops, sinks, showers, tubs, toilets, fixtures, shower liners, soap scum, greasy stovetops, pet stains, and even as a natural bug spray! I like to pair the Bathroom Cleaner with 25 drops of Plant Therapy's Germ Fighter essential oil synergy. It's not only fantastic at disinfecting and killing germs, but is also great at removing mold, mildew, and cutting grease!
- Streak-Free Glass Cleaner - Works great for windows, mirrors, glass surfaces, computer screens, phones and tablets, fixtures, aquariums, shower doors, and picture frames. I like to pair the Streak-Free Glass Cleaner with 15 drops of Plant Therapy's Lemon essential oil. It's great at cutting grease for a streak-free shine that smells lemony fresh!
- Laundry Soap - The laundry solution fights stains and odors, making laundry of any kind, a breeze! While you can add essential oils to the laundry soap, I find it to be a waste, if a nice smell is what you are going for. The best option for fresh smelling laundry is to add a few drops of your favorite essential oil to your wool dryer balls during the last ten minutes of the dry cycle! If you add the essential oils at the beginning of the dry cycle, they will evaporate and leave no scent on the clothing.
- Foaming Hand Soap - Once filled with Branch Basics Concentrate and water, you can use this bottle in many ways beyond just hand washing. Try it out for washing your face, hair, and body as well as for shaving and removing make-up. At the kitchen sink, you can even suds up your dishes if you prefer foaming to spraying when dishwashing. I like to pair the Foaming Hand Soap with 25 drops of Plant Therapy's Kid-Safe Otis essential oil synergy. This delightful lemon cookie smelling blend is not only kid-safe but also contains lemon, sweet orange, and chamomile essential oils, which are great at gently cleaning little and big hands alike!
- The Concentrate - The Concentrate is human safe, not irritating to the eyes, skin, or lungs. All ingredients are rated 1 on EWG, and there are no harmful preservatives such as methylisothiazolinone, Phenoxyethanol, sodium benzoate, potassium sorbate, or any type of alcohol. Even the extremely chemically sensitive and immune compromised are able to use Branch Basics with complete confidence. Their fragrance-free, hypoallergenic concentrate is also biodegradable and is safe for the environment.
- Oxygen Boost - The Oxygen Boost whitens, brightens and fights stains while keeping you and your family safe from fragrances, binding agents, solvents, etc. Two pounds of Oxygen Boost will be enough for approximately 32 medium loads of laundry. The package comes with a plastic 1 oz (2 Tablespoons) scoop and contains no bleach, no ammonia, no dyes, no fragrances. It's also safe for septic tanks.
