How to Use Essential Oils in Your Laundry to Knock Out Tough Smells

Known for their pleasant smell and aromatherapy benefits, essential oils have enjoyed a boom in popularity. But did you know that you can use essential oils for laundry too?

Using essential oils in your laundry is an all-natural way to add a pleasant scent to your clothes, which can be especially beneficial to those who don't like artificial fragrances. However, before you start adding essential oils to your laundry there are a few important things that you should know.

Here’s everything you need to know about how to use essential oils in your laundry, according to experts.

Meet the Expert

• Angela Rubin is the Outreach and Content Manager at Hellamaid, a cleaning company based in Ontario, Canada.

• Jacquie Morse is a lifestyle blogger and founder of the blog Free Range RV Mama. She is passionate about non-toxic living and has over a decade of experience with essential oils.

Benefits of Using Essential Oils for Laundry

The main benefit of using essential oils for laundry is the pleasant natural fragrance they can add to your clothes. However, certain essential oils are known for having mood-enhancing and stress-reducing effects as well, which can promote feelings of positive well-being, says Angela Rubin, outreach and content manager at Hellamaid.

Additionally, certain essential oils have anti-microbial properties which could help to disinfect and deodorize laundry. This is ideal for things sports or gym clothing, Rubin says.

While essential oils like lavender, tea tree, peppermint, and eucalyptus have all been shown to have anti-microbial properties in laboratory tests, the effectiveness of these essential oils in disinfecting laundry hasn't been conclusively studied. Nonetheless, experts agree that tea tree oil and eucalyptus oil are among their favorites for deodorizing and disinfecting.

Essential Oils to Use and Avoid

There are certain essential oils that are better for use in laundry than others, experts say. Essential oils that are popular for laundry include lavender, lemon, tea tree, eucalyptus, and peppermint, to name a few.

“These oils are generally non-irritating and offer pleasant scents,” Rubin says.

In fact, lemon essential oil is known being a natural stain remover. It can be used to remove stains on everything from hard surfaces to fabrics. Simply use it as a laundry pre-treatment by rubbing it directly into the stain, then wash your clothes as usual.

On the other hand, highly concentrated oils like cinnamon, clove, oregano, cedar, pine, and bergamot are best left out of your laundry, since they have the potential to stain. As a general rule, Jacquie Morse, a lifestyle blogger with over a decade of experience using essential oils, also recommends always steering clear of any essential oil that isn’t completely clear (like orange) so you don’t accidentally stain your clothes.

How to Add Essential Oils to Laundry

To avoid oil stains on your clothes, oil should always be diluted with a solution such as unscented laundry detergent, unscented fabric softener, white vinegar, or baking soda.

Simply add five to 10 drops of your chosen essential oil to half a cup of unscented laundry detergent, fabric softener, or white vinegar, and add it to your machine as usual. When using essential oils in your laundry, Morse recommends setting your machine to wash on cold or the “eco warm” setting rather than hot. This is because “each essential oil has a temperature threshold that the scent will start to vaporize, with some being higher than others,” she says.

While this is mostly relevant if you plan to use essential oils in your dryer (such as with homemade dryer sheets or scent pouches), it’s still a good practice to avoid using hot water in your machine when using essential oils if you want your clothes to retain the fresh scent.

Can You Add Essential Oils to the Dryer?

Essential oils can be flammable, which means they should never be added directly to your dryer, just in case. However, experts say that they can be safely used when applied to wool dryer balls or washcloths, for a homemade dryer sheet.

Morse recommends creating a homemade spray using the essential oils of your choice and spraying that on the dryer balls and homemade dryer sheets. This will further dilute the oils and minimize any fire risk. A combination of witch hazel, water, and your essential oil of choice is a reliable and easy option to use with your dryer balls.

Ultimately, the best way to retain the fresh scent of essential oils in your laundry is to skip the dryer altogether and opt for air drying. This is due to the vaporization points of essential oils and the risk of losing the scent as the clothes heat up in the dryer, says Morse.

Frequently Asked Questions

What essential oils smell like fresh laundry?

Oils like lavender, lemon, and tea tree are associated with cleanliness and are great options for laundry. They add a fresh and clean scent that will remind you of the traditional “clean laundry” scent associated with artificially-scented laundry detergents.

Can you add essential oils to vinegar for laundry?

Using vinegar is a great way to dilute essential oils for safe use in laundry. Combine half a cup of vinegar with five to 10 drops of your chosen essential oil and then add to your washing machine for a fresh and natural scent.

Read Next: 7 Top Types of Laundry Detergent and How to Choose

Read the original article on The Spruce.