Anti-Germ Room Spray

This past week has been one of adjustment as one of my sons and I both returned to our schools in-person. My youngest son opted to finish out the year remotely so he’s holding down the fort with our dog while my older son and I are navigating the new routines of our old worlds. It’s been draining, to be honest, and the adjustment had us both in bed early on Friday night from sheer exhaustion. Between the new rules and norms due to covid and the anxiety that just seems inevitable now in larger groups, and trying to figure out all the little things that the pdfs of new protocols somehow haven’t covered much less remembering all that is covered on those pdfs…it’s a lot. I realized by the end of the week that I hadn’t made a room spray yet for my main classroom where I spend most days which is something I used daily last year to keep the germs down and spirits up. This weekend I’m making two versions of an anti-germ room spray and thought I’d share the recipes here.

I have a blog post/YouTube video on making room sprays which I made before I realized that adding a bit of an alcohol to the distilled water really helps the essential oils mix into the spray. Essential oils tend to sit on top of water, which you will notice if you put essential oils directly into your bath without using an oil carrier, so shaking before spraying helps but not as much as adding an alcohol, such as vodka which has very little to no scent, into the bottle along with the distilled water. Follow the same guidelines in my book, All Natural Perfume Making, when deciding which essential oils to include and in what proportion. For my classroom, I’m going to include thyme which is a strong scent that tends to overpower all other scents it combines with, but I’m using it because it is powerfully antibacterial and antiviral. Aim for about 30 drops of essential oils per ounce of liquid, and for the liquid aim for half of it being alcohol and 1/2 distilled water.

Anti-germ Room Spray:

2 oz bottle

1 oz distilled water

1 oz vodka

10 drops thyme

20 drops lavender + 10 more drops in one bottle

20 drops rosemary + 10 more drops in the other bottle

The reason I’m making two versions is that the one with more lavender will be for calming anxiety, either mine or the students’ in the room. (Trust me I can tell when the room is tense with anxiety!) The one with more rosemary will be for when fatigue is a problem and the brains in the room need to wake up and focus.

Always shake the bottle before spraying and keep it away from your face and especially your eyes. Don’t forget to label it too and write down what you put into yours so you can track what works well for you and what you’d like to change for next time.

Good luck to all of you who are also navigating changing routines right now!