Have you been making your own cleaning products? What tools do you use? I have quite a collection of tools and containers now that help make the DIY process easy. Of course you also need suitable containers to store what you make.
This post is about the tools and the containers that you will need. Along with my collection of jars and bottles, I also have moulds for making fizzies and dishwasher tabs. You won’t need anything fancy but it is important to think about safe storage. Anything that is to be kept for a while e.g. for several months, I keep in the fridge. You might like to read our post about safe storage too!
What you Need to Make your Products
The making part is really easy and doesn’t require any particular tools, however, I would avoid using plastic containers to mix up products that contain Essential Oils. The plastic is likely to bind to the oil and so you will not be able get rid of the smell. If you have to use plastic e.g. mixing bowls or funnels, make sure they are just used for your DIY work.
Mixing bowls: I do use my Thermomix to make some products but most of the time I use either pyrex or stainless steel bowls to mix up the ingredients. I have dedicated some of my bowls to making my cleaning products to make sure there is no cross over to the food I prepare.
Spoons: I use stainless steel spoons to mix up my ingredients. Once again I dedicate the spoons for my DIY work.
Funnels: I do use plastic funnels to transfer my liquid products into storage containers.
Moulds: I use a range of silicone and stainless steel moulds to make dishwasher tablets, fizzies and bath bombs. I use silicone ice trays and have some soap moulds too. It is easy to pop out the finished product from these trays.
What you need to Store your Products
This it where it becomes a bit more complicated, particularly if you don’t have an existing store of glass jars of various sizes. I didn’t when I first started this work so I was always scrambling round to find a suitable container. So it’s worth considering what you might need and doing some research to find the things that you can’t find in your own house.
I will list some of the items that I use below in several categories: storage of liquid products, storage of dry products, storage of creams and balms, roller ball bottles and lastly, the attachments you will need.
Storage of Liquid Products
I make liquid laundry detergent and when I first started I stored it in old commercial laundry liquid bottles. Over the last year I have found myself using a lot of vinegar for various purposes and so have collected quite a few vinegar bottles. They are plastic but they each hold 2 L of liquid. The recipe I make is for 7 L of detergent so I distribute it across 4 bottles. I keep them in the dark to prevent breakdown of the Essential Oils in the mix. This approach is working well for me.
I purchased some wide mouth jars with pump tops for my shower gel. I store the excess gel in a large Moccona Coffee Jar. The reason for this is that the mix is very thick and difficult to pour into a bottle. You could use mason jars with a pump top. I prefer not to use glass in my shower so my pump top jars are a very solid plastic. Their original purpose was for use by massage therapists i.e. to store their creams and lotions.
For smaller amounts of liquid I purchased a number of brown 200 ml bottles that are extremely handy. I use them with various different attachments to store liquids that need spraying or pumping.
I also re-use oil bottles. For example, I am using a bottle that had jojoba oil in it to store my oil cleansing mix.
When I make sprays for use outside I just use cheap plastic sprays bottles from the supermarket. I usually use the spray quickly so am not concerned about the oils reacting with the plastic. I then wash them out ready for the next use.
I make a foaming hand wash and so have purchased some bottles for this – the Foam comes from the pump top, not any fancy ingredients!
Storage of Dry Products
I haven’t made many dry products but I would suggest that glass jars would be best for these. I use a Parmesan cheese dispenser for my kitchen scourer!
I make dishwasher tablets and fizzy tablets that I use to clean the toilet. Once they are made I store them in large Moccona Coffee Jars.
Storage of Creams and Balms
I use a range of jars for this. I do have some simple jars purchased from a supermarket or kitchen shop. But I now have some dark glass jars with gold lids that look nice for gifts. I also have some metal tins for storage of sunscreen and balms such as beard balm.
I have roll up deodorant containers too. These can be washed and reused but they are really quite cheap to buy so you might decide that the clean up is not worth the effort.
Roller Ball Bottles
You will need lots of these roller ball bottles to dilute your oils. You can purchase 10 ml bottles with the roller ball and the lid.
If you are going to purchase bottles you will need the attachments to allow you to spray or pump your product. The picture below shows a range of attachments that you will find useful.
Recently I discovered that you can purchase roller bottles to fit the 15 ml essential oil bottles too. So if you have some empties, you can fill them with Fractionated Coconut oil and use the original bottle again!
Whilst this list is not exhaustive, I do hope it gets you started. But of course you will want to know where to go to buy some of these tools etc.
There are a few places that I go to buy these things. They are listed below along with some links to Amazon sites.
|
Item |
Description and Uses in Your DIY products | Sources | Links to Amazon Suppliers |
| Aromatherapy PET and Aluminium Jars
|
Metal containers are useful for storing balms. They also make a professional looking gift! I used some PET jars to store scrubs made for gifts at Christmas. | New Directions |
Click HERE for Amazon US Suppliers Click HERE for Amazon UK Suppliers
Click HERE for Amazon AUS Suppliers |
|
Brown Glass Bottles |
These are useful for all sorts of sprays and lotions. Just change the dispensing system to suit the need. | New Directions
|
Click HERE for Amazon US Suppliers Click HERE for Amazon UK Suppliers Click HERE for Amazon AUS Suppliers |
|
Dispensing Systems |
You will need a range of dispensers on your glass bottles. I bought a few different sprayers and pumps to begin with. | New Directions
|
Click HERE for Amazon US Suppliers
|
|
Foaming Bottles
|
These bottles are a must for your handwash. |
|
Click HERE for Amazon US Suppliers
Click HERE for Amazon UK Suppliers Click HERE for Amazon AUS Suppliers |
| Glass Spray, Drip & Pump Bottles
|
You will need an assortment of smaller bottles too. Centaur Packaging have a range of dispensers to enable you to re-use your doTERRA bottles | Centaur Packaging |
Click HERE for Amazon AUS Suppliers
|
|
Jars
|
Glass jars are a must to store creams. | New Directions |
Click HERE for Amazon US Suppliers Click HERE for Amazon UK Suppliers Click HERE for Amazon AUS Suppliers |
|
Moulds |
You will need these to make bath bombs, fizzies and dishwasher tablets. |
Click HERE for Amazon US Suppliers Click HERE for Amazon UK Suppliers Click HERE for Amazon AUS Suppliers |
|
|
Plastic & Airless Bottles, Jars & Tottles (including deodorant containers)
|
You may wish to use some plastic containers. | New Directions
|
Click HERE for Amazon UK Suppliers
|
|
Roller ball bottles – glass
|
These are a must for dilution of Essential Oils. I have some clear and some brown glass. You can buy these bottles in a range of colours. | New Directions |
Click HERE for Amazon US Suppliers Click HERE for Amazon UK Suppliers Click HERE for Amazon AUS Suppliers |
What Next?
doTERRA also have a range of containers and packaging products that will be useful for you. Here is how you can find these and also find any oils you may need for your DIY projects: go to my doTERRA website to find out about the range of oils and other products available for purchase. You can also sign up to become a member on my doTERRA site. Once signed up you can purchase oils for wholesale prices! But if you would like some more information click on the Contact Me on the doTERRA website and I will respond to your questions.
We hope you will also join us at Helpful by Nature by subscribing to our email list. We would love to hear from you, take your questions and provide answers if we are able.
Until next time,
Gillian (and Andrew)
