A Guide to Herbs for Home Remedies and Housekeeping
Herbs make wonderful cleansing agents around your home. Their fresh scents can be a welcome change from the many chemicals we often tend to buy, and it's a great way to put the other herbs in our garden to good use. Of the popular herbs mentioned, thyme, coriander and oregano are some of the herbs you can use as cleaning agents.
For a great liquid cleanser around your kitchen, blend ten tablespoons of fresh thyme, rosemary, and cinnamon. Steep the blended ingredients in hot water for fifteen minutes then strain the mixture. Squeeze the juice of two lemons into the water and mix well. Bottle the liquid and use as a lovely smelling cleanser. The strained herbs can be squeezed dry then dried in the sun. Once dried, fill small cloth pouches with the dried herbs and use them as moisture absorbers around your kitchen, you can use it up to a month.
Create another cleaning agent using oregano. Take a medium sized jar, and fill a fourth of it with fresh oregano. Peel one orange and one lemon, and add the peel to the jar. Next, fill the rest of the jar with white vinegar, and seal the jar. Allow it to sit for two weeks then remove the oregano and fruit peels. This cleanser can clean the grout in your bathroom tiles, the burn stains on your ovens and pans, and it can also remove floor stains! Oregano has anti-bacterial qualities, and will ensure that germs will stay away from the areas you cleaned.
Coriander is a great insecticide and you can use fresh coriander steeped in water then strained as an insecticide for your herb garden. Just spray the liquid around some of the affected herbs, and watch the insects go away! You can also use this liquid to clean your windowsills and doorways, and prevent insects from entering your home. You can even wash your dog with the water as a natural remedy for tics.
Finally, create an all purpose liquid cleanser (great for tabletops or counter tops) by combining the antiseptic qualities of lemon balm, and the insecticide nature of lavender. Take a medium sized jar and fill a third of it with fresh lavender flowers and leaves and fresh lemon balm leaves. Fill it with warm water and leave it out in the sun for two weeks. After straining away the herbs, you can use the liquid to clean various areas of your home, and have a sweet smell that keeps insects away!
Using herbs for their cleansing properties may require you to grow more herbs than you had intended. If you don't have enough garden space, study the ways in which you can extract essential oils from your garden herbs. Essential oils usually carry the components we look for in a cleansing herb, and the oil can be used in smaller quantities than fresh herbs because it is more potent.
Next Article: A Quick Guide to Culinary Herbs and Their Uses
