Organizing Essential Oils and Other Make Your Own Ingredients

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Do you own a good number of essential oils and other supplies for making things like homemade lotions and soaps that are needing to be organized? Here are some simple tips on organizing essential oils that can be utilized in any size space.

Do you own a good number of essential oils and other supplies for making things like homemade lotions and soaps that are needing to be organized? Here are some simple tips on organizing essential oils that can be utilized in any size space. #organizingessentialoils #organizedoils #essentialoilorganization

Organizing Essential Oils and Other Make Your Own Ingredients

A few months ago, not long after we moved into our farmhouse, I noticed a few little yellow dots on the floor in the bathroom. Upon closer inspection, I realized they were some of my beeswax pastilles. I figured they must have just fallen out of the bags when I had gotten them out last, so I cleaned them up and moved on. The next day, there were more on the floor and this time I hadn’t had my ingredients for my homemade things out recently. A little further searching led me to what I thought was a rather surprising conclusion.

Apparently, mice like beeswax.

After the beeswax all over the floor incidents, I was determined to clean up my ingredients and make a special place for them in the house. My essential oils had been stored in a small tote and they kept falling over and leaking. It wasn’t a good solution. And, I obviously needed to get the rest of the ingredients up and away. Who knows what else a hungry mouse will chew on!

With the farmhouse being so small, it was hard for me to find a central location for all of my things, so I had a few different storage places instead. Essential Oils were stored in the kitchen where there is room for them to be upright, and carrier oils and other ingredients were stored in the bathroom linen closet so they can be in a cool, dark area. Here’s how everything was stored and neatly put away!

Organizing Essential Oils

How to Organize Essential Oils

For my essential oils, I like to store them in a kitchen drawer. They are easy to access and they still stay in a cool, dark place. I purchased this Bamboo Drawer Organizer. I like it because all of the sections are adjustable so I can make them smaller or larger depending on what I need room for. In this essential oil drawer organizer, I store my essential oils (upright!) and small, loose containers that I use for homemade things. I also have a few extra oil bottles, droppers, and lids for homemade concentrates.

Organizing Essential Oils

The other items for making my homemade goods, such as lotions and soaps, got their own shelf in the bathroom linen closet; way up off the ground. I have a few different tubs and storage containers that I use to store these items so they can also sit upright and of course, like I said….off the ground. 😉

Organizing Essential Oils

I picked these little totes up at the dollar store. I like that they have tall sides and they are perfect for storing larger bottles that need to stay upright (such as carrier oils, soaps, etc.). I also use them to store bags of add-in items such as special sea salts, bentonite clay, and special waxes. I prefer these containers without lids so the items can sit upright.

Organizing Essential Oils

I use this larger tub for storing large containers (such as deodorant tubes, lip balm tubes, etc) and for storing beeswax since I tend to have a lot of it at one time.

These ideas are simple, but they keep all of my ingredients and oils organized, off the ground, and in cool places to maximize storage length. Plus, they are all easy to access (but still away from little one’s wondering hands) and when you are making homemade things all the time, this is a must!

If you are looking for a wonderful source for oils, I highly recommend Rocky Mountain Oils. After careful consideration of all the companies selling essential oils, I’m happy to share that Rocky Mountain Oils has become my main source of oils for many different reasons.

Are you started to get into using essential oils?

Uses for Eucalyptus Oil

Uses for Peppermint Oil

Uses for Grapefruit Oil 

Uses for Lemon Oil

Uses for Sweet Orange Oil

Where do you store your essential oils and other ingredients for making homemade goods?

merissabio

This blog post on Organizing Essential Oils was originally published on Little House Living in September 2014. It has been updated as of September 2019.

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19 Comments

  1. I just cleaned out the cabinet in the kitchen where we have stored OTC meds for 20 years. We don’t use those things anymore so I threw them all out and put all of my essential oils and everything we use with them in that cabinet. I have over 50 oils so I use a hinged snap lid plastic storage box so that I can get all of the oils out of the cabinet at once. Before that the oils box was constantly on the move from one surface to another just to keep it out of the way. It makes me happy to have put them away in a permanent place and be done with it.

  2. I find that when I have these supplies handy I am more likely to keep stocked up with homemade bathroom essentials.
    I just use baskets and boxes for storing them, but am thinking of a better way for our situation. A trip to the dollar store the next time we go to the ‘city’ will probably turn up something.

  3. Hi Merissa, I’m an organized junkie. I like things in their places and safe from kids, rodents, and bugs. Just a suggestion for your baggies of beeswax and clays; mice will chew through the baggies so try to store this stuff in glass jars with tight fitting lids, or keep them in the baggies and store all of the baggies in a bucket with a tight fitting lid. The plastic totes at Lowe’s and Home Depot are thick plastic and have great fitting lids. Also, you can purchase new, never used paint cans at these same places and store your goods in those. They are smaller and easier to find places for than the large buckets. Keep up the good ideas. Love the tray solution for the little bottles. Nice.

  4. This is very timely. I desperately need a way to organize my essential oils and other items. I will give these ideas a try!

    Linda

  5. I really need to consider this. I store all of my “stuff’ in a big rubbermaid box in my bedroom closet (which stays pretty cool), but every time I need something, I feel a little dread of going all the way back there, taking the crate off the top of the box (which holds larger soap-making supplies), then getting into the box for just a little bottle of oil, or a pipette…
    Thanks for your inspiration. I love the bamboo drawer organizer. Maybe I should consider that instead.
    And thanks for the heads up on mice! We live right in the middle of fields, and struggle with mice occasionally. I guess they’ve never bothered the beeswax since its in that plastic tub, but I had never even considered that!

  6. Hi Merissa – I am just starting to experiment with essential oils, and I do not have them organized. Thanks for the tips. This is going to be my featured post at this week’s Let’s Get Real Party.

  7. I’ve been procrastinating on organizing my oils and supplies because I didn’t have any good ideas as to where to put them. A kitchen drawer is a great idea. I also just bought beeswax for the first time. It’s good to know that mice will get in it if they can! Thank you for sharing.

  8. I don’t have to worry about mice getting into my oils, but 2-year olds are another issue… 😉 Thanks for sharing at Savoring Saturdays, Merissa! 🙂

  9. These are some fantastic ideas! I’ve been wanting to organize my items, which are currently spread out all over the house. I will definitely use these tips to bring it all together and make it easier to make my homemade items! Thanks!

  10. Very timely post as I have been working with essential oils a lot lately for several of my blog posts. I repinned this post for future reference to my board.

  11. We constantly had problems with organization of our essential oils and supplies used with them. We would need a particular oil or need to reference something and would not be able to locate the items needed as they would be in whatever room the person had used them last.

    I set up a small writing desk in the corner of our dining room that holds everything in one place so that if needed we can find the oils, jars, bottles, droppers, and even recipes when needed.

    On one corner of the little desk I have and antique spice rack that we store our essential oils in. It has 2 doors on the front to keep the light from the bottles of oils and it also has two small drawers to store eye droppers, etc . . . – this sits on one corner of the desk.

    The top of the desk I have my reference books and charts so that I can access them immediately when needed.

    And the last thing I have on the desk is a small recipe box where I can keep recipes that I have made up for various ailments, etc . . .

    For us this has worked perfectly as everything is in one place and no more searching for supplies . . .

    1. Hmmm I guess I haven’t read that (or done it) in the years that I’ve been using essential oils. Did they say why? I’ve never heard it recommended before.

  12. good ideas! been storing my small bottles in a plastic shoebox and labeling

    could you share some of your EO recipes? love collecting and trying! I’m a beginner and trying to learn all I can!

    favorite sites for supplies, recipes, learning, etc? Thanks

  13. I’ve stored my oils in a hanging jewelry organizer on the back of my bathroom door or on a nail/hook in my bathroom for years. They stay out of the way, upright and cool, even when someone showers it’s never hot in the bathroom. My carrier oils I have stores in a bin in my bedroom closet at the moment as that’s where I have the space. Usually they’re stores in the bathroom as well. I order my oils from mountain rose herbs and get my beeswax pastilles from them as well. I used to order from Young living but I don’t have that kind of money to do that anymore. I’m very happy with the quality of mountain rose herbs products.