Natural Cleaners

Today I am guest posting over at Simply Modern Mom and today's post here at the Southern Institute is a companion to that.  I have been making my own natural cleaners since I attended a natural cleaners workshop several years ago.  When I had children I started to take notice of the products that I was using to clean the house and realized just how incredibly toxic they were.  I started taking an interest in natural cleaners and reading more ingredients labels.  Do you know what I found?  They were made with things that I had around my house but they were charging a mint!  I started to find recipes for natural cleaners and buying the things that I needed that I didn't have around the house.  The main ingredients that I was missing were the essential oils, so I headed over to our natural grocery to stock up on a few.


Essential oils are very important to natural cleaners, not just because they smell great, but because they possess certain properties.  I wanted to share these with you today.  There are things that you want your cleaners to do and certain oils that will help you achieve that.

Cinnamon and cloves have antibacterial properties.

Lavender is antiviral as well as antibacterial!

Lemon and orange do a great job of degreasing.  

You see a lot if these in the big name cleansers these days.

Peppermint and eucalyptus are also great antibacterial oils.

Peppermint happens to be good at warding off mice and ants!

Eucalyptus tends to overpower any other scent that you are using...

a little goes a long way, but it's great to use during flu season!

One of my absolute favorite essential oil blends to use is Thieves.

You can read more about Thieves here.  It is a staple around here during the winter.

I use it in my all-purpose cleaner year round.

I even dilute in in extra virgin olive oil and put it on the kids necks during cold and flu season.

It's simply amazing to me that all that we need to be healthy can be found in nature.  We surround ourselves with so many unhealthy chemicals that are meant to clean, but instead can make us sick!

Go on over to Simply Modern Mom today to see how to make the two natural cleaners that I use most around our house.  Make some for yourself and tell me if they don't work just as well, and give you peace of mind too.