When my Thirty-One order arrived the other day, it also contained the last piece I needed to complete another project I’ve had in the works: my essential oil card file.  This is a bit of a “living project,” in that it is changing and growing as time passes and I decide what I want in here, but there’s a certain “core” to it I’m going to describe today.  Tweak it to work for you!

Supplies I used:

• 5×8″ index cards
• A-Z dividers (5.5×8.5″), 2 pkgs.
• 1/5-cut, plain tabbed dividers (5.5×8.5″)
• Your Way Basket
• Paper Mate Flair pens

You could, of course, do this with paper in a binder or something, but I like the ease of flipping through for this particular reference.  The index cards are nice and sturdy, but anything smaller than 5×8″ was giving me trouble with fitting in all the information I wanted.

The dividers are the kind meant to go in a half-size binder, because I couldn’t find anything other than 1/3-cut in the 5×8 size, so I just bought these and trimmed the sides down a tiny bit.

If you don’t want something as fancy as a basket, you could use something like this or this.  I can see mine getting use in a home office for years to come, so I liked the natural aesthetic of the basket.

And, finally, the pens are totally optional. I already had these because I use them for practically everything and love them (thanks to another blogger — I’m not sure offhand which one — for introducing me to them!).  They’re felt-tip pens — they write much like markers.  But there’s little or no bleed-through (depending on how thin a paper you’re using) and I love being able to color-code with them or just be able to add a bit of color for fun.

Setup

This is more-or-less what you’re going to end up with.  (I still have a lot more room left in my basket, so for right now I’ve stuck an Oh-Snap Bin in there with some of the bottles from my school kit.  Might as well make use of the space, right?)

Here you can see some of the “school supplies” I’ve tucked inside:

And here’s a better look at the card file portion:

Trimming the Dividers

If, like me, you get 5.5×8.5″ dividers rather than 5×8, you’ll want to trim the ends down just a little.  I have a paper cutter so I used that.  If you don’t, of course you can trim them with scissors!  If you’re using a guillotine like I did, here are the details:

I cut the “regular” dividers one at a time.  They’re made out of plastic, so I was concerned about slippage, but they’re thick enough I figured they’d do okay one at a time (and they did).  The alphabet dividers I cut four at a time.  Make sure they’re all lined up if you’re doing more than one, line it up to the 8.25″ mark, and cut.  Then turn around and line up at the 8″ mark and cut again.  (You can cut them down the other direction, too, but I didn’t bother because it wasn’t necessary.)

So What’s In It?

By now you’re probably wondering what is actually in the file…and why do I have two sets of alphabetical dividers?  Well, the heart of this file is a set of cards with the oils and a set of cards with problems.

The first set of alphabetical dividers sorts my oil cards.  Each essential oil has its own card.  On the front I’ve listed the common name (that’s what they’re sorted by), the scientific/Latin name, the major constituents, the major actions, and a couple other tidbits.  On the back I’ve listed things the oil has been known to be used for.  This is also where I’m noting if there are contraindications, maximum dilutions, etc.  The information on the front of the card is color-coded using the Flair pens, so it’s easy for me to find what I’m looking for at a glance.

The second set of alphabetical dividers sorts a set of cards labeled by purpose.  Some of these are health concerns, like nausea, sore throat, or fever.  Others are household purposes like repelling mice, disinfecting, or cutting grease.  The household cards I’ve titled in a different color so I can easily tell them apart from the health cards.  As I come across an essential oil — or other remedy/solution — for a given concern, I write it on the card.

(Eventually I will have herbs in the file, too, but I haven’t gotten that far yet.)

The “regular” dividers separate these into their own sections (a tab for the oils and a tab for the concerns) and create other sections, as well.  Right now the only other section I’m using is one for general essential oil information.  It includes things like basic information about how to administer oils (that isn’t specific to any oil in particular), lists of top, heart, and base notes, etc.

It’s a little bit of extra work having the oils listed under their uses and the uses listed under the oils, but it’s been well worth it because it makes it really easy to find the information I’m after.

How do you organize your home remedy information?

I’m an independent consultant for Thirty-One, so that’s my link for the basket.  If you should choose to buy through it, it helps me out.  If you should use this post as inspiration and buy something different, no hard feelings.   Do whatever meets your needs!