WellGal

Bust your winter blues with these green cleaning solutions! 

Ever feel like in the heart of the winter, the last thing you want to do is clean? Well, try to break out of hibernation and energize yourself with some fantastic, safe, and earth friendly cleaning products made with uplifting essential oils.

Essential oils, which are derived from plants, are nature’s solution to giving you some extra energy, motivation, and gumption. Some actually affect your nervous system by calming or energizing it, for example. Not only that, but they are full of wonderful antibacterial, antiviral, and antifungal properties that make them especially great for green cleaning. Check out “Top Five Essential Oils to Use in Your Green Cleaning” for more info.

Here are a few of my favorite recent picks and DIY ideas for winter time cleaning that are sure to get you off the couch or away from the fireplace (OK…maybe that’s a stretch!).

Castile Soaps

Castile soap is absolutely great for many of your home green cleaning needs. You can literally clean your whole house top to bottom with it! Also, it’s great for making your cleaning products, such as this homemade earth friendly disinfecting cream cleanser.

Scents galore are available, but I especially enjoy Shadow Lake’s Pure Castile Soap Fresh Ginger scent. Ginger is an awesome essential oil for germ fighting and its zesty scent will warm you up inside!

Another favorite of mine is Oregon Soap Company’s Clary Sage & Fir Castile Soap scent. What better way to remind you of trekking through a snow-covered forest than this uplifting woodsy scent? Try it to for general household cleaning or to make an aromatic, multi-purpose, castile soap spray.

Winter Scented Cleaning Sprays

Whip up an aromatic vodka or vinegar spray and scent it with one or a combination of these wonderful winter essential oils, available at your local natural foods market or online: eucalyptus, pink grapefruit, tangerine, blood orange, sweet orange, peppermint, spearmint, frankincense, clove, juniper berry, cedarwood, or ginger.

Or, try a ready-made, commercial cleaning spray that will get you in the holiday spirit, such as Zum’s Granite & Countertop Cleaner in Frankincense & Myrrh.

Natural Air Fresheners

An orange pomander with cloves brings a natural, fresh scent to any home setting.

In addition to setting out containers of baking soda scented with natural essential oils, such as sweet orange, sometimes I also enjoy making natural homemade pomanders with organic oranges and sweet cloves.

Let you imagination lead you in creating a design with the cloves! By the way, they make good old-fashioned ornaments and are equally as beautiful when displayed in a bowl on the dining table.

Note: This was originally published on January 28, 2013 and updated on December 22, 2016.

Copyright © Karen Peltier and Well Gal, 2013-2018. All rights reserved.

Photos© Karen Peltier and Well Gal, 2013-2018.