Essential Information on Essential Oils For Home Cleaning - Functional Medicine Dallas

By: Megan Cheatham RN

As everyone is at home with their families during COVID, there has been an increased awareness that indoor air quality needs improvement. Getting outside is the most optimal solution, but we still need to clean our homes and maintain a healthy environment. Unfortunately air quality inside homes is often worse than outside because of the role of chemical cleaning products including bleach, ammonia, and many with the list of ingredients below.

Our practitioners at Carpathia use essential oils to help increase air quality, boost our immune systems, and decrease exposure to chemicals.

Essential oils have been used medicinally for thousands of years and were the first known medicine for many ailments. Did you realize they’re the first disinfectants and cleaners too?

Let’s use the time at home wisely and start taking steps to have a cleaner and healthier home. Spring cleaning is a normal routine that can increase our exposure to chemicals, carcinogens, xenoestrogens, VOCs, and phthalates.

With the need to boost our immune systems during this time while also combating allergy season, we can incorporate immune-boosting cleaning products and essential oils that are effective against a wide variety of microorganisms, including viruses. See the recipe below for a great hand sanitizer.

Some common chemicals in our conventional cleaning products:

Phthalates:
- In many air fresheners, dish soaps, and candles.
- These are most commonly known to be endocrine disruptors causing low sperm counts and increased estrogens.
- A cleaner alternative is to use non-toxic soaps and diffusing essential oils.
Triclosan:
- In hand sanitizers, liquid dish, dishwasher, and hand soaps-recently banned
- A popular antibacterial that causes resistant organisms. Also a probable carcinogen.
- A cleaner alternative is to use alcohol-based hand sanitizers without this ingredient and to use dish soaps with a short ingredient list without the ingredient Triclosan.
2-Biutoxythanol:
- In multi-purpose, kitchen and window cleaners
- A key ingredient in window cleaners that cause a ‘sweet smell’. The law does NOT require this chemical to be listed on a product’s ingredient list.
- A cleaner alternative is to use vinegar as your window cleaner with a little orange or lemon essential oil and water.
Trisodium Phosphate:
- In most multi-purpose cleaners
- Is a known carcinogen, poisonous if swallowed, inhaled, or spilled on the skin and labeled that you must wear gloves when using.
- A cleaner alternative is to use diluted vinegar with a little orange or lemon essential oil and water.
Xenoestrogens:
- Perfluorochemicals, triclosan, phthalates, BPA, lead, DDT.
- Found in many cosmetic products, plastics, and pesticides
- Mimic hormones in the body and block hormones from doing their job. Such as increased chance of infertility, early puberty, probability of hormone-linked cancers, hair loss, and more.
- A cleaner alternative for cosmetics is Beauty Counter

These are the most common chemicals that we use every day, but the list of toxic ingredients in our household products is not limited to just this. You can use the Think Dirty App to see what specific ingredients are in your household.

Using essential oils as the foundation of your household cleaning products is a great way to minimize your chemical intake and improve indoor air quality. You can clean with essential oils, diffuse them in the air for purification, use them topically for healing and even ingest them (using the FDA safety guidelines) for internal healing.

One of the reasons using essential oil-based cleaning supplies is great for your immune system is because essential oils are effective against microorganisms, but safe for your own microbiome and does not kill beneficial microflora. Chemical-based cleaning supplies are not only filled with harmful toxins, but they also kill all of those healthy probiotics we try so hard to replenish.

Some essential oils that you can start using in your home are below:

Add a few drops to water, rubbing alcohol or vinegar for cleaning, or diffuse.

Cinnamon Bark Essential Oil
- Cinnamon is antifungal and highly antimicrobial, even against resistant bacteria.
Clove Essential Oil
- Clove is highly antimicrobial and even effective against Borrelia Burgdorfer and Biofilm, and effective against fungus like Candida.
- Rich in minerals: calcium, hydrochloric acid, iron, phosphorus, sodium, potassium, vitamin A, vitamin C, and Antioxidants
Lemon Essential Oil
- Lemon is known for its powerful antiseptic uses, which is the classic all-natural cleaning agent. Lemon strengthens the immune system by accelerating the production of white blood cells, which fight infection and protect your body from invasive pathogens, and it cytoprotective. Lemon also repels parasites, which would make it a great addition to your daily water intake.
Eucalyptus Essential Oil
- Eucalyptus oil is an antimicrobial beneficial for your GI tract and respiratory system.
Oregano Essential Oil
- Has been used since ancient times for its antimicrobial effects in cleaning. Oregano changes the cytoplasmic membrane and inhibits bacterial proliferation. This oil is also a great way to kill biofilms from bacteria that create toxins, which is why it is a great addition to toothpaste.
Rosemary Essential Oil
- Antioxidant, antimicrobial properties, and protects the liver (hepatoprotective)
Lavender Essential Oil
- Most known for its relaxing and calming effects on the limbic system, which makes it a great essential oil to diffuse around your house. Lavender decreases anxiety by working as an agonist of GABA, thus decreasing excitability to the brain.
Peppermint Essential Oil
- Anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial, anti-infectious, and fungicidal properties
Thieves Essential Oil Blend
- Thieves were studied to be effective again airborne microorganisms. Thieves are also effective against black mold & Mycotoxin spores!

Since essential oils are safe and effective in cleaning your home, purifying the air, and boosting your immune system, we are recommending daily use of oils. There are many essential oils that are a great support for many ailments and purposes. A great reference guide for using Essential Oils is here: https://www.discoverlsp.com/8th-edition-essential-oils-desk-reference.html/

An easy and convenient way to start using essential oils as cleaning products Is by getting Thieves Cleaning Line. Thieves is an essential oil-based chemical cleaning line that incorporates the use of organic essential oils: Clove, Lemon, Cinnamon Bark, Eucalyptus Radiata, Rosemary. These products are all safe, effective, and easy to use.

An easy way to get essential oils and essential oil-based cleaning products is to click this link and get the Thieves Starter Kit: https://yl.pe/carpathia