In the past couple of years I’ve gotten rid of pretty much ALL chemical cleaners ^[1] in our house. All of a sudden I started to get sinus infections pretty often and they always happened within hours (sometimes within minutes) of using a chemical-based cleaning product from a spray bottle.

And y’all… sinus infections are AWFUL. You can’t breathe, you can’t sleep because you can’t breathe, you can’t talk, you walk around in fear that you are going to embarrass yourself with major nasal drippage. Like I said, awful.

Well, I decided one day to just completely throw out any non-natural cleaners. Yes, ALL of the ones that I had gotten for free too. And I have to say it was COMPLETELY WORTH IT!

And I never deal with sinus infections anymore!

Well, unless, like this past weekend, I’m around chemical spray cleaners.

I have been pretty miserable the past couple of days with major sinus pressure and drainage that I am positive is the direct result of being around some kind of spray cleaner this past Saturday. I woke up Sunday morning with the sneezing (it always starts with sneezing) and by Monday morning it was a full-blown sinus infection.

I hadn’t dealt with one in a while so I hadn’t done any research on natural remedies for sinus infections. I immediately did a few saline nasal rinses (I used the WaterPic SinuSense ^[2] – and wow, I just looked at the reviews and saw that several people were having issues with the water getting into the battery section?? I’ve been very happy with mine though and no issues) but it had already progressed so much that the rinses didn’t help.

I was still feeling pretty awful this morning and ask a few of my blogging friends if they had any advice. Well, my friend Holly from iGOBOGO (who provides us with her great Publix coupon matchups ^[3] each week!) suggested that I try boiling some water with Tea Tree Oil ^[4] on the stove and breathing in the vapors.  (BTW, that link is to Tea Tree Oil on Amazon, but if you haven’t used your $10 credit on Vitacost yet, which is still available when you sign up here, then you can get Tea Tree Oil for pretty much just the cost of shipping which is $4.99!)

Sure, why not?  I would’ve tried just about anything at that point and I just so happened to have Tea Tree Oil in my cabinet!

To be honest, I was fairly skeptical. Yes, I know Tea Tree Oil is pretty powerful stuff ^[5] (keep in mind that it should never ever ever be swallowed!), but I really thought my sinus infection had progressed to the point of no return and that I would just have to wait it out until it cleared up.

But I did it.

And guess what?

IT CLEARED UP!! I was completely floored!

Now, I do have to say that it HURT at first. It was more of a burning sensation, and it did not feel good at all. So don’t expect any nice soothing feelings when you stick your head over the pot.

But I got past the burning, and kept my head over the pot for a few minutes and slowly but surely it started to clear up. And I’d say within about 10 minutes or so after doing it I could actually BREATHE. Yes, through BOTH nostrils!

It’s been several hours now and I’m STILL clear. WOW!

So, THANK YOU Holly for sharing the tip with me and now I’m sharing it with you guys in hopes that it will help one of y’all out!
 
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To recap the “how to” part:

1.  Boil some water in a pot on the stove.

2.  Add several drops of Tea Tree Oil to the boiling water.

3.  Breathe in the steam for a few minutes.

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This post is part of the Survival Tip Tuesday series ^[7]! Be sure to check out more Survival Tip Tuesday articles ^[7]!