It’s no secret that I use a lot of essential oils in my house. (You can read more about that HERE.)  I use them for making my own homemade cleaners (see my recipes for Homemade All-Purpose Cleaner and Homemade Scouring Powder) and my own beauty products. (See my recipes for Healing Skin Salve, Amazing Face Serum, All-Natural Homemade Deodorant, Homemade Bath Salts, and Fizzy Bath Bombs.)

I utilize essential oils for making toxin-free general Household goods and baby items. (See my recipes for DIY Foaming Hand soap, Homemade Hand Sanitizer, Homemade Insect Deterrent, and Homemade Diaper Rash Cream.)

When someone in my house gets a cut, scrape, bite, or bruise, I pull out essential oils for first aid. (See Owie oil, All-Natural Bite and Sting Relief, and Natural Burn Remedies.)

I also use them when our immune systems need some extra support (see Preparing for Cold and Flu Season), as well as simply employing them around my house to make things smell good.  (See Clay Diffuser Ornaments, and Fall Scents.)

On top of all of the above uses, I use these food-grade oils for cooking.  (See my recipes for Flavored Water, and Fruit-Sweetened Chocolate Mint Pudding.)

Knowing that I use them all the time, a friend asked me how I store all of my essential oils.  I told her that I keep them in a medicine cabinet so they’re stored out of direct sunlight.  Like most things of this nature, you want to store essential oils in a cool, dark place in order to preserve potency.

When she remarked that it seemed an inefficient use of space, as the jars are rather small, I told her I made my own sub-shelves utilizing tiny blocks (like THESE) that my boys declared too small for their own building purposes.  (As a side note, my boys prefer building with blocks this size: HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, and HERE.)  These small blocks are just the right size for separating my rows and making it so I don’t have to dig through all of my oils to find the one I’m looking for.

Because my brain tends to work in alphabetical order, I alphabetized all of my oils in their rows.  I know other people organize by use or color or however their minds work best, but I’m an alphabetical gal, and this works well for me.  It also makes it so I can find one oil from amongst the myriad in my collection quickly and easily.

And no matter what I’m planning to use an oil for, being able to locate it efficiently is important.  I won’t use or find anything helpful if I can’t easily find it when I need it.

Do you use essential oils?  If so, how do you store them?

If you’re interested in learning more about essential oils, I’m happy to help.  You can read about the oils I use HERE.