Educate your Senses

Summer Time Cleaning with Essential Oils

The dog days of summer are here and nothing is better than cleaning with essential oils. Not only does your environment appreciate this, but you are changing the minds of the people who are in this environment by infusing the uplifting power of therapeutic essential oils into the air.

In my last post I gave you some insight on how to use essential oils to enhance your environment. I am going a few steps further and giving you solid household cleaning recipes that I use regularly. As you have heard, Essential oils are nature's medicine. By using them to effectively clean your home, office or vehicle, you are eliminating harming chemicals and instilling this very medicine into the air you breathe. You are taking a step toward self care and wellness.

One of the best essential oils for cleaning is Lemon essential oil, which boosts the effectiveness of cleaning with natural products and leaves a fresh, clean scent all around. Why switch from commercial products with ingredients like bleach and ammonia? Because those cleaners can irritate your eyes, airways, skin, and nervous system, AND they also pollute and contaminate your indoor air and the water sources they wash into when they go down the drain.

Below are recipes to deodorize, disinfect, degrease, polish, and brighten your environment.

Window Cleaner

1 cup distilled white vinegar diluted with 1/4 cup water

10-15 drops lemon or orange essential oil

Mix well in a spray bottle, apply to windows, and wipe with newspaper

Floor Cleaner:

Pour 1/4 cup distilled white vinegar to a bucket of water (1 gallon)

Add 15 drops lemon essential oil

Add 3 drops eucalyptus essential oil

Wood Love:

Add 4-5 drops lemon essential oil to a small amount of olive oil. (Olive oil is a natural oil that helps to nourish and polish wood.)

Mix, apply lightly to furniture, and buff for a perfect shine.

Everyday Disinfectant:

Fill a spray bottle with water 

Add a squirt of plant based soap

Add 5-10 drops each of lemon, lavender, and pine essential oils (can use individually)

Shake well and apply to all surfaces.

Mold & Mildew Spray:

Pour 2 cups distilled white vinegar into a spray bottle

Add 2 drops lemon essential oil and 2 drops tea tree essential oil
Shake well and spray on infected area

Enjoy your days, laugh often and shine your light from the inside out!

Heather A. Howell is a Certified Clinical Aromatherapist and owner/formulator of Aroma Pharmica, an organic skincare company and custom blend practice. Her life revolves around her 3 incredible children, nature and holistic healing. Aroma Pharmica is located in Charleston, SC. Contact Heather at 843.330.5941 On-line at http//:www.aroma-pharmica.com

Giving Thanks the "Eco" way...

It is that time of year again—time to sit back, reflect and be thankful. Thankful for friends, family, the shirt on your back, the food on your table, roof over our heads, water in the pipes, my list goes on and on, but at the top of that list is Mother Earth herself. What are you thankful for? 

Here are a few tips for going green on Thanksgiving and thankfully, greening the day doesn’t require any radical or pricey action on your part. It just requires that, as you give thanks for the bounty you enjoy, you also give thought to what you do and buy.

Decorate your home eco-style.

Buy gourds at your local farmer’s market to use as centerpieces, and save them to use again next year.

Please, please, please throw out those petroleum-based candles in favor of natural wax candles, such as beeswax and soy. They’re natural, renewable, non-toxic and said to help clean your home’s air of allergens. 

Avoid disposable plastic plates, cutlery, and napkins. Use real silverware. If you really must use disposable, go for compostable and/or biodegradable products. Remember that if you do buy bio-compostable wares, you must actually compost it. It doesn’t break down in a landfill.

It doesn’t have to be a holiday to consider buying from The Green Glass Company. They use landfill-bound glass bottles and turn them into attractive glassware.

Delicious and bountiful food, you know that stuff that so feeds our soul

In an ideal world, we’d buy all organic all the time. Here’s what I recommend you do buy organic, if nothing else:

If you eat turkey, instead of going for the free when buy x amount of groceries turkey at the nearby supermarket, buy a fresh all-natural or organic turkey. These are naturally-bred and raised turkeys, with no antibiotics, growth hormones or animal by-products that are so rich flavor. If you don’t have access to this kind of turkey, seek out birds from a local farm.

Buy organic potatoes! Have you heard of the Dirty Dozen? These are the produce items that you should always buy organic due to their high pesticide and herbicide content, even after you wash them. Note that spinach, celery (used in stuffing!), and apples (apple pie, anyone?) are also on the list. Check your list, and if any of these items are on your menu, buy organic.

The dreadful clean up.

You’ve had such a healthy, Earth-thankful Thanksgiving, why stop now? Wipe down kitchen surfaces using all natural, earth-friendly cleansers like vinegar and baking soda. They really do work! If you prefer pre-made cleansers from the store, Mrs. Meyer’s aroma-therapeutic cleansers are my personal favorite. Not only do they clean superbly but you get the benefits of nature’s goodness through the essential oils that uplift and transform your spirit.

Make leftovers. Friends don’t let friends let good food go to waste! Make turkey sandwiches with stuffing and cranberry sauce! Make turkey tetrazzini or turkey casserole! Once you’ve squeezed all possible meals out of your leftovers. . .

Make stock. Whether you had a vegetarian Thanksgiving, roasted a duck, or fried a turkey, you most likely have ample ingredients to make a delicious soup stock. Making your own soup broth is pretty easy. Freeze leftover animal bones from previous meals (pork/chicken/beef). When you get a hankering to make soup, throw on a pot of boiling tap water and add the bones. Boil for at least 10-15 min, then simmer for 5-10 more. Simple, just like that, your very own soap stock.

And there you have it, from my kitchen to yours; easy, simple ways to give thanks to Mother Earth by being green for the holidays. She humbly thanks you from the depths of her core. Oh don't forget to soothe yourself with delicious skincare with all the benefits from nature made by Aroma Pharmica, nature inspired extravagance.

Do you have any tips on being simply green? I would love to hear them and add them to my list.