Before I met my husband, I lived in a charming two-story house in a mountain valley just outside of Glorieta, New Mexico. In spite of the fact that I had a lovely home, one of my closest neighbors always insisted that I come to her house when we visited because she suffered from environmental allergies — she couldn’t physically handle being in most people’s homes because of the various chemicals that were present there. When her shower “went out” I offered to let her use mine, which she reluctantly did. After a few days, she commented that mine was the first bathroom that was both clean and not toxic to her. The reason? I used essential oils and basic, natural ingredients in all of my cleaning supplies.

Most commercially available cleaning products contain harsh chemicals — many of them are actually toxic. While many products tout their “lemon and pine” scents, their fragrance is most often chemically derived. Considering these same products are also typically exorbitantly priced, I wonder why more people don’t embrace make-it-yourself cleaning products. The reason is most likely they simply don’t know how.

The fact is you only need a handful of supplies to begin making your own cleaning products: castile soap, borax, vinegar, baking soda, salt…. And while there are a host of essential oils with therapeutic properties that line up with green cleaning (antimicrobial, antibacterial, antiviral, anti fungal), you can achieve amazing results with only six essential oils to get started: Lemon, Peppermint, White Pine, Tea Tree, Eucalyptus, and Lavender are all you need!

To get you started on your way to creating amazing recipes like cutting board disinfectant, kitchen sponge spray, mold and mildew spray, wood polish, surface cleaner, tub scrub, and more, the Untamed Classroom offers a Squeaky Green! workshop that will arm you with a starter kit including 5 ml of each of the powerhouse cleaning oils listed above as well as a notebook of foundational recipes. Armed with the therapeutic properties of each of the essential oils and the ingredients and combinations necessary to leverage them, you’ll be a green cleaning machine in no time!

Our next Squeaky Green! workshop is set for November 15th, 2014 — won’t you join us?! Register now!