Lavender, Lemon Balm, & Spearmint drawer sachets

We grow the lavender, lemon balm, and spearmint in these drawer sachets here at Ritual Mischief on Whidbey Island. We offer them individually for $5 or three for $10.

My Grandma Kane was a wise herbalist, although I never heard her call herself anything but a farmer, teacher, gardener, mom, or grandma, and she taught me to make sachets. They kept clothing and drawers smelling fresh--which mattered a lot to her in her home surrounded by husband, three boys, farm hands, and later, almost a dozen grandkids. They repelled insects too--which mattered a lot in drafty old farmhouse like hers.

Like us, our sachets are all about the plants themselves. There are no fragrance oils and no essential oils included in our sachets, although you could add them if you're so inclined. I find a good squeeze of the sachet is more than enough scent to make all our sock, pajama, underwear, and workout wear (aka Zoom-call clothing) drawers smell divine. I re-squeeze them a couple of times a year to reactivate the scent. I can't yet speak to how long these will last (3 years and counting in our own home), but I will say that I still have lavender sachets I made with my grandmother more than four decades ago. So, I expect them to last quite a while. :-) You can also open these sachets in a few years and add more of your own local dried plants too, if you're so inclined.  

Ideas for use:

• Tuck them into dresser drawers (socks, pajamas, delicates, workout wear, work-from-home-wear, and garden wear all like to hang out with herbal sachets)
• Keep them in the basket or drawer where work gloves and gardening gloves live
• Hang them between clothing on hangers in the bedroom closet or tucked into the linen closet to add a nice pop of lavender/lemon balm/spearmint scent when you move hangers or linens around
• Drop them into adult and teen gym bags prone to smelliness
• As a gift, pair a couple of drawer sachets with a Whidbey Relax & Recharge lotion bar, a Whidbey Lavender Rosemary Mint shampoo bar, a Forest Bathing or Rest soap, and/or a Lavender & Lemons dish soap bar  

Ingredients, weight, and bag info: Whidbey-grown lavender, lemon balm, and spearmint plus and a little jasmine rice to support plant crushing and scent distribution when squeezing the sachet. Each sachet weighs at least 1 ounce. The small drawstring bags are linen and reusable. 

Warning: Keep out of reach of young children and pets. Although the plants are all edible, when dry these plants could be a choking hazard.

On the balance of safety and adventure: Busy City Me suggests keeping these out of reach of young children and pets. The sachets aren't child or pet proof. They're double knotted, but they can easily be untied--intentionally, so that you can add your own dried plants, as needed later, to extend the life of the sachets if you want to. The herbs and rice aren't toxic if eaten (we eat and drink them all the time), but small kids or pets could choke on the contents or just make a huge mess with them, as our puppy Cora taught me. That said, Rural Country Me says this... I was helping make herbal sachets with Grandma Kane when I was young, maybe 7 years old (if memory serves and memory doesn't serve as well as she used to), and they're one of the many reasons my love of local plants and flowers and herbs runs so deep. So if you have both time and kids who are interested in flowers and plants or just interesting new smells (yay!), open a sachet up together, dump out the contents in a bowl, and check them out. Can you identify them by sight? Or by the smell? Could you grow and dry some of your own plants to add or find some in your neighborhood? What would that do to the overall smell of the sachet? Maybe this isn't just a sachet. Maybe this is a family activity and an adventure, like it was for me. But like most things in life, its safest to go on this adventure together with a trusted someone!