DIY Herbal Antibacterial Wipes for Portable Cold and Flu Protection

Make and take DIY herbal antibacterial wipes to keep your hands clean before and after shopping excursions and being around sick people.

I don’t like to use water-less antibacterial gel on my hands, I think it stinks.  It also dries out my hands, and I’m not sure that the ingredients used for the antibiotic, and alcohol that are the basis for the antibacterial claims, are all that effective.

Even so, after we use an outhouse on the road, or walk into the grocery store, we need something in the car to wipe our hands and give us some protection. Once you’re inside, hearing all the hacking coughs in the store always makes me want to wipe the cart handle really well. The store will often have water-less alcohol-based hand wash gel but they rarely have wipes.

In fact, I haven’t seen a single tissue in that hand wash station in months. That doesn’t do much good, does it?

Homemade disinfecting wipes are handy for smelly messes

The last time I looked for a tissue at the hand wash station was a month or so ago.  I was stocking up on a sale of wild sockeye salmon and I was able to pick up 12 whole salmon for our winter supply. The salmon comes loosely wrapped in plastic bags and the bags reek of fish slime. After you handle the bags, the fishy smell clings to your hands and gets on everything you touch.

You can imagine my revulsion, when I went to the hand wash station and the tissue dispenser was empty.  Again.  I was so glad that I had these handy homemade herbal antibacterial wipes in the car to get the fish fluids off my hands, before taking the long, hot trip home. These fabulous herbal antibacterial wipes vanquished the smell and the clinging stickiness, in one fell swoop.  I never thought about it again.

It’s useful for homemade diaper wipes too!

This is a tested recipe that has been used by my family for at least 35 years. I used it long ago when my first baby was in cloth diapers and I used this recipe for making homemade diaper wipes. I would follow up with a sprinkle of tapioca starch, to soothe his damp bottom and he never had any problems.

If you decide to make this recipe for diaper wipes, replace 1/2 the liquid with aloe gel and use only the lavender essential oil.  Omit the others.

DIY Herbal Antibacterial Wipes

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• Author: Joybilee Farm
• Prep Time: 25 minutes
• Total Time: 25 minutes
• Yield: 1 8 ounce jar 1x

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Ingredients

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• 15 heavy paper towels
• 1/4 cup of thieves vinegar or 99% Isopropyl Alcohol
• 1 tsp. tea tree essential oil
• 1 tsp. lavender essential oil
• 1 tsp. eucalyptus essential oil
• 1/2 tsp. clove essential oil
• 1/2 tsp. rosemary essential oil

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Instructions

1. Take 15 paper towels and cut each paper towel in quarters, separating the towels on the perforation.
2. Roll each towel piece up to make a single roll, being sure that the new towel is added under the flap of the one that went before it.  In this way, as you remove a towel from the roll, another towel will come up to take its place, like the way a tissue box works.
3. Keep cutting paper towels into quarters and rolling them in this way, until your roll of paper towels fits snugly into your jar.  Roll all the towels up in a single roll, adding each one under the flap of the one before it.
4. In a separate cup measure the thieves vinegar (or vodka), and the essential oils.  Drizzle the vinegar mixture over the top of the paper towels inside the jar.
5. Put on the lip and shake the jar.  Allow it to sit undisturbed for at least 15 minutes.  The dry paper towels will wick up the excess moisture.  You can leave any extra liquid in the jar or pour it off when all the paper towels are uniformly damp.

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DIY Marseilles remedy or four thieves vinegar hand wipes

To make them you’ll need:

Equipment:

• 250 ml mason jar ( the 8-ounce the kind they sell for preserving)
• A lid to fit the jar
• 1 roll of paper towels — you’ll only use 10 to 15 towels for this

Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup of thieves vinegar or 99% Isopropryl alcohol.
• 1 tsp. tea tree essential oil
• 1 tsp. lavender essential oil
• 1 tsp. eucalyptus essential oil
• 1/2 tsp. clove essential oil
• 1/2 tsp. rosemary essential oil

Instructions:

1. Take 15 paper towels and cut each paper towel in quarters, separating the towels on the perforation.
2. Roll each towel piece up to make a single roll, being sure that the new towel is added under the flap of the one that went before it.  In this way, as you remove a towel from the roll, another towel will come up to take its place, like the way a tissue box works.
3. Keep cutting paper towels into quarters and rolling them in this way, until your roll of paper towels fits snugly into your jar.  Roll all the towels up in a single roll, adding each one under the flap of the one before it.
4. In a separate cup measure the thieves vinegar (or 99% isopropyl alcohol), and the essential oils.  Drizzle the vinegar mixture over the top of the paper towels inside the jar. If you cannot get isopropyl alcohol, you can substitute vodka, it will just be less effective over-all.
5. Put on the lip and shake the jar.  Allow it to sit undisturbed for at least 15 minutes.  The dry paper towels will wick up the excess moisture.  You can leave any extra liquid in the jar or pour it off when all the paper towels are uniformly damp.

To use DIY Herbal Antibacterial Wipes:

Remove the outermost paper towel from the bundle in the jar.  This will bring the next wipe to the top of the jar for the next person to use.  Keep the jar capped tightly when not in use.

I keep a jar of antibacterial wipes in our Herbal First Aid Kit, and also a jar in each vehicle.  It always comes in handy while I’m out shopping, especially in winter when there is so much cold and flu going around.

Where to get the essential oils for DIY Herbal Antibacterial Wipes:

My favorite places to buy smaller bottles of organic, steam distilled, essential oils are Plant Therapy or Rocky Mountain Oils. I’ve found that they both have fast, reliable products and services, and their oils are inexpensive. The quality of their essential oils is first class and batch tested by independent laboratories.

As I relive that fish buying experience I am reminded that I have never seen a grocery store clean or sterilize the carts. Whoever used the cart after me would have put their fresh fruit right on top of the fishy bacteria in the cart.  Yuk.

That thought motivated me to bring washable nylon produce bags with me to the grocery store. This way I don’t need to bring home unnecessary plastic bags.  You can find these handy, reusable produce bags here. 

Other DIY natural cleaning projects at Joybilee Farm

11 Ways to Bring Natural Cleaning into Your Home

7 Tips for Spring Cleaning Your Wardrobe

Green Your Clean 9 Recipes for Natural Cleaning Products

Green Your Clean, Part 2, Natural Cleaning Products for the Bathroom

Herbs for Housecleaning

Make Natural Cleaning Products Like DIY Lemon-vinegar Cleaner

Homemade All-Purpose Cleaning Spray with Whole Herbs