Podcast #16

20 Essential Oil Hacks

Let’s talk about 20 quick and easy essential oil hacks that can help you- Every. Single. Day.

#1 To remove a splinter

Grab 1-2 drops of clove or Thieves essential oil, drop on the affected area, wait a minute or two and watch the splinter come out of the skin. You can then grab a tweezer and fully remove!

#2 Freshen up Stinky Laundry

Sometimes we forget to switch a load quick enough and other times we just want our laundry to smell amazing! Either way, adding essential oils to a sock or rag is a great way to freshen it up. Dryer balls are also a great way to do this, they speed up out dry time as well as work as a way to effectively add essential oils to the dryer.

#3 Make Your Glasses Sparkle

Just add a couple of drops of lemon essential oil to your sink or dishwasher for clean sparkling glasses!

#4 Remove Sticky Residue

Just a drop or two of lemon essential oil to anything sticky will help remove it- like fly tape, stickers, etc. a drop or two and it rubs right off- AMAZING!

#5 Say Goodbye to Spiders

Peppermint essential oil is going to be your new friend! All you need is a 16 oz spray bottle, 20 drops of peppermint essential oil and water. Then spray inside and outside of your house to keep spiders and the likes away. You can also grab some cotton balls and place them around the perimeter as well.

#6 Fresh Smelling Toilets

No need for toxic Poo-Pourri Spray, instead just add a couple of drops of essential oils to your toilet bowl and it will freshen up the toliet and the room!

#7 Getting All the Oil Out

Grab a glass dropper to make sure that you get every last precious drop of essential oil out because we all know how those last few drops like to hide in the bottom.

#8 Make Your Oils Last Longer

Grab your empty roller bottles and some stainless steel roller filaments to turn your empty bottles into roll on’s. Simple add some carrier oil and whatever desired oils and BOOM! You now have a roll on. You can also grab some empty roll on and makeup concoctions as well. This is a great way to blend up what you or your family needs and make it ready to use!

#9 Stronger Nails

Grab a bottle of tea tree oil and apply to the cuticles to help grow stronger nails. You can add carrier oil if you would like or apply neat. This is also awesome for your toenails and anything funky you may have going on there J

#10 Fight Blemishes

Lavender and tea tree oil are amazing applied with or without a carrier oil. When you feel like you have blemish coming, just grab a drop of one or both and be amazed at how well it takes care of the issue.

#11 Clean Windows, Mirrors, Stainless Steel, & Fruits & Veggies

Grab a spray bottle (16 oz), 1 cup of vinegar and 15-20 drops of lemon or orange essential oil. This concoction will clean your mirrors, windows, stainless steel and clean your fruits & veggies (remember the sticky stuff we talked about earlier, well it also takes care of the waxes or coating on the fruits & veggies). One bottle so many uses!

#12 Keep Your Car Smelling Awesome

Wooden clothespins are a wonderful way to keep your car smelling great. Put the clothespin on your vent and add a couple of drops of essential oil to make your car smell fresh without the toxic air fresheners.

#13 Freshen Sticky Shoes

We all know at least one person that has some not-so-pleasant foot odors. Grabbing an essential oil like Purification, Citrus Fresh, or lemongrass can help. Just apply to a cotton ball and place the cotton ball in the shoes or gym bag. You can also just add a drop to the bottom of the shoe as well.

#14 Support Your Respiratory System

Grab some tissues, put them in a baggie and add a few drops of an essential oil like eucalyptus, Raven, RC, or frankincense, then when you need that extra respiratory support you can open the bag and use a tissue to support your respiratory system. This is also a great time to have a roll on such as Breathe Again!

#15 After too much Sun…

We all have the days where we forget sunscreen or just simply enjoy the sun for a little longer than we thought. Lavender essential oil in a little bit of carrier oil applied after your skin gets a little too sun-kissed works awesome at soothing the skin. If you also want to cool down the skin, apply a drop of peppermint essential oil. This cools the skin as well as drives the lavender oil in deeper for more skin support.

#16 Fresh Smelling Vents

If you would like to have your whole house smell good and get the benefits of essential oils, grab some cotton balls with a few drops of lemon, Purification or Thieves, and stick them in your vents. This is also a good time to grab you’re AC or furnace filter and add a few drops to that as well.

#17 Be Your Own Diffuser

While we can’t always be by a diffuser, we can apply our favorite essential oils to our scarf, diffuser necklace or bracelet and have it with us throughout the day.

#18 Clean Your Toothbrush

From time to time our toothbrush will fall on the floor or get just needs to be cleaned. Grab your Thieves essential oil and add a drop to the brush head- BOOM! Clean!

#19 Tooth Discomfort

When we are having a dental procedure done, have a sore tooth, someone has braces or maybe you have a teething kiddo, we have some oils that are great for supporting our oral care. Clove (or Thieves blend) essential oil work great and has a very numbing effect. For the littles or for those who do not care for such an intense feeling, copaiba essential oil works great! It is virtually tasteless and has the same results.

#20 Use a Mason Jar for Drinking

When we start drinking oils in our water like lemon, orange or Citrus Fresh, we want to make sure that we are using a glass or stainless steel container. One quick way to do this is a simple old mason jar. Add your ice, a drop of lemon essential oil and water to the top and you are ready to go!

What is one essential oil hack that you are ready to start using today?

Be grateful & have faith!
God Bless!

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Simple Blessings & Oils

Podcast #9

Chemical Free Home

We know this is a very popular topic because we ALL want to know how to clean our homes without exposing ourselves and our sweet babies to all the toxic things in the world! So let’s start with why we should avoid toxic chemicals, what chemicals we want to avoid, and what we use instead!

Chemical Dangers….The Why!

The Toxic Substance Control Act of 1976 grandfathered in an estimated 65,000-100,000 chemicals currently on the market today. What does that mean to you? Simply put: these chemicals have not had any safety testing and we know very little information about their effects. Of the chemicals tested, toxic labeling is required only if 50% or more of the animals tested with a chemical die. Scary!

Chemicals to Avoid:

There are so many chemicals in our everyday products that are harmful to our health and bodies without us even knowing. What I want to do is EMPOWER our people and EDUCATED everyone on what to avoid and how to avoid it.

Here are just a few to be aware of:

+Fragrance:

Short-term toxicity can include coughing, skin irritation, rash, wheezing, headaches, nausea, vomiting, and irritability. Long-term toxicity can include cancer, lung disease, heart disease and reproductive disorders. Found in: scented candles, perfumes, lotions, and many more just start looking at labels and you will be surprised.

+Triclosan:

Used in many formulations as an antibacterial agent to prevent or reduce bacterial contamination but has been banned in hand soaps in some areas. Sadly it is still found in many other products like soaps, deodorants, cosmetics, shave gel, first aid spray, kitchenware and children’s toys.

+Phthalates:

A low-cost endocrine-disrupting chemical that in lab studies has shown to interfere with hormone production in rats and mimic estrogen in human studies. Found in: plastic food packaging, lotions, skin moisturizers, fragrance, cleaners, glues and nail polish.

+Formaldehyde:

This is a known carcinogen and recognized as such by the Cancer Institute. Exposure can cause eye irritation, asthmatic response, skin irritation, headaches, and nausea. Long-term effects include cancer and possibly leukemia. To make things even more alarming, this isn’t an easy ingredient to find. The ingredients are often listed as it’s fragmented name. Found in: baby shampoo, pet shampoo, shampoo and conditioner, body wash, sunblocks, cosmetics, baby wipes, toothpaste, and more.

So with even just this short list, what do we use now!

I personally have slowly transitioned over the years to more and natural products as I have learned about the dangers of conventional products. I tend to love DIY recipes but the majority of the ones that I will make all are based on cleaning! Why?

1/Because they’re easy

2/Because they’re cheap….like really cheap!

3/Because they’re not dangerous to me or my family.

And that is reason enough for me!

If you took away ONE thing, I hope it’s this one! I use 6 main ingredients to clean my entire house!!! I like to boil down most recipes and use the bare minimum.

So here’s the low down on what you need:

1/Thieves Home Cleaner

2/Water

3/Baking Soda

4/Vinegar

5/Castile Soap

6/ Essential Oils

The Thieves Home Cleaner:

It is formulated with the power of Young Living’s Thieves oil blend, you can get a deep clean without dangerous or synthetic ingredients. Thieves cleaner also includes the scent of Lemon essential oil for an even more uplifting aroma. This all-purpose cleaner can be used on any surface in your home for dusting, spot cleaning, scrubbing, or any other cleaning need. Wherever you use it, you’ll feel good knowing it’s safe to use around everyone in your family, including pets.

+All Purpose: Combine 1 capful Thieves Household Cleaner and 2–3 cups water.

+Degreaser: Combine 1 capful Thieves Household Cleaner and 1-2 cups water.

+Glass and Mirror Cleaner: Combine 1 capful Thieves Household Cleaner, 5 drops Citrus Fresh essential oil blend, 1 teaspoon white vinegar, and 3 cups water.

Who else has a love affair with the Thieves Cleaner?

Sink and Tile Scrub Recipe:

This recipe WORKS!!!! If you are new to DIYs, then you can always stick with just two ingredients, the Thieves Cleaner and the Baking Soda!! Mix in a bowl and use throughout your whole house on grimy surfaces! Use this mixture on: tubs with tough grime, toilet, sinks, & tile. Who else has tried a million natural cleaners for the bathtub with no success? Who will be trying this one soon? I will post it on the blog!

Bathroom Spray:

A fragrance is what I always want for the bathroom! I only want to smell daisies and roses and a clean tub!! Whip up this recipe to keep on the back of the toilet for your own bathroom of the guest bath!! Not only will it smell amazing but you won’t be breathing in toxic chemicals!

Foaming Hand Soap:

This is the first DIY recipe I ever made! Why? Because it was cheap! 🙂 AND I ordered every ingredient outside of the oils from Amazon! If you want a quick Hand Soap without the DIY, you can always grab the Thieves or Lavender soap ready to go in a pump in your next order! Young Living even has a large hand soap refill container. Create your own oil combination of essential oils for your hand soap- we like Thieves oil with some orange the best!

What else should can we do?

As far as cutting other chemicals out, look everywhere but some other easy DIY’s to start are things like wood polish, dishwasher soap, mattress cleaner. We can also replace things like dish soaps, fruit and veggie wash, laundry soap and more. Speaking of laundry lets not forget dryer sheets. Dryer sheets are one of the top toxins in our home and they are really simple to replace. There are DIY fabric softeners or my favorite, dryer balls! Now, all we use in our home is dryer balls and a few drops of essential oils! Order a pack of balls on Amazon, Etsy, or find it at your local natural grocer and add your favorite combo of oils!

Today I want to challenge you to start with one chemical in your home and find a way to replace it with something better. Take small steps to a healthier home, a chemical free home.

Will it be your hand soap? Your all-purpose cleaner? What will it be?

As always, be grateful & have faith!

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