If you've got to clean house, why not reap the benefits of aromatherapy while you're at it! If you've ever tackled household chores, you know that the smell of some products is overwhelming. If used without proper ventilation, many can even cause sickness.

Wouldn't it be nice if your household chores were invigorating rather than tiring? They can be and your home can be too. Here's how. First, a few tips.

Making your own household cleansers is easy, fun and cost-effective, especially if you make large amounts.

As with all household cleaning and freshening products, remember to properly label those which are homemade. And remember to store these products in an area where children or pets can't get them. Even though they're non-toxic, ingestion of excessive quantities can cause sickness.

Always keep essential oils away from the eyes.

Which aromatherapy ingredients to use for cleaning/freshening and how?

To freshen up the air inside your home, put your favorite scent into a pot of water and simmer mixture on the stovetop for several hours. The smell of citrus rinds is invigorating but you can use any essential oil.

To ensure there's always a fresh scent in the bathroom squeeze a few drops of essential oil onto the cardboard roll that holds the toilet paper. The fragrance will release with each pull. Remember to repeat with each new roll you hang.

If you want to use chemical-based cleaning products but prefer to leave behind a fragrance that doesn't smell like harsh chemicals, make a rinse using water and your favorite essential oil. Eucalyptus, pine, lemon, wintergreen, lavender and lots of others are good choices. Four drops for every pint of water is a good ratio. Place mixture into a spray bottle and use it as a sort of 'final rinse' when cleaning. Store in a dark area.

Tee tree oil and lavender essential oils have anti-bacterial properties so you can use this type of natural mixture for cleaning countertops. Just mix a few drops with water and spray on surfaces. For large jobs such as killing mold and mildew, add about 50 drops into a bucket of water.

Here's a simple recipe for homemade carpet fresheners. In a bowl mix 4 cups of baking soda or cornstarch with 25 drops rosewood essential oil, 35 drops of eucalyptus essential oil and 30 drops lavender essential oil. Break apart clumps and stir well. Pour into a shaker bottle. Sprinkle on carpets about 15 minutes prior to vacuuming. Instead of the essential oils listed here, you can mix your own personal favorites.

To clean floors, combine 15 drops of orange essential oil and 8 drops of lemon essential oils, 1 gallon hot water and 2 tablespoons liquid soap. This mixture will work on tough jobs and will leave the room smelling fresh.

Make your own dryer sheets by placing several drops of your favorite essential oil onto a towel. Add the towel into the dryer along with clothes and dry as you normally would.

For a deep sleep, place lavender essential oil into a spritz-type bottle. Lightly spritz bed sheets before retiring for the night.

Carrier oils are an important part of aromatherapy. Carrier oils are mainly used to dilute essential oils. Dilution is especially important when the essential oils are being massaged into the skin. If you know anything about essential oils, you know that they are highly concentrated and some can be pricy. Besides the fact that you'd consume a considerable amount if you used an essential oil for massage without first diluting it, essential oils are usually too much for the body to tolerate in an undiluted form.

Use of carrier oils during a massage session also makes the essential oils easier to handle. Carrier oils act as lubricants, helping the hands to move freely about the body, which produces a more soothing and comfortable result. Without carrier oils, the hands would tend to stick to the skin and drag along the top rather than glide.

Carrier oils serve another very important purpose. They improve an essential oil's ability to absorb deep into the skin and underlying blood stream. Essential oils also absorb faster when diluted with carrier oils.

Vegetable and nut oils make the most effective carrier oils. In fact, these types of carrier oils can even be used without mixing them with essential oils. But before you open your kitchen cupboard and grab the bottle of vegetable oil you use for cooking, there are a few things you should know.

First of all, put that bottle back into your cupboard and use it only for cooking. Why? Because oils used for cooking go through a different manufacturing process than the vegetable-based carrier oils that are used in aromatherapy. These processes are harsh and they actually strip out much of the vegetable oil's useful vitamins, nutrients and fatty acids.

When shopping for carrier oils to use in aromatherapy, look for vegetable-based oils that have been cold-pressed. This type of process is natural. It does not involve chemicals or heat which ensures that the beneficial fatty acids and other nutrients are retained within the oil.

And finally, be sure to select carrier oils that have little or no odor. This is especially important if you will be using the carrier oil to dilute an essential oil. Also look for carrier oils that are light and that don't have a sticky feel. These qualities ensure the oils will penetrate easily and more efficiently.

There are many different types of carrier oils suitable for aromatherapy. Sunflower oil, coconut oil, avocado oil, olive oil, sweet almond oil, grapeseed oil, macadamia oil and wheat germ oil are all acceptable choices. Since each will have different qualities such as aroma, texture and color selecting the 'right' one is more a matter of personal preference. Carrier oils will also interact differently depending on the essential oil with which it's mixed. Other qualities of carrier oils to consider include shelf-life and cost.

The bottom line – do your research before you purchase carrier oils and you'll be guaranteed better results.

If you consider yourself more than a beginner when it comes to cooking, you're likely already incorporating principles of aromatherapy into the foods you create. Using ingredients like infused oils and flavored butters not only adds a tremendous amount of flavor to your meals, these types of ingredients cause your smell receptors to come alive.

You might never have thought about this before, but eating involves more than your sense of taste. Unfortunately for many of us, we never seem to have enough time to fully appreciate our meals. We eat fast while on the go, and never give our brains enough time to process the experience. If we could only slow down, we would realize that eating involves the sense of smell as well.

In fact, much of what we taste is influenced by smell. It has to be otherwise, we could only taste what our tongues have been designed to process - saltiness, bitterness, sweetness and sourness. Need further proof? Walk into any home at meal time or any restaurant and before we even see food we smell it and we're able to pick out different aromas and that makes us instantly hungry.

Here are a few tips on incorporating aromatherapy into your cooking.

Don't be afraid to experiment with your food! Herbs, spices and even edible flowers can breathe new life into your meals. These ingredients will turn the most boring of foods like vegetables into foods you look forward to eating.

Incorporating aromatherapy into your cooking can help you lose weight. One reason why people tend to gravitate towards high fat foods is because these foods taste so good. And while cheese, creams, gravies and butter do add a lot of flavor, they also add a lot of calories. Using more fruits, vegetables and lean proteins in your recipes and flavoring them with herbs and flavored oils will provide you with the vitamins, nutrients and will invigorate, revitalize and lift your mood at the same time!

Before you can add aroma and flavor to food, it's got to be released from the plant material first. Heat is an effective method of extracting aromas, but too much heat will damage these plants and consequently, spoil your meals. For best results, always heat slowly using low heat.

What products can be used in aromatherapy cooking?

Infusions

Infusions are great to use in aromatherapy cooking. Not only do they add a variety of different flavors, they're easy to make. An infusion is an oil or water that has been steeped generally with herbs or flowers.

Herbed butter

Used sparingly, herbed butters add a tremendous amount of flavor and an incredible aroma to practically any food. And as with infusions, herbed butters are easy to make at home.

Herbs

When cooking, you'll extract more flavors if you use fresh herbs.

Some cooking ideas

Instead of pastas made with cheese and meat, toss with vegetables that have been sautéed in infused oils.

Brush poultry, vegetables and seafood with herbed butter, wrap in aluminum foil, then grill. The steam will help the flavor of the herbed butters seep throughout the grilled items.

Among the many types of aromas used in aromatherapy are CO2s. If you know anything about chemistry, you know that CO2 is the symbol for carbon dioxide. And if you know anything about carbon dioxide, you know that it is what we exhale from our bodies with every breath.

What is interesting and exciting about carbon dioxide is the way it relates to aromatherapy. Getting back to science, carbon dioxide is a gas, colorless and odorless, like that which you exhale. However, there is a way that carbon dioxide can be forced into changing its state from a gas into a liquid. To accomplish this transformation, low temperatures are combined with high pressure.

You still might be wondering what changing the state of C02 has to do with aromatherapy. CO2 in liquid form works quickly and efficiently to extract the aroma molecules from plant material. In liquid form, CO2 becomes a solvent. But unlike the chemical solvents that are used to extract absolutes and concretes, CO2 solvents are completely removed once the extraction process has been completed. The removal of the solvent becomes possible by changing the atmospheric conditions during the extraction process so that the CO2 can be returned to its gaseous state. And then once it reverts back to a gas, it simply dissipates.

Remember, with absolutes, solvents still remain after the extraction process, which is why absolutes are not commonly used in aromatherapy. They are not considered pure and as a result, they are used primarily by the fragrance industries in the manufacture of perfumes, soaps, creams, lotions and other body care products.

With CO2s, the end result of the extraction process is a very high-quality aromatic product that is totally free of solvents. Better still, the product that is extracted is a true and unchanged plant essence - in other words, CO2s smell most like the real thing. Since low temperatures are used during the extraction process, heat does not adversely affect the essential oils, so it is an even better extraction process than distillation.

CO2s are a fairly new arrival to the world of aromatherapy. The extraction technology is new, but unfortunately, the extraction equipment is expensive. So far, this type of extraction is not very widespread which is causing the price of CO2s to be quite high. Hopefully the prices will come down as this extraction process becomes more widespread.

When shopping for aromatherapy CO2s, you'll notice that there are different categories. The differences are due to slight variations in the extraction process. CO2 Selects are created using very low temperature, but the process removes more of the plant's soluble components. CO2 Totals are extracted using a higher temperature, and in doing so, preserves all of a plant's solubles. Totals are more complete, but because they are thicker, they're more difficult to work with than Selects. It's suggested that CO2 Totals be warmed or combined with carrier oils prior to use.

Infused oils are another type of oil used in aromatherapy. Infusion is an extraction process that does not involve boiling. Rather, an ingredient, usually an herb, is steeped or soaked for a period of time in some type of liquid so that its active ingredients or soluble elements can be removed. A gentle heat source is needed, such as the sun. When steeped or soaked in oil, the end result is infused oils.

Infused oils can be used several different ways. They can be added into ointments, creams, lotions, shampoos and other personal care products that are applied topically. In aromatherapy, infused oils are commonly mixed into essential oils or carrier oils. Some people prefer to use infused oils without first mixing them into other ingredients. Unlike essential oils, infused oils are not nearly as concentrated, making them safe to use alone.

Many who practice aromatherapy prefer to use infused oils instead of essential oils. Depending on the plant, it sometimes is just not possible to extract a sufficient quantity of essential oils to make the process cost-effective or worthwhile. Many infused oils provide the user with multiple benefits, which is another reason why they are preferred. Probably the biggest reason why people prefer infused oils is because they can create their own easily and inexpensively.

Creating your own infused oils is easy, you need just a few items: a glass container with tight-fitting lid, a slightly crumbled, completely dried herb or plant, and cold-pressed carrier oil. Using dried herbs is better than using fresh as the moisture contained in fresh can cause mold to develop. After you've gathered your ingredients, simply place the herb/flower/plant into the glass container, fill the container half-full with your preferred cold-pressed oil (olive or sunflower work well), cover tightly and place in the sun or next to a heat source for a minimum of 24-hours. A windowsill works just fine.

When the steeping process is finished, hold a sieve over another container and filter the oil. Next, pass the sieved oil through a piece of cheesecloth. Be sure to squeeze the cheesecloth so you get every drop! And make sure you have removed every piece of plant matter to avoid spoilage.

If you would rather not make your own infused oils, don't worry. You'll find plenty of outlets that sell infused oils, especially on the Internet. All you'll need then is your credit card and a shipping address.

Examples of infused oils

St. John's Wort

This infused oil is great for soothing and moisturizing any type of skin. It is also effective when applied after exposure to the sun.

Calendula

Oil infused with calendula is used by many for its healing qualities. It helps soothe skin and it can also help to balance out skin that is oily.

Arnica

Arnica infused oils are great to use when massaging. In liquid form, it's an excellent alternative to arnica cream. Just be sure to keep arnica infused oils away from open wounds.