5 Easy Ways to Use Essential Oils in Your Home

Five amazing, easy ways to use essential oils in your home! From homemade laundry detergent to an all-purpose house cleaner that will freshen any room, these tips for how to use essential oils are great for incorporating into your daily home routine.

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collage of easy ways to use essential oils

You’ve probably heard about people obsessing over essential oils and how beneficial they can be. There’s a lot of misinformation out there regarding essential oils, and I’m not here to get into the health benefits of them because I’m not a scientist or doctor — rather I’m here to share how you can easily incorporate them into your home cleaning and freshening routine.

For me, using essential oils in my home is similar to buying flowers or lighting my favorite candle for that yummy cozy scent that lingers all day long. It’s said that inhaling essential oils can stimulate hormones and your brain that plays a role in emotions, smell, memory and more. If that’s true, I’m all in, however one of the reasons I started using essential oils is after I switched to non-toxic cleaning products and wanted to naturally create scents for my unscented all-purpose cleaner, laundry detergent and so much more.

Below I’m sharing my favorite ways to use essential oils in my home that are simple, easy and create fun scents. Buy a few of your favorite essential oils, try these methods out and let me know what you think!

What are essential oils?

Essential oils are oils extracted from plants that capture the plants scent and flavor. They are typically compounded through distillation (with steam) or other machine methods. Sometimes essential oils are combined with carrier oils (a more neutral use) to create a more ready to use product.

Watch the video to see how to use essential oils in your home

Use #1: make your own laundry detergent

I love using this Branch Basics concentrate as a base for tons of all natural cleaning products. Branch Basics is my FAVORITE non-toxic cleaning product. It’s natural, human safe, refillable and they actually work. If you’re interested in trying out Branch Basics and switching to non-toxic you can get 15% off their starter kit using the code ‘AK’ at checkout.

To make your own laundry detergent using essential oils:

1. Use your Branch Basics reusable laundry container and fill it up with half water and half of the concentrate (as indicated on the bottle).

2. Add about 20 drops of your favorite essential oils to the bottle to create a smell that you love! I love combining lavender and tangerine for my laundry for a clean, fresh scent.

3. Fill the rest of the bottle up with water, give it a gentle shake, and you’re good to go. You’ll only need a capful per load.

Use #2: make an all-purpose cleaner

Branch Basics also has reusable spray bottles that are perfect for making your own all purpose cleaners. I use this cleaner everywhere from my kitchen counters to my bathroom. To make this cleaner:

1. Add the concentrate to the fill line of the spray bottle

2. Add in about 6-10 drops of your favorite essential oil. I love lavender, lemongrass and tangerine.

3. Use this mixture to clean surfaces in your house for a streak-free clean!

Use #3: the sponge cleaning trick

1. Get your sponge really wet with water

2. Add a little bit of Branch Basics concentrate or regular dish soap to the sponge

3. Add a few drops of your favorite essential oils

4. Microwave your sponge for 30 seconds, and then it sit in the microwave for about 1 minute to release the essential oils

5. Wipe your microwave clean while leaving a clean, fresh scent!

Use #4: add essential oils to your diffuser

1. Add water to your diffuser according to the instructions on your specific diffuser (I love this one for my house!)

2. Add about 10 drops of essential oils. In the video below I did 6 drops of tangerine, 2 drops of lavender, and 1 drop of ylang ylang.

3. Turn your diffuser on and enjoy a fresh, clean scent in any room of your house!

Use #5: add essential oils to your dishwasher

This is one of my favorite, easy ways to use essential oils. All you’ll do is add about 6-10 drops of fruity essential oils with your dishwasher soap to freshen up both your dishes and your dishwasher itself. Whoo hoo!