[disclaim] This post may contain affiliate links, this means I would make a small commission at no extra cost to you[/disclaim]
Spring is a lovely time to give everything in your space a clean and refresh. After winter where you’re likely indoors more often, and your house/apartment is recirculating air it’s nice to give everything a good deep clean. For myself, this means I help use my best essential oils for cleaning to get the job done in my space! I absolutely adore essential oils as they have a fantastic scent, but can also be powerful against grime, dirt, and bacteria in your space.
A couple of years ago when still learning about my migraines, I learned that scented cleaners were a big trigger for me. This made me search for how I could start using essential oils in my cleaning products. Now, I only have 1 item in my whole house that isn’t made with essential oils in my cleaning bin. As with all essential oils, it’s important to do your research and understand their benefits as well as the safety measures you need to be aware of with use.

Does Cleaning with Essential Oils Work?
Yes, it really does! Essential oils are concentrated and potent in nature which makes them powerful! Add them with some vinegar and or distilled water and before you know it you’ve got a powerful cleaner for spring cleaning. You can use essential oils for cleaning walls, floors, counters, fabric refreshers, soaps, and detergents.
Now what does affect essential oils cleaning power is where you buy them and the grade of essential oil. I only use Revive as I’ve researched and trust the science behind the brand. Buying essential oils at your grocery store, while handy, is likely not pure essential oil that is as powerful. So be sure to do your research when choosing the best essential oils for cleaning your space!
I use Revive Essential Oils for all my oils as I trust their brand and the science behind their oils. If you’re interested in Revive essential oils click here to get $10 off your first order.
Looking for recommended must-have accessories for your essential oils – check out my guide here!

Lemon
Do you know how powerful lemons are for cleaning? I often cut a lemon in half and use the lemon as a scrubber when cleaning my house. Lemon oil is the same as lemons with it being an overall amazing cleaner for almost everything in your house! Not only does it smell great, but it cuts through grease, grime, and dirt so well! I use lemon essential oil in most of my cleaners and specifically my all-purpose cleaner bottle.
To use get yourself a glass or amber spray bottle, fill the bottle with half a cup of vinegar, and the remainder with warm water. Then you want to drop in anywhere between 5-10 drops of lemon essential oil. For myself, I also blend it together with about 13 drops of tea tree essential oils too! Give the bottle a good shake, and then you can spray on the surface you’d like to clean. Wipe away with a microfibre cloth.
What does lemon do? It helps with disinfecting surfaces, as well as a natural deodorizer. This is especially great for sinks, tables, counters, appliances, and many other hard surfaces. I use it almost everywhere in my house as it really does clean most areas with ease. Be mindful with areas where your pets sleep or eat, ensure this spray does not come in contact with them or their items as essential oils can be harmful to pets.
Lemon is one of my favorite essential oils when it comes to DIY cleaning. Making your own lemon all-purpose cleaners will save you money, as well as makes your house less toxic than with traditional harsh cleaners. This is a great product to use for when life gets messy!

Tea Tree Oil
Tea tree essential oil is a common oil that you’d find in most cleaning recipes. It helps with reducing bacteria, removing mold and mildew and it acts as a natural cleanser and cleaner. One of my favorite hacks with tea tree oil is to use it on a microfibre cloth to rub off stickers that are stuck on products. When it comes to tea tree oil you can use this in combination with lemon oil and dilute it with vinegar and water.
If you’re going to use tea tree oil to remove mold, mildew or bacteria be sure to use gloves as you clean, you can mix warm water and tea tree (3 drops) and spray onto the area you want to clean. Give it a good scrub and you can add baking soda as needed as well for extra cleaning power.
Tea Tree Oil is also incredible for purifying the air, this can be used when refreshing linens, fabrics, or as an overall natural air freshener. Tea Tree oil is toxic for pets so don’t use this if you have pets in your space in the air, or on furniture. Only use this in a closed-off space your pets can’t access.
Orange Essential Oil for Cleaning
I love citrus scents – I mean who doesn’t. Right along with lemon, I love to use orange essential oil for cleaning whenever I can. If you do a quick search, you’ll likely find that most cleanings with essential oils recipes involve one or the other of lemon or oranges. They’re naturally very clean scents and have a lot of cleaning power. Orange can be used as a great essential oil household cleaner for your entire home, like lemon.
For myself, I love using orange essential oils with my dish soap, as well as for my hand and body soaps. For dish soap I use about 1 cup of vinegar mixed with just under half a teaspoon of natural dish soap (I buy from the bulk shop), then I add about 13 drops of orange essential oil. This cleaner is wonderful for removing grease and grime from dishes and smells incredible as you do dishes.
I find it such a clean and refreshing scent especially when it comes to hand soap. Orange oil has antimicrobial benefits, as well as purifies the air. While you’re cleaning with orange essential oils it will also help lift your mood and energy which is a fantastic added benefit to using this oil with cleaning.

Lavender Oil
If you frequent my blog often you’ve likely seen that Lavender is an oil for almost anything! I love to use lavender to help with my mood, my sleep, and pain relief in addition to using it to help purify and clean my living space. In my opinion, lavender oil is one of the best essential oils to clean air as it has to purify properties and leaves the space feeling calm and relaxed.
To create a room spray, or refresh spray you can get a small glass amber fill it with distilled water, add one teaspoon of witch hazel, and then 26 drops of lavender essential oils. Be mindful this cannot be used in spaces with pets, if so, use it very sparingly and not have it come in direct contact with a pet or their space.
Lastly, lavender is one of my favorite essential oils for cleaning floors. I love the scent it leaves behind and how incredible it makes my floors look. For myself, when I use this, I ensure to use a little amount of lavender and let the floor completely dry before I let my pets anywhere near it. Please research and learn about essential oils and pet safety before you use them. When cleaning the floors use some vinegar, dish soap, water, and a couple of drops of lavender essential oil!
Peppermint Essential Oils for Cleaning
Peppermint oil is another oil that does so much! It’s incredible for pain relief, and for refreshing and rejuvenating your mood. In addition, it’s one of the best essential oils for cleaning and disinfecting recipes that you can create at home. Peppermint has both antibacterial and antifungal properties which are great for cleaning around your home.
I use this with my DIY solution for cleaning grease and grime from my ovens and sink and it works incredibly well at cleaning away that grime. Peppermint is also an incredible essential oil for preventing pests as well as killing bacteria around your space.
As mentioned, I love to use this around my kitchen, however, it’s great for cleaning with essential oils and vinegar pretty much anywhere in your house! To create a peppermint cleaning spray, get a glass amber spray bottle, add water and vinegar (equal parts) and then add in 15 drops of peppermint essential oil. Spray on your desired area and wipe up with a microfibre cloth when done.

Lemongrass Essential Oil
One of my favorite essential oils scents is lemongrass, I love to include it in my collection of essential oils for house cleaning. I often add this oil to sanitizers, laundry soap, and to all-purpose cleaners. Lemongrass oil is one of the most powerful natural cleansers as it has antimicrobial elements. Additionally, it refreshes and deodorizes as you clean and is perfect for kitchen and bathroom cleaning.
You can add lemongrass to an all-purpose cleaner solution similar to Lemon and Orange oil. If you’re adding it to your laundry, you can add 1-2 drops in with your laundry solution and it will help reduce odors. You can also add a drop to wool dryer balls to help with lightly scenting your clothing in the dryer.
Have you tried any of these oils with your natural cleaning around your home? These are some of my favorite and the best essential oils for cleaning I’ve found so far. As mentioned above, be sure to do your own research on these oils and how to use them safely before using them in your home. With children and pets always exercise caution with essential oils and do your research on how to use them safely.
Talk soon!
I love the idea of using essential oils to clean your house, I bet a house would smell lovely after using lemon essential oil! x
Lucy | http://www.lucymary.co.uk
These are some really great suggestions for using essential oils for cleaning. Thank you for sharing your tips!
I hear that peppermint keeps spiders away too. Great post, full of useful suggestions.
Great post.
I have most of these essential oils. I bought them to get rid of spiders but I use them for a cleaning solution now and also love to add these scents to burners.
I am starting to transition and use essential oils more. I never considered how lavender could be using for cleaning. Good post!
Some brilliant ideas! I only use them for burning or in a diffuser. Might try some of these for the ones I don’t use in the diffuser!
i love a good spring cleaning! i’ll add these essential oils to my routine this season. 🙂
I definitely want to start using essential oils more! My mum handmakes soap and we always put a mixture in them, especially looking at the benefits they have. I think lemon & lavender are my favourite combo and they have amazing benefits like you said x
These are wonderful everyday suggestions regarding cleaning with essential oils. Thank you for sharing these tips. You are right sometimes the strong chemicals in cleaners can give you migraines.
Pastor Natalie (ExamineThisMoment)
Letstakeamoment.com
Wow! I switched to a lot of natural cleaning products ages ago, but I didn’t know you could use essential oils in this way. Great info Alex, thanks for sharing.
I love to make my own house cleaners, etc and having essential oils on hand is a must. I love what you’ve shared here — it’s really helpful!
Lemon essential oil is also my favorite for cleaning! The aroma is really nice and it actually eliminates odor. Thank you for sharing these tips!
This is really interesting. I’ve never thought to use essentials oils for cleaning.
These are some great suggestions lovely. My mum uses a lot of lemon scented products whilst cleaning and it’s a smell that’s stuck with me ever since I was little. I just can’t get enough of it. I’ll defiantly look into these different oils tho, thank you so much for sharing Xo
Elle – ellegracedeveson.com
Honestly, I tell myself every time I read one of your essential oil posts that I really need to start adding them to my day to day life but haven’t done it yet! I really need to check out and get a good set to start with as I really love the idea of using them for cleaning x
I love this post! I clean with lemon but I love the idea of using lavendar this is such a wonderful idea thanks for sharing these!
It really does, lemon is such a fresh scent it’s perfect for cleaning and refreshing your spaces! Definitely, one of my favorites to add to my cleaners.
I’m glad you enjoyed these tips and suggestions for adding EO to your cleaners!
It does, peppermint is fantastic for pests! 🙂
That’s great to hear you already have most of these oils. They are great at keeping away critters and pests and it’s fantastic to hear you’ve started using them with your cleaning solutions! Happy spring cleaning.
Lavender is so heavenly, especially for relaxing a space – I hope your transition to using EOs in your cleaners goes well, and message me if you ever have any questions!
Thanks, Lindsey – they’re so incredible for cleaning I hope you enjoy using the both for diffusing and cleaning 🙂
Incredible – they’re so great and I hope you enjoy the scents as you clean your space.
Yes, homemade soap with essential oils is incredible! I hope you enjoy using them in your cleaners and enjoy the incredible scents they leave around your space.
I’m so glad to hear you enjoyed this post-natural scents are so much gentler on our systems!
Incredible Giulia – I grew up with homemade cleaners too my mum made but she didn’t add EO. I’ve done it in recent years and love love love it – I hope you do too!
Amazing – so glad to hear you enjoyed using them at home Molly. Do you have any favourite scent combinations for your cleaners?
Definitely one of mine too, it’s so refreshing and cleansing! I’m glad it’s helpful with eliminating odor and you enjoy using them around your space.
I’m so glad this post could help provide some information on using essential oils for cleaning for you! Thanks for reading.
I’m so glad you enjoyed this post Elle! Lemon is an incredible scent and I hope you enjoyed Lemon essential oils as you clean 🙂
YES, Cristina, I’m glad my posts resonate and each post, it gives you even more ideas of how to incorporate oils! I hope you can get yourself some soon and that you enjoy using them to clean around your space.
Incredible, great to hear you already love these oils, Andrea!
Thank you. I’ve been switching out harsher products. Have you ever noticed how much like Ivory Soap that Lemongrass smells? I just did the other day when I was using it in my humidifier.
I’ve never used Ivory Soap but I’ll have to give it a smell if I ever come across it! It’s great to hear you’ve been switching away from harsher products and I hope you enjoy more natural cleaning products.
Hey Alex! Have you ever tried Sweet Orange essential oil for cleaning? I just read an article in which I discovered a secret recipe for cleaning using sweet orange essential oil. I’d like to share the following article’s link with you: https://www.vinevida.com/blogs/our-blog/the-best-essential-oils-for-cleaning-keep-your-home-clean-green
On the other hand, I truly like how you presented the information in such an easy to read manner. Thank you.
I adore sweet orange and it’s a lovely scent! Thanks for sharing that post 🙂