The kitchen can be the most popular place in the house and the messiest. I feel like I clean our kitchen about 10 times a day, and as soon as it’s clean the kitchen begins to get messy again. For moms with kids, maintaining a nice kitchen can feel like a losing battle. I’ve come up with some easy tips for keeping my kitchen welcoming and my counter clear and ready to whip up some muffins with my kids. I’m also excited to share some green cleaning tips for minimizing germs in your kitchen.
Clear and Clean Counters
I cannot stand a messy counter. Unfortunately I have a huge kitchen island which collects everything. We try to avoid putting random stuff on our kitchen island counter and making it a catch-all. I try to clean our kitchen island off at least once a day, and wipe it down with my homemade germ-killing cleaning spray infused with essential oils. One of my favorite blends is from Rocky Mountain Oils; a mixture of clove bud, cinnamon bark, lemon, orange, oregano, mandarin, thyme, rosemary, nutmeg, ginger root, and eucalyptus citriodora. Cleaning with essential oils makes my kitchen smell amazing and kills bacteria on my cooking surfaces. Essential oils are also a natural immunity builder. My homemade cleaning solution using Rocky Mountain Oils leaves my counter looking clean and my kitchen smelling like cinnamon. You can easily make homemade cleaning spray in an empty spray bottle to wipe down kitchen surfaces without the use of chemicals.
DIY Essential Oil Cleaning Solution
1 cup water
1 cup vinegar
squeeze of lemon (optional)
30-40 drops of essential oil
Effective Homemade Cleaning Agents
Vinegar is great for degreasing counters and stove tops. You can use vinegar clean your sink and wipe down your microwave using an e-cloth microfiber cleaning cloth. I’ve even used distilled white vinegar to clean out our humidifier and Keurig coffee machine. Vinegar is very effective at breaking down grease and it is very inexpensive to buy. Once a homemade cleaning solution containing vinegar dries, the vinegar smell will quickly go away, leaving your surface squeaky clean.
Baking Soda is another cheap and effective cleaning product. Baking soda is a natural deodorizer and an open container of baking soda will absorb any smells in your fridge or under your kitchen sink. Scour your stainless steel sink with a sponge and baking soda to leave it shiny and clean. Pour baking soda down your garbage disposal to effectively clean the hardware and help reduce any odors. You can even sanitize the bottom of your dishwasher by pouring in a combination of equal parts vinegar and baking soda, scrubbing it around, and rinsing with a hot wash cycle.
Lemon is also a great deodorizer for cleansing your drain or garbage disposal. Just throw one in and grind it up!
Cleaning with Essential Oils
Rocky Mountain Oils offers a wide selection of essential oils that are pure and safe to use for the entire family. RMO’s expertly crafted blends and pure single essential oils empower natural living and green cleaning! I’ve loved using Rocky Mountain essential oil blends Purify and Immune Strength in my daily Eco-friendly cleaning endeavors. It’s also nice to keep chemicals far away from my little ones and knock out bacteria with the power of cleaning with essential oils, while making my home smell lovely at the same time!
Founded in 2004, Rocky Mountain Oils was created by a collection of enthusiasts who were determined to develop essential oils that were pure and safe to use for the entire family. RMO’s selection of premium essential oils and blends are improving the lives of people worldwide.
Rocky Mountain Oils also provides GC/MS test results on all single essential oils from a verified third-party lab. verifying purity and quality so customers can be sure they’re using the highest quality oils available on the market. Each bottle shows an individual batch code that can be input on the RMO website to pull up the GC/MS test results.
Immune Strength Essential Oil Blend
Ingredients: Clove Bud, Cinnamon Bark, Lemon, Orange, Oregano, Mandarin, Thyme, Rosemary, Nutmeg, Ginger Root, & Eucalyptus citriodora. Full Details »
Purify Essential Oil Blend
Ingredients: Lemongrass, Tea Tree, Rosemary, Lavender, Myrtle, & Citronella. Full Details »
I especially like Rocky Mountain Oil’s roll on blends that are easy to apply and already diluted. All 10 roll-on blends are formulated at a 2% dilution, high enough for a child to receive the aromatic and therapeutic benefits of essential oils, while low enough to help avoid skin irritation, sensitivity or sensitization. Diluting essential oils for topical application is especially important when applying to the small and growing bodies of children. Rocky Mountain Oils has a handy age appropriate essential oils chart you can reference when using essential oils for children.
e-cloth by TADgreen
Microfiber cleaning cloths are a great option for wiping down your counters with your homemade essential oil infused cleaning spray. I found these microfiber cloths by e-cloth do an amazing job at scouring away dirt and grime. They are actually advertised to be used with just water because the microfibers are so effective at removing grease and bacteria. e-cloth is made with as many as 3.1 million fiber strands per square inch of cloth and nearly 500 million fiber strands are in each cloth. e-cloth’s filaments are so small and so strong they can break up, lift, lock in, and clean deep down into the tiniest grooves and crevices using just water. Dust, grease, oils, grime, dirt and bacteria are quickly and easily removed and locked away deep inside the fibers until the cloths are rinsed or washed. e-cloth’s effectiveness is because of each cloth’s fiber composition, fiber size, fiber processing and density of cloth that offers extraordinary cleaning and drying, outperforming all other cleaning cloths and cleaning methods. e-cloths come in styles for the counter top, high chair, and even to wipe down toys.
This e-cloth chemical-free & reusable hand & face cleaning kit comes with a spray bottle. I keep this next to my high chair to wipe off baby’s face and hands. I put a bit of my essential oil cleaning spray into the spray bottle so I can easily wipe down the high chair, and I reserve a cloth with just water to wipe baby’s face. e-cloths are effective and also very soft and gentle. These striped square cloths are soft on baby’s skin and they can be tucked into the wipable leather pouch and easily taken on the go. If I fill the spray bottle with regular water it’s a handy add on to dampen a e-cloth and wipe baby’s face, replacing the need to bring along disposable baby wipes.
e-cloth Reusable Cloth Wipes clean with just water, 100% eliminating chemicals sensitivities, allergic reactions, rashes and asthma associated with the use of chemical additives, fragrances and dyes.
There are a lot of ways you can go green in your kitchen and reduce the chemicals you use for cleaning, like using this contemporary bottle drying rack by organicKidz to air dry your baby bottles and sippy cups. Using homemade essential oil cleaning spray and microfiber cleaning cloths are also a start, and these tips are easy to integrate into my busy mommy lifestyle. I’m excited to test out other applications for Rocky Mountain Essential oils and in the meantime, my kitchen is clean and smells like cinnamon, perfect for fall!
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