Top 8 Household Uses for Peppermint Oil

Peppermint isn’t just for candy canes! Peppermint oil is a popular essential oil that can be used in many places around your home to freshen, clean, and deter pests. These household uses for peppermint oil promote a more natural way of living and achieving greater health. Try a few of the simple recipes and techniques listed here to care for the inside and outside of your home.

 

1. Fresh scent

Add a few drops of peppermint oil to trash bins, disposals, and other areas of your home that may carry a “smell.” You can also try dropping a bit onto the inside of a roll of toilet paper – the scent releases every time someone takes some!

 

2. All-purpose cleaning

Add a little peppermint oil to any of your homemade household cleaners for a fresh scent or make a peppermint-specific cleaner using:

 

1 cup of water

½ cup of vinegar

½ teaspoon dish soap

3 drops peppermint oil

 

Mix the ingredients together in a spray bottle and use it on hard surfaces.

 

3. Insect and spider repellent

A simple mixture of 5 drops of peppermint oil, a squirt of dish soap, and about 3 cups of warm water may be just the right remedy for the creepy crawlies making their home around yours. Shake it together in a spray bottle and spritz in corners.

 

4. Room spray

Use this recipe from The Prairie Homestead and spray the mixture around your home when company is coming over, or just to freshen a bathroom or laundry room for your own benefit! It is also safe to use on furniture and upholstery.

 

5. Mouse control

Peppermint oil is has a strong scent that may discourage mice. Soak cotton balls with several drops of peppermint oil and distribute them around baseboards, cupboards, and other places in your home where you’ve noticed rodent activity. Replace the cotton balls every few days.

 

6. Wasp spray

Get rid of wasp nests and keep insects from rebuilding in the same area with this recipe for a handy wasp spray. Be sure spray the nest in the cooler hours when the wasps are slower and less active to give yourself the best chance of getting them all.

 

7. Cleaning mold

Add a half teaspoon of peppermint oil to a mix of a half cup of vinegar and a half cup of salt in a spray bottle and get to work on mold lurking in bathroom and basement corners. Spray and allow it to sit for several minutes before wiping it clean.

 

8. Plant health

Spray your plants with a mix of water and several drops of peppermint oil a few times a week. Diluted oil won’t hurt the plant and the spray will discourage pests and get rid of plant-eating aphids.

 

 

Kayla Lilly is a photographer, writer, wife, and mama making a house a home in eastern Idaho. She met her mister while working at an amusement park and married him a year later after deciding there was no way to live without him. The amusement has continued as they’ve added three kids and a passel of pets to their lives while finishing college and starting a photography business. Drawing inspiration from the whirlwinds of marriage, parenthood, and the media, Kayla blogs at Utterly Inexperienced, and spends the rest of her time chasing chickens, organizing junk drawers, diapering toddlers, and photographing everyone willing to step in front of her lens.

 

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