5 Ways to Use Lemon Essential Oil around your Home

Is there anything quite as fresh, crisp and delicious smelling as lemons? Pure lemon essential oil captures all of the great qualities of lemons, but in an easier to use and store format. Lemon oil costs as little as $5.00 and you need only a few drops for most purposes. Just make sure when you're buying it that it's essential oils you're purchasing, and not fragrance oils. Essential oils are pure, made from real lemons - but if you buy fragrance oils you really don't know exactly what you're getting.

Here are five of my favorite ways to use lemon essential oil around the home:

1. Make a simple lemon air freshener/deodorizer spray. All it takes is a bottle of lemon essential oil and some plain tap water, or to do the thing properly - use distilled water. Add ten drops of the pure lemon oil to a spray bottle that has a fine mist feature. Shake, shake, shake - shake, shake shake...shake that bottle! And there you have it - a lovely Lemony Home spray, quick as can be. You can add more or less of the lemon essential oil if you want it a milder or stonger scented spray.

2. Whip up a batch of Lemon Carpet Freshener. Again, the ingredients list is simple and sweet - just lemon oil and baking soda. Add between 15-20 drops of real lemon essential oil to about a cup of baking soda. Stir with a fork, working to loosen any clumps. Shake over carpets before vacuuming. Allowing the mixture to sit on the carpets awhile will allow it to really deodorize the carpets...it'll smell fresh and wonderful by the time you're done.

3. Apparently, lemon essential oil can help to create cleaner dishes and glasses in your dishwasher. Add a drop or two right in the dishwasher before the wash cycle begins.

4. Use lemon oil as a natural disinfectant. Lemons are a strong natural disinfectant, and after washing your cutting boards as usual (with hot, soapy water) - add extra disinfectant power by dripping a few drops of lemon essential oil on the board and rubbing it in. You can also disinfect a dishcloth in a bowl of water mixed with a few drops of lemon oil in it - let it sit overnight.

5. Finally, try a few drops of lemon essential oil as a natural hand sanitizer. Keep a bottle of that in your purse or in your desk for a lovely, natural alternative to some of the harsh alcohol-laden sanitizers currently on the market.

What do YOU do with lemon essential oil? Have a tip to share that isn't on the blog? Please post it as a comment or email me: christina@happyslob.com

But for now, here's to the (not so lowly) lemon!