Pure essential oils are not only great for keeping your home clean but also guarding your family against bacteria and infections. 

show notes:

In this episode, Heidi shares some of her essential oils cleaning secrets and some valuable tips for your family’s health. Listen in to learn how you can take inventory of the things you’re already using and replace them with essential oils to better protect your home. 

“There’s so much you have control over by just making these simple essential oils swaps.” ~ Heidi Bramm

Top Takeaways:

• The value of investing in a biofeedback scanner to help see which essential oils are fit for your family’s acute issues. 
• The power of essential oils in supporting your family’s external and internal health. 

What you will learn:

• How Lemon essential oil helps improve your mood as you clean effectively.
• How to use the Cinnamon, Clove, and Citrus essential oil blend to clean and sanitize surfaces.
• Heidi shares some other essential oils that are also great for cleaning surfaces.  
• She shares some of her valuable essential oils for the whole family. 
• Take inventory of what you’re putting in, on, and around you, and then see what pure essential oils you can start to use to replace those things. 

Detailed Transcript:

Speaker 1:

Hey, beloved Welcome back to the show we are on part three. The final closeout of my special guest interview with Michelle Byrd on her Busy Vibrant Mom podcast and this is our closure to our fall wellness series. We’re talking about essential oils and the science on how pure oils can help guard and protect your home to keep you healthy this season. Essential oils are not just pretty smells when you get the pharmaceutical quality, the medicinal quality, the quality that you want for the health benefits you’re seeking, so pure essential oils are not only great for keeping your home clean, but also for guarding your family against bacteria and infection.

So I’m sharing my essential oil cleaning secrets, and some valuable tips for your family’s health. Listen in to learn how you can take inventory of the things you’re already using and replace them with essential oil alternatives to better protect your home.

Before we dig into all of that though, I want to make sure if you do not have access to pure medicinal quality essential oils. I want you to know how you can work with me, and how you can get some of your own. If you’ve listened to enough of my episodes and you’re like okay, I just need to get some of these into my home. Then the best option for you is to book a holistic strategy session with me. In this session, we will go over your top three health concerns: what you’re struggling with within the four pillars of health, and where you feel most out of balance. And that’s important because we’re only going to focus on one area, just one. We noticed that when we focus on one area, then the other things kind of fall into place and so, you’re gonna walk away with a strategy for your health and a personalized action plan along with recommended products to help you live empowered in your daily life. Doesn’t that sound amazing?

You can book that one on one session with me just reach out. You can message me at support@coveredbeloved.com, and I will personally respond to your email or you can head on over to my website, heidibramm.com, and book over there. Also, I have free essential oil made easy virtual workshop that covers the basics of essential oil. So we explore what essential oils are, how to use them, what to look for in a quality essential oil, and why it matters. And then we cover a few of the most popular and versatile oils every home should have, along with testimonials so that you can make an informed decision on whether or not essential oils are a good fit for you and your family.

And if you decide to work with me, you will get all of your oils at a 25% discount, you’ll get into my VIP community. We do continuing education giveaways, you can ask questions, it’s incredible.

So you can go to heidibramm.com, and click on essential oils and you’ll get immediate access to that 45-minute workshop. It’s completely free, you have nothing to lose. The other things I want to make sure you know about are time-sensitive, limited-time offers. And so during the month of October, we have a testimonial group going. We are sharing a different oil every day. And then members from my VIP community are going in and they’re chiming in with, how do they use the oil? What stories do they have? What experiences have they had, so actual real-life testimonials of people sharing the power of essential oils and how they have impacted their lives and their family’s lives. And so that’s the entire month of October, you can message me at support@coveredbeloved.com to get the link for that private group. And then you’ll have access to that all month long.

We’re doing a different giveaway every day and so you can get on that as well if you comment. And then finally, this is super limited so, October 18th through the 22nd, we have a very special education week planned. And so what we’re doing for that is, we are doing a live introduction of the basics of essential oils each day of the week. So this is Monday through Friday, and then we’re doing a unique focus for that particular day in one of the five areas of wellness. And so Monday, October 18th, we’re doing respiratory wellness and essential oils. On Tuesday, we’re doing sleep wellness and essential oils. On Wednesday, we’re doing relief from discomfort, so pain, right? We’re doing that. And on Wednesday, with essential oils. And then Thursday, we’re doing mind and mood. So this is all things stress, and anxiousness and overwhelm, and resiliency and emotions, right? So that’s happening Thursday, October 21st. And then we’re ending the week, with immunity and essential oils that’s Friday, October 22nd. 

So each and every day of the week, these are at 9 am Mountain Time 10 am Central, and you can message me at support@coveredbeloved.com, to get the access link, this is a private link. I will personally respond and send you the link for the one that you’re interested in. If you’re interested in all of them, let me know, that’s totally fine. I will get you every single link for those special topics. The replays are available for 24 hours only. So even if you can’t tune in live at 9 am Mountain Time, at 10 am Central time, you will get access to the replay to watch within a 24 hour time period. There will be an opportunity to purchase oils of your own so of course, connect with me, when you’re ready to do that we want to I want to be able to talk to you so that we are getting what you need. And it’s personalized to fit your needs. Okay, so message me at support@coveredbeloved.com, or go to my website, heidibramm.com.

Speaker  2:

Now with that, what kind of essential oils do you use to clean your house? Specifically the surfaces? My thought was just like, okay, so we’re doing all we can to help our kids like, internally and like through the air of like what we can do to kind of help them. But, what can we do to prevent, you know, kids are super grimy, and they come in with grimy hands and they’ve been all over the place, and they lick their fingers and touch their toes and there’s, you know, all kinds of germs everywhere. And so, what is the way that we as moms can kind of prevent those germs from living on the surface all over in our house, and that we can kind of do a good job cleaning and making sure that things are at a good starting point, I guess. So that you’ve done all you can to help your kiddos be as healthy as they can doing what you can to get your house as healthy as it can. So we can start at kind of Ground Zero before it gets too gummed up with small children.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, definitely! And my husband didn’t really believe in the science behind essential oils when we first started transitioning to all DIY recipes, that was about yeah, almost a decade ago. It took him a while to shift his mindset. So even with diffusing, he fought the idea that it would eliminate bacteria in the air, but there’s tons of science that proves it’s effective. And with lemon oil in particular, there are studies showing that diffusing it could kill some pretty tough strains of bacteria in as little as 15 minutes. So diffusing is gonna end up affecting your surfaces as well but, unlike harsh chemicals that are gonna cause respiratory irritation, or headaches or watery eyes or allergies, right?

This negative effect on our body, when you have a pure essential oil, right? We want those health-promoting benefits because we don’t want to use this we don’t go to want to go from one synthetic to another. And so, they’re excellent for fighting germs and would actually help improve your respiratory, if you’re using a pure essential oil and to help protect yourself, and boost your mood. And so, if you look at lemon oil, again, for example, it’s a citrus oil so it’s very high in that compound, right? That helps support immunity but it makes it a great cleanser, a cleaner, and astringent and just helping with bacteria and so lemon oil is one of the most widely used oils for cleaning in our home. It helps actually, there’s tons of research for improving your mood so you’re going to be in a good mood while you clean too, right?

Speaker 2: 

Sing me up now, I want that!

Speaker 1: 

Right? Yeah, your husband be like oh, there’s more lemon oil, but it does. Studies show helps you like it has antidepressant properties, they’ve done studies on this. It can help reduce anxiousness, and helps boost both serotonin, and dopamine, those feel-good hormones. So, you’re not only able to clean effectively but, you’re also doing a positive thing for your. I don’t have to worry that my kids are like, taking a bath while I’m cleaning the bathroom and the toilet right next to them, right? They can clean with me and they love it, they love, they love cleaning. And I, would typically normally in the past have been like oh no, I, It’s you can’t you can’t clean with that, you know

Speaker 2: 

Right!

Speaker 1: 

But, that same immune blend I mentioned above with the wild orange, and the clove, and the cinnamon I use that to clean my counters and sanitize my services even in the bathroom. You can replace all your conventional antibacterial products like your hand sanitizer, your soap, you can, we’ll just say even spike your soap if you add this blend to your soap. They can get that on their hands while they’re washing. We make our car hand sanitizers with it, our cleaning sprays with that blend and just it’s going to help with that not only killing the bacteria, but it’s going to help stimulate your immune system.

So the blend that I use, it has a couple more oils besides the clove, cinnamon, and wild orange but it’s been under the microscope so much and microbiologists studied it for its antibacterial effects and so this is going to blow your mind, she took three drops of this blend, only three drops in a 32-ounce glass bottle filled with water. So 32 ounces of water to three drops, that’s pretty diluted. And she sprayed hard surfaces with it and allowed it to air dry, then she added this suspension of microbes and all this other stuff to the surface. And she allowed that to dry, too. And so with her research, she went back and swab their surfaces every day for seven days. And even after seven days, there was still not any organism growth.

Speaker 2:
That’s crazy! 

Speaker 1: 

Yeah, like we know that some organisms can live on surfaces for 14 days or longer without a food source. Yeah. So this is awesome news for us parents, even community members, because these these organisms, right, they can be like you said they can be acquired from everywhere. And they cause a wide variety of health issues, and can even be slow to respond to traditional medical methods, right? 

Speaker 2: 

Right.

Speaker 1: 

And so, diffusing of course, but spraying your surfaces with this sanitizing spray and just letting air dry. There was a school that started diffusing this blend, actually, and they couldn’t figure out why their science lab down the hall couldn’t get anything to grow on their Petri dishes. So it does affect large areas, and it works very cool stuff. But, 

Speaker 2:
That’s awesome! 

Speaker 1: 

But, we also learned, Yeah, as our surface cleaner or sanitizing spray, we actually even put it in our laundry because you can transfer bacteria from mold to load, if you aren’t using something that kills bacteria. But what you would ask for spring, you know, the surfaces, I would say once a week, maybe just before bed, you can allow it to air dry. So you’ve got your little sanitizing spray made up, and then you spray your surfaces and let them air dry at night, I would do that once a week. There’s also great info on PubMed about how effective this blend of oils is even at high dilutions against a particular virus and stopping it from replicating. So, really good stuff, If anybody wants that you can message me, but other good options, you know, lime is good, cassia that’s kind of in the same family as cinnamon, lemon, eucalyptus tea tree, those are good options for cleaning as well.

Speaker 2:

So, are these already, is there a blend that you would just mix with water? Or is it that you would mix like these three or four different essential oils with water?

Speaker 1:

Some of the companies have I mean, our company I work with in particular, we already have them premix. So if you didn’t have, you know, whatever company you were using, or I would just recommend you give me a call or reach out to me if I can connect you with the good stuff. But yeah, they’re already pre-made. 

Speaker 2:

Okay, great. Great! Yes, that would be super helpful. Because, yeah, I was just thinking we need like a spray bottle, you know, under every sink. And so like, just as you said, once a week, we just kind of spray everything down. Now, do you usually wipe it down after you spray? Or do you just spray stuff down, and like just let it dry?

Speaker 1:

Yeah, so we do both because we do use that same spray as our regular everyday surface cleaner but, I’m wiping it. Right, I’m not letting it sit on an air drying. There’s like crumbs on the counter, there’s peanut butter, there’s jelly, there’s like gross stuff, I’m wiping it. I’m spraying and I’m wiping as my daily but once a week, I recommend spraying your doorknobs, your phones, you know, your surfaces like those high traffic areas, you know that

Speaker 2:
Right.

Speaker 1: 

..to be able to get that seven days of no growth when you let it air dry. 

Speaker 2: 

Right, like the banister, all this on to see your kids touch along the wall. 

Speaker 1:

Yeah, and not only did it kill what was there because she had that suspension of microbes, but nothing was able to grow.

Speaker 2:

That’s crazy!

Speaker 1: 

Yeah. 

Speaker 2: 

Crazy! Now, does that also work if you would put it like on a granite surface? Does it hurt the granite or the stone?

Speaker 1:

I don’t have granite surfaces? I would imagine if it’s sealed, It’s probably okay. That’s a really good question. If it’s not sealed, I don’t know, if a question

Speaker 2:

All right. 

Speaker 1: 

Do you have granite countertops?

Speaker 2:

We do, in our kitchen. And that’s mainly where I see like, a lot of the traffic? In our bathroom, We have just regular stone, which should probably be fine. But yeah, I was wondering if there’s more of a porous kind of stone, if that would be a problem.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I’ll look into that. That’s a good question.

Speaker 2:

Cool! Oh, so many wonderful things, and so much wonderful information. Thank you so much for telling us like, the science behind things. Alright, for our last question, don’t get too excited but, there are so many fun things about oil, we could just keep going. So, what are your must-have kind of basics that keep your family healthy, and keep you and your kids kind of recovering quickly? We touched on a few of these, you know, oils that you love or ones that you use all the times but, what kind of are your basic go-to ones that you would have ready to go for you and your family?

Speaker 1:

Yeah, that’s a good question. Well, and I would even just go back to the foundation of those essential vitamins and minerals and nutrients because, we need the building block in on that foundation, we need a strong foundation in order for that, I mean essential oils work and they’re awesome, they’re amazing! But, they can do so much more when they have the proper building blocks in place to work with

Speaker 2: 

Right.

Speaker 1: 

Essential oils are kind of bossy so they can tell the body what to do with those things. So I would say doubling those vitamins I mentioned the D3, the C, the zinc, you know, I mentioned gargling with the Quito silver, that’s something we do first thing with our kids, if they are starting to like get a sore throat or whatever, you know, with all okay. We know we need to up their doses but, then using that essential oil protocol along their spine, I have a biofeedback scanner, and that helps to see what oils would support their body the most in that kind of acute situation. And so, this scanner is an investment, it actually took me about six years to pull the trigger on that one, it will

Speaker 2: 

It’s fancy! 

Speaker 1: 

I know, I don’t want people to think they had to have the scanner in order to use essential oils but it is really nice to look specifically at what my children need. And this is a crazy stat, there are seven octillion atoms, that’s like a seven with 27 zeros. The human body, right, and each one contains positive and negative ions, and so we’re electric-like, we are electric in nature. This scanner uses its common medical device and like fitness device technology to determine these small changes in the body, these little small electrical pulse-like changes, it’s sending it out, your body’s responding back.

And so, this prioritizes and ranks those essential oils and supplements in order to what their body is like, I’m I really need this right now. So, I find it an invaluable tool in the moment with situations again, where I need to know exactly what’s going to bring their body back into balance the quickest. The scanner has paid for itself time and time again, with all the doc, you know, what would have been doctor visits or ER visits that were avoided. And I love that I can just keep scanning them as they progress through whatever it is and keep supporting their body as they again, kind of move forward that situation.

Speaker 2:

How long does it usually take between scanning like if you, you know, scanned one of your kids, and they had they were deficient in let’s say zinc? So you gave them extra zinc? How long would you take before you scan them again? And like, check like is your zinc level? 

Speaker 1:

Okay, yeah, so it doesn’t do just random supplements, it only is programmed to work with the company that I chose, which is the company that I work with. So they load each of their products into that database, so to speak and so that’s what the bios, that’s what the scanner is checking it with. 

Speaker 2: 

Ah, okay.

Speaker 1:

But within essential oil, I mean, we’re our bodies are dynamic, and they’re always changing, I could literally scan them five minutes later, and some things are going to shift up or down or some things are going to be repeated. You know, it’s not really meant to be like a minute-by-minute thing, but I will like, scan them day one and then I’ll scan them day two and be like how much did it shift and change? Are they still in like the we need to be doing like the killer oils, so to speak, that are gonna like kill the bacteria that are you know, in their body like or are we in the more like purifying cleanse where now we need to by needs help kind of flushing it out and purifying and cleansing and purging? Right. 

Speaker 2:

Right.

Speaker 1: 

So I use it for that progression of, do I still need to be using you know, these super spicy oils? Should I switch to more maybe like citruses that are going to help flush stuff out and cleanse? But yeah, that’s what I use it for. And so if we have any medical professionals listening, this is maybe going to sound very elementary, but to kind of prove out this like essential oil hubbub. Let’s just go back to biology 101, okay, everybody picture an m&m with an outer candy shell, and then let’s pretend that this is a cell in your body, right? So, we all have this oily membrane that goes around our cell, and this is the candy shell on the m&m that protects the inside. So that oily membrane protects the cell and it keeps all the good things in and all the bad things out. Now, two things that are harmful to our cells are bacteria and viruses. Bacteria usually stay on the outside of the cell but, viruses replicate the DNA on the inside of the cell. So bacteria on the outside viruses on the inside. And let’s say you went to the doctor for a bacterial infection, right? What would he typically recommend for you?

Speaker 2:

Probably, like a, Why am I blanking? I’m probably some kind of bacteria-killing stuff like, um, one of our kiddos is allergic to it. So he can’t have to very, very often, but the stuff that would come like a pink container, and you keep it in the refrigerator. 

Speaker 1:

Yeah, like an antibiotic, right? 

Speaker 2: 

Like, antibiotic or like a, yeah. 

Speaker 1: 

And so, not saying antibiotics are bad. But after taking the antibiotic for 7 to 10 days, I’m okay, in most cases, right? It might clear up the infection, but it often comes with wreaking havoc on your gut, and your hormones, and your immune system. And so it has these side effects that we have to deal with later. Right.

Speaker 2:

Right, because it’s killing other things too. Probably, well it’s killing the ones the cells that are infected.

Speaker 1:

Anti life right? Antibiotic. So, it’s not really differentiating between what it killing, so if you had a virus-like that cold or flu? What would he say?  

Speaker 2: 

There’s really, nothing you can know. 

Speaker 1: 

Right? Drink lots of water, rest, but it runs course basically, there’s nothing we can do for you. Right? 

Speaker 2: 

Right. 

Speaker 1:

But, your medicinal or pharmaceutical quality essential oils can help stop the virus from replicating. Unlike, modern recommendations which are water-based and synthetic, they can’t penetrate through that oily membrane. Essential oils are different because they are oily based, they have like the password, right? They can permeate that oily membrane, and they can work on a cellular level inside the cell without side effects. So they work on the outside and the inside, which I love. And that is why they’re often more effective than the modern approach to health problems, and plus nature’s always adapting, right? So pure and potent essential oils can do a lot of things that modern medications are limited to, by like, resistant strains. We’re starting to see this more and more, and then a few stronger and stronger antibiotics. And so, if those, for those who that are listening, and we’re curious about the efficacy and what essential oils can do, I hope that was helpful for you. But you know, and let’s not forget about just the power of good old-fashioned homemade chicken noodle soup to help us recover quickly.

Speaker 2:
Love that! 

Speaker 1:

My daughter always ask for it. And I’m like, Yes, I can make you some chicken noodle soup. And she always perks up in it. I don’t know what it is. It’s like that good old fashioned, homemade chicken noodle soup,

Speaker 2:

Homemade chicken noodle soup for our kids like hot apple cider.

Speaker 1: 

Yeah. 

Speaker 2:

Sometimes, they’ll have tea, they’re kind of branching out. But there, they’re mainly like

Speaker 1:

Yeah, that reminds me, just like with foods we add in, I think what we take out just as important as what we put in. So I just want to share that we do eliminate any mucus forming foods like dairy, sugar, red meat, eggs, flours, and processed foods. They can’t have that stuff when they’re sick and they know that. They get clear liquids, you know, fruits and veggies, clean proteins, that’s, you know, chicken soup, smoothies, that’s where that greens, and veggies powder comes in. Because, I’m able to put that in their smoothies, I can put the liquid vitamin C in their smoothie, I can put a ton of stuff in their smoothies, and they don’t even know what’s in there. But we do take out, you know, we don’t want the body to be overloaded with mucus. And so, 

Speaker 2:
Right. Right. So kind of like the BRAT diet of the bread, rice, apples, and toast.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, we don’t do the grains just because they create more mucus in the body. So we wait till they’re completely clear. And, you know, if they’re not congested anymore, then we go ahead and add those things back in.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, there’s so many things that usually when they’re sick, they don’t want very much anyway. So I know like, oh, one chicken noodle soup, and a smoothie and, you know, some hot apple cider. What else can we get down you our kids like, you know, just plain cereal, or, you know, they’re very, into the plain stuff at that point, because they’re not feeling 100%. And they don’t eat a whole lot either. Usually, when they are sick, their their stomach and everything is a little off. They’re just not as hungry as they normally are. So..

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I would just encourage everyone, you know, to take an inventory of what you’re put kind of summarize this whole thing, right? First, take an inventory of what you’re putting in and around you. Read the labels on your products, your foods, kind of your over-the-counter medications, and then consider what pure essential oils you can start with to use for those things instead. You know, just start with a few. We live in a world that starving for solutions, and I would love to help anyone that’s interested become the solutions provider in their homes. You can tell it’s something I’m very passionate about and you have control, there’s so much you have control over just by making these simple swaps. So, Michelle, I’d love to offer each of your listeners a free 30-minute wellness consult to help them create a 90-day wellness plan that fits their needs. The first step though is to go to my website, heidibramm.com, and click on essential oils and take that free 45-minute essential oils made easy virtual workshop to make sure you just kind of understand the basics. And then, if you feel like essential oils would be a good fit, then reach out to me and we can take it from there together.

Speaker 2:

That’s wonderful. Thank you so much for sharing all this amazing knowledge. I know, as we mentioned before, it’s very timely because now we’re kind of in flu fall season, but we’re also as we said, still dealing with this virus and the strands of it and I just have it on my heart for my listeners, ‘cause I know a lot of fear can be wrapped up around all of this, and fear can be wrapped up in now, especially if your kid gets just a little sick. You worry, you know, is it, It seems to be so so much of a bigger deal. They before you were like oh yeah, they have a cough or they have a sniffle, and now everybody is concerned and they’re worried and they’re freaking out. So I think it’s just become a bigger concern on our hearts, and a bigger strain and kind of stress, whereas before it was just, oh, yeah, they’re sick, it’s fine, they’ll get over it. Now, it seems to be kind of a fear-based.

Speaker 1:

Right. It’s like, well really just be regularly sick anymore. Is that right? Thing?

Speaker 2:

Right? Right! Again, I just have a cough, it’s not, you know, it’s not covered, I just, you know, we all are gonna have some germs, and bacteria, as we mentioned, that we’re fighting off. So I think this is such an important episode for moms, and just to help them bring a little bit more joy to their life by knowing how to handle these situations. How they can make their kids a little bit more comfortable. Whether it’s using essential oils or using just some, or just knowing a little bit more about it, I think is a huge thing. So, having that puzzle piece of knowing that you can do a little bit more, but you don’t have to live in fear. You don’t have to be anxious or worried about these things. So thank you so much, Heidi. 

Speaker 1:

It’s my pleasure. People have to go back and listen to it again. That was a deep dive. But I feel like it’s so important to know, at least for me, I’m like, well why? should I take it like how does it work? You know.

Speaker 2:

Right. Right? Definitely. So definitely play this episode again. Listen to a bit more and go visit Heidi as she said she is the host of the Covered Beloved podcast, and also you can find her on heidibramm.com. So thank you, Heidi! Have a good rest of your day, and thank you girls until next week, we will talk again!

Hey beloved real quick before you go if you found value in today’s podcast and you learn something new head over to iTunes for Covered Beloved, and leave a five-star review. Hit subscribe while you’re there. And of course, if you have friends who would benefit from today’s episode, be sure to share. Until next time, remember God’s got you covered.