Cinderella’s Hearth: Thieves Cleaning Recipe, by Kate Wolford

Poor Cinderella. You know those filthy ashes and all the kitchen scraps she had to deal with made her miserable. She probably had to slop hogs and feed chickens too. 

And think of the health issues she must have dealt with. If anyone in the awful stepfamily of hers got sick, you know she had to do the nursing. She may have even dealt with plague, which had a way of recurring over five centuries, until medical experts began to get control of it about 100 years ago or so.

This Cinderella introduction brings me to the real focus of this post: DIY Four Thieves cleaning solution, which I’ve been making and cleaning with for at least 15 years. I’ve written about it in the past as well. In fact, this post is partly an old column I wrote for a little newspaper during the pandemic.

Some of you may be aware of an essential oil blend that shares a similar name to the formula I’m posting today. I’m not promoting it because it’s part of an MLM company, but I promise that my formula is relatively inexpensive and very effective. 

Here’s the legend and my favorite formula.

In the fourteenth or fifteenth centuries, in Marseille, four thieves (or bandits) robbed the sick and the dead very successfully during an outbreak of plague. Eventually, they were caught, and, as the story goes, they were offered lighter sentences if they shared their secret for staying alive so long among the plague victims.

It was a combination of herbs, including rosemary, lavender, sage and camphor, steeped in vinegar, that they applied to the exposed areas of their bodies, like their hands and faces. Considering that those aromatic herbs have insect repellent qualities, and fleas carried plague, it’s no wonder the thieves survived their misdeeds. 

Great story, right? There are many versions of it, as there are many versions of the actual thieves recipe. Heck, all of it may be completely made up. But there are good cleaning qualities to many essential oils, and those that I use for my own thieves recipe are great for everyday cleaning.

Clove oil is an antimicrobial and will kill bacteria, as well as some fungus. It’s also dandy for a toothache.

Thyme oil is extremely potent as room freshener. I mean, it will eradicate any form of stink. As for cleaning, it’s thought to have antifungal and  antibacterial qualities and may possibly kill salmonella and E. coli.

Rosemary oil is also thought to have antimicrobial properties, as does lovely sweet orange oil. In fact, the latter is thought to have antifungal and antiseptic effects. (Always add more orange oil than the others, because they have really pungent, medicinal odors and the orange can cut them. However, orange oil can stain fabric, so keep that in mind. )

Do you notice that I hedged a bit in my descriptions, as in “thought to”? That’s because a lot isn’t known about the health benefits or cleaning possibilities of essential oils, and essential oil companies oversell what the oils can do. I’m a serious lover of essential oils, and I think they can be really useful for cleaning when you don’t have serious sickness in the house or when you haven’t been dealing with raw chicken or beef. But if you add rubbing alcohol to thieves or other cleaning oils, you’ll have a cleaner that will kill coronavirus and other bad stuff, provided that the solution you use is at least 70 percent rubbing alcohol and you leave it on the surface you are cleaning for 30 seconds, then wipe off.

So here’s my Four Thieves recipe, to be used with alcohol and water if you are trying to murder any potential killers. The recipe is based on eight ounces of cleaner.

     Kate’s Four Thieves Blend

     5 drops of clove essential oil

     5 drops of rosemary essential oil

     5 drops thyme essential oil

     10 drops orange essential oil

First, put all of the oils into the spray bottle you want to use. Then add the rubbing alcohol—about a quarter cup. Not only will the alcohol kill lots of bad stuff, it’ll help emulsify the oils so they are less oily. Then add the water until full. Shake before each use, and wipe off after 30 seconds. Do check to see if the oils stain on an inconspicuous spot before using.

There you go, a Four Thieves formula that won’t quite steal away with the worst of the yuck in the house on its own, but does give you a good story. I bet Cinderella would like it.

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Kate Wolford was the publisher and editor of The Fairy Tale Magazine for many years. She’s now enjoying being Resident Fairy Godmother.

Image from Pixabay