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Mold is more than just an eyesore—it can cause allergies, respiratory issues, and unpleasant odors in your home. While chemical cleaners can be effective, many homeowners prefer a natural approach to tackling mold.
Essential oils offer a powerful, eco-friendly solution thanks to their antifungal and antimicrobial properties.
Oils like tea tree, clove, cinnamon, eucalyptus, and lemon can help kill mold spores, prevent regrowth, and leave your home smelling fresh.
In this guide, we’ll explore the best essential oils for mold removal, how to use them effectively, and what to consider when choosing the right oil for your needs.
Best Essential Oils for Mold Removal
| Cinnamon Leaf (Healing Solutions) | Antifungal, air-purifying, mood-boosting | Diffuser blends for air freshening | Strong & warm | Dark amber glass with dropper | Must be diluted before use (hot oil) |
| Tea Tree (Radha Beauty) | Potent mold remover, antimicrobial | Spray bottle for targeted cleaning | Strong & medicinal | Cobalt blue glass with dropper | Overpowering scent for some users |
| Clove (Now Foods) | Quick mold removal, long-lasting effect | Spot treatment for mold-prone areas | Very strong & spicy | Amber glass with dropper | Not food grade, scent lingers |
| Purify Blend (Edens Garden) | Air-purifying, fights mold spores | Diffuser for whole-room freshness | Moderate & pleasant | Amber glass bottle | Mainly for diffuser use |
| Thieves (Young Living) | Powerful antifungal, air-freshening | Diffuser for eliminating mold odors | Warm & refreshing | Amber glass bottle | Small 15ml bottle |
Cinnamon Leaf Essential Oil by Healing Solutions
This essential oil comes in a high-quality, dark amber glass bottle that protects it from light exposure, helping to maintain its potency. The sturdy glass construction and included dropper make it easy to dispense just the right amount of oil without waste.
Healing Solutions offers a 100% pure, therapeutic-grade cinnamon leaf oil, packaged in a 10 ml (.33-ounce) bottle.
How to Use
You can use this oil on its own, but it works best when blended with other essential oils. Add a few drops to a diffuser to maximize its benefits—cinnamon oil not only helps combat mold but also improves air freshness and uplifts your mood.
Pros:
✅ 100% pure and therapeutic-grade extract
✅ Sourced from farms that practice sustainable agriculture
✅ Fast-acting and effective
Cons:
❌ Must be diluted before topical use due to its potency
Healing Solutions ensures top-tier quality while prioritizing sustainable farming, making this oil a great eco-friendly choice. With its potent mold-fighting properties and daily usability, it’s an excellent addition to your essential oil collection.
Radha Beauty Tea Tree Essential Oil
Tea tree oil is known for its potent, medicinal scent, and this offering from Radha Beauty delivers the real deal. With 100% pure extract, you get the full strength of tea tree oil’s mold-fighting properties.
The cobalt blue glass bottle helps protect the oil from sun exposure, preserving its potency, and the included dropper ensures precise application.
How to Use
Since tea tree oil has a strong, distinctive aroma, diffusing it may be overwhelming in enclosed spaces. The best way to use it is by mixing it with water in a spray bottle and applying it directly to mold-prone areas, such as bathroom tiles, shower corners, and damp surfaces.
Pros:
✅ Highly effective in removing mold
✅ 100% pure extract
✅ Works quickly
Cons:
❌ Strong herbal scent that may not appeal to everyone
Radha Beauty’s tea tree oil is a powerhouse when it comes to mold removal. It stays effective for a long time and retains all the natural properties of tea tree oil, making it a reliable, long-term solution for tackling mold in your home.
Now Foods Clove Essential Oil (4 Ounces)
Now Foods is known for consistently high-quality essential oils, and this clove oil is no exception. It comes in a protective amber glass bottle to maintain its potency over time.
The oil is extracted through steam distillation, ensuring a 100% pure clove bud extract. The included dropper makes it easy to control the amount used, minimizing waste.
How to Use
Clove oil has a strong, lingering scent that can be overwhelming in a diffuser. For mold removal, it works best when applied in small amounts to affected areas.
Mix a few drops with water or vinegar in a spray bottle and use it on mold-prone surfaces. If you enjoy the scent, you can also add it to a synergy blend and diffuse it cautiously.
Pros:
✅ Fast-acting against mold
✅ Requires only a few drops for effectiveness
✅ 100% pure clove bud extract
✅ Well-packaged for long-term use
Cons:
❌ Strong scent that may not appeal to everyone
❌ Not safe for ingestion
Now Foods delivers a well-extracted, high-quality essential oil that performs exceptionally well for mold removal. With a trusted reputation and careful production methods, this clove oil is a solid investment for tackling mold naturally.
Edens Garden Purify Essential Oil Synergy Blend
When it comes to diffusing essential oils, a high-quality synergy blend is the way to go, and Edens Garden Purify delivers just that.
With a solid 4.2-star rating on Amazon, this blend is well-loved by users. It contains 100% pure essential oils with no additives or fillers, ensuring a natural and effective mold-fighting solution.
How to Use
This blend is designed specifically for diffusers. Add a few drops to your diffuser, and let the combination of oils work to eliminate mold spores and freshen the air in your home.
Pros:
✅ Well-balanced, beautifully blended scents
✅ 100% pure essential oils with no fillers
✅ Effectively fights mold spores and improves air quality
✅ Excellent customer service and packaging
Cons:
❌ Primarily designed for use in a diffuser
Edens Garden Purify offers a powerful mold-fighting solution while making your home smell amazing. With its high purity and expertly crafted blend, it’s an excellent choice for anyone looking to maintain fresh, mold-free air effortlessly.
Thieves Essential Oil (15ml) by Young Living
Young Living is one of the most trusted names in essential oils, known for the potency of its products and carefully selected ingredients.
This blend includes lemon peel oil, rosemary leaf oil, cinnamon bark oil, clove bud oil, and eucalyptus leaf oil, each extracted from the most potent part of the plant.
Together, they create a warm, refreshing scent while effectively purifying the air. The oil comes in a protective amber glass bottle to prevent degradation from sunlight.
How to Use
Thieves essential oil is best used in a diffuser. A few drops will help eliminate musty mold odors while leaving behind a fresh, clean scent.
Pros:
✅ Made from highly potent plant extracts
✅ 100% pure, natural essential oils
✅ Works quickly to improve air quality
✅ Excellent customer support
Cons:
❌ Small 15ml bottle
With a 4.3-star rating on Amazon, this blend is a favorite for a reason. It effectively fights mold spores while offering a pleasant aroma, making it a reliable choice for anyone looking to refresh their indoor air.
Things You Should Know About Mold
Musty Basement
The basement is a prime location for mold because it has a lot of moisture sources.
Unfortunately, unlike other areas in the house that are well aerated, which helps with the drying of moisture, the basement takes longer to dry out resulting in a conducive environment for mold growth.
The challenge in dealing with mold in the basement lies in the undetectability of the fungus once it has grown in the walls and insulation.
This is because it is the space in the building with the least traffic. Mold in the basement is caused by flooding, condensation from humidity, and leaking pipes.
In the Bathroom
The bathroom is the one space in the building that features a lot of water in all parts. Drying the bathroom is a perfect way to control the growth of mold in this space.
Removing the mold once it has grown can be done by basic scrubbing using a cloth, sponge, or soft brush.
Use mold inhibiting solutions, like bleach or vinegar, to keep the bathroom clean after you have removed the mold.
Also, make sure you keep it well-aerated by opening the window or leaving the door open.
If you have walls that have mold growing on them, you may need to replace the walls altogether. When fighting mold in the bathroom, it is important to focus on the areas like the grouting and sealer.
In the Air
Mold can begin to grow indoors and this is dangerous for people and pets. It causes an allergic reaction in people with respiratory issues like asthma.
To reduce the chances of mold in your space, keep the humidity levels below 60 percent as well as keep furnishings, like carpets and rugs, dry and well aerated.
Insulating your space also reduces the chances of condensation that contributes to mold growth.
Unfortunately, mold is very invasive and grows on any surface with moisture. The best way to deal with mold is to keep your space dry and eliminate sources of moisture.
In the Car
Your car can be home to mold and, because it has so many nooks and crannies, it may be harder to notice it until the mold begins to stink up your ride.
It can grow on your seats and other interior parts of your car.
In the car, all it takes is a spill on the car floor or forgetting your car window open on a rainy day and you have mold growing in your car.
A professional cleaning is the best way to clean mold completely. In the event that mold grows unchecked in your vehicle’s interior, it can cause irreparable damage.
To prevent mold in your car, park the vehicle in direct sunlight with the doors and windows open. During the cleaning, make sure every part of the car is checked, including the seatbelts, carpet, cushions, and flooring.
Also Read: Best Portable RV Grills
Mold on Plants
Mold on plants looks like white-grayish fuzz.
This fungus spreads on plants, especially in the humid to cool climate. The mold can be easily seen on the leaves, stem, and flowers of the plant.
Old remedies included the use of baking soda to flush out the fungus.
Fungus on plants can occur because of lack of sunlight and maintenance, as well as overwatering.
Fortunately, the plant can be repotted and taken outside for a good dose of sunshine. Water it, as needed, without going overboard and let the soil dry up completely before resuming your watering routine.
Learn More: Does Artificial Light Help Plants To Grow?
Mold Allergies
Mold is everywhere at every time and it causes respiratory problems like wheezing, sniffing, and teary eyes. Carefully choose what you eat to avoid food-based mold and avoid sniffing foods to prevent inhaling mold spores.
If you are prone to mold allergic reactions your body overreacts to spores. Use antihistamines and decongestants to mitigate the effects of the allergy.
You can also use diffusers to reduce the moisture content in the air, limiting the growth of mold in your space.
Can Essential Oils Kill Mold?
There are several essential oils that have been proven to have a devastating effect on mold. These include oils like tea tree oil, clove, and cinnamon.
Unlike bleach or vinegar, which clears out the mold on the surface without penetrating into the material affected to combat the mold on the inside, essential oils are able to penetrate and kill off the mold within.
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- Shelf Life of Essential Oils
How to Use Essential Oils for Mold?
Using a Spray Bottle
The spray bottle is convenient and easy to carry around.
Mix the essential oil of choice with water and vinegar. Spray the mixture on the affected surface, letting it sit for a few minutes before wiping it off.
In case you are dealing with a heavy infestation of mold, add some castile soap to help with emulsification of the oil. Using a spray bottle is the best way to deal with mold on plants and in the bathroom.
Using a Diffuser
This is the best option when you are dealing with a large area of the house under the mold.
For the diffuser, a synergy blend is the best option. A cold air atomizer is the best diffuser for the job, but just be sure that it doesn’t use water. A water-based diffuser will add more water into the atmosphere encouraging the growth of more mold.
Using the diffuser is the best way to get rid of mold in the air, in the car, and mold allergies.
DIY Essential Oil Blends for Mold
Bathroom Recipe
- 50 drops of tea tree oil
- 20 drops of cinnamon oil
- 2 cups of vinegar
Mix the ingredients in a spray bottle and use on the areas in the bathroom with mold.
Spray once letting the solution dry and then spray a second time to wipe of the loosened mold. Spray a third time and let it completely air dry.
Make this a cleaning routine for your bathroom.
Diffuser Recipe
- 5 drops of lemon oil
- 5 drops of rosemary oil
- 5 drops of cinnamon oil
- 5 drops of eucalyptus oil
Mix the oils and store them in an amber or cobalt blue bottle. From your mixture place, 4-5 drops in your diffuser and let it begin working. You can repeat this daily if you wish.
Car Blend Recipe
- 10 drops of eucalyptus oil
- 5 drops of cinnamon oil
- 10 drops of tea tree oil
- 1/2 cup of vinegar
Mix the ingredients and spray into your car seats, seatbelts, carpets, floor mats, and floor area as well as the dashboard. Leave your car in direct sunlight and the doors open for a while.
Take the car to a professional cleaning service for a thorough wash. Make sure to let them know of your mold problem so they can give it a proper wash.
Repeat the cleaning with your home solution and the professional cleaners once a week for at least a month.
FAQ: Best Essential Oils for Mold
While essential oils are effective in killing mold spores and preventing further growth, they are best used as a natural solution for mild mold issues. Professional mold remediation may be necessary for severe mold infestations.
Some essential oils, like tea tree and clove oil, can be toxic to pets if inhaled or ingested in large amounts. Always dilute essential oils, use them in well-ventilated areas, and consult a veterinarian if you have concerns about pet safety.
For ongoing mold prevention, diffuse essential oils a few times a week in humid areas and spray mold-prone surfaces at least once a week. Regular use can help maintain a mold-free home environment.
Yes! Blending essential oils can enhance their effectiveness. A popular mold-fighting mix includes tea tree, clove, cinnamon, and lemon oil. These oils work together to kill mold, neutralize odors, and freshen indoor air.
Essential oils help inhibit mold growth, but they work best as part of a larger mold prevention strategy. Reduce indoor humidity, improve ventilation, and regularly clean mold-prone areas for long-term protection.
Conclusion
Using essential oils for mold removal is a safe, natural, and effective way to keep your home clean and healthy.
However, essential oils work best as part of a comprehensive mold prevention plan that includes reducing moisture and improving ventilation.
By incorporating essential oils into your cleaning routine, you can enjoy a mold-free home with fresh, natural scents—without relying on harsh chemicals.
Of course, if you have an extensive mold problem you must contact a mold removal specialist to prevent issues with your health and damage to property. Having said that, the onus is on you to make sure that mold doesn’t grow or continue to grow in your space.
Using the best essential oils for mold is one sure way to guarantee that.