I have been slow to embrace essential oils because I always felt like they were a little bit voodoo-ish. Don’t laugh, they just don’t seem to be the “cure-all” that lots of people like to tout them to be. However, I recently have been going through some massage therapy for various injuries and my therapist uses Young Living Oils and recommend a few for me to try at home and they have made a world of difference in my recovery. She also has taught me many other uses for them and I realized they are brilliant for preparedness purposes as well as just handy to keep around for everyday use.

I’m definitely not an expert but I’m excited to learn about the possibilities with using oils to better round out my food storage and eprep supplies. If you’re looking to get started with this too, check out the Premium Starter Kit from Young Living. That’s what I got and it’s given me 11 of the best oils to try and I’ve been having fun learning and experimenting. You get them at hugely discounted prices, get a free diffuser, AND get to save 24% off retail prices if you order other essential oils in the future. I’d love to have some friends/readers join in this adventure with me! Here are some of the preparedness applications I have thought of so far:

1. Cleaning Supplies
There are about a billion recipes online for making your own cleaning supplies using essential oils. It is an amazing way to make “natural” cleaners that still have that lemon-fresh scent we love to have in our homes. You can make laundry detergent, dish detergent, all-purpose cleaners, etc. Instead of having to store spares of all of these items just store some basic core ingredients and a few key essential oils. Some of the best oils to use for cleaning recipes are:

lavender essential oil
lemon essential oil
pine essential oil
cinnamon essential oil
Thieves® essential oil blend
Purification™ essential oil blend

2. Personal Hygiene Products
Many people like to make their own homemade soaps, lotions, toothpastes, etc. to have more control over the ingredients, to save money, and just to have an overall better product. Imagine if you could make your own products in an emergency situation, you could use them to barter, or just enjoy your own supplies without having to store so many different products. Here are some oils useful for making these types of products:

lavender essential oil
lemon essential oil
sandalwood essential oil
tea tree essential oil
thieves

3. Food Flavorings
Did you know that you can flavor FOODS with essential oils? I never thought about it before but it totally makes sense. It’s an interesting change from storing regular spices, lemon juice, etc. Just have your oils on hand and use a few drops to add flavor and the health benefits of the oils into any of your regular meals. These are some oils that would be good in foods:

peppermint essential oil
basil essential oil
lemon essential oil
nutmeg essential oil
lime essential oil
oregano essential oil
rosemary essential oil

4. Mental Well-Being
One of the things we have learned by practicing emergency preparedness situations in our annual 7 Day Challenge is that it can be really mentally taxing on the entire family. There are a lot of oils that help you to be calm, relaxed, sleep better, etc. Wouldn’t that be helpful in an emergency? Here are some helpful emotional/spiritual health oils:

Sacred frankincense
Valor™ essential oil blend
peppermint essential oil
lavendar essential oil
SleepEssence blend
stress away essential oil blend

5. First Aid
Herbs have long been considered a great alternative to traditional modern medicine. You can make all kinds of teas, poultices, salves, etc. using herbs with natural healing properties. Essential oils can serve the same first aid purposes but have a longer shelf life, take up less storage space, and can be more potent. There are lots of concerns about making “healing” claims with essential oils so I would recommend researching which herbs would be helpful to store in your first aid kits and replacing them with equivalent essential oils. There will definitely be some good ones for healing stomach pains, soothing pain, sore muscles, skin burns/irritations, etc.

Don’t forget if you want to learn along with us you can get started by shopping using our special link. You can order individual products at retail price or become a “member” to by at wholesale pricing. My massage therapist is very knowledgeable and she will help us all with any questions we have. I’m so excited to learn more!

-Jodi Weiss Schroeder
http://foodstoragemadeeasy.net