I love a fresh smelling house!  It puts a smile on my face to walk into my house and be welcomed by delightful aromas. Unfortunately, as we all know, there are times when the aromas wafting around the house are not so delightful.  ; )  On our path to a chemical-free life, one of the first things to go were the air freshener sprays that I used to love to spritz around the house to make it smell nice and fresh. 

According to Wikipedia, many of those air fresheners, even the “organic”, “all-natural”, “green”, or “with essential oils”, contain substances regulated as toxic or hazardous under federal law, but none of these chemicals are listed on the product labels. They also contain hormone-disrupting chemicals which can be a particular problem for babies and children.  Again, these are not listed on the label.

So, out they went!  We just did without for a while, and we survived.  I turned to scented candles to add zing to my home, but they don’t always serve the same purpose.  Plus, with a bunch of little kids running around, I don’t want candles burning all the time, and as it turns out, those candles have an awful lot of icky ingredients too!  What’s a girl to do?

About a year ago I came across some different recipes for making your own air fresheners, and after experimenting and tweaking a little bit, I have a recipe that I’m happy with.

To start, you need a spray bottle (I used an 8 oz bottle), distilled water, essential oils, vodka, and/or vanilla extract.

        My current favorites-

~Vanilla Garden~

10 drops of Rosemary Essential Oil

20 drops of Lavender Essential Oil

3 Tablespoons vanilla extract

7 oz distilled water

~Cinnamint~

20 drops Cinnamon essential oil

20 drops Peppermint essential oil

1 oz vodka

7 oz distilled water

            Or a fun holiday blend-

~Peppermint Sugar Cookie~

20 drops of Peppermint Essential Oil

4 Tablespoons vanilla extract

       Or 10 drops vanilla essential oil & 1 oz vodka

 7 oz distilled water

Or make your own blend with 30-40 drops of essential oils of your choice, 1 oz of vodka, and 7 oz of distilled water!

Add them all together into your spray bottle and shake to combine.  Label it, and you’re ready to go!  Shake before each use, and keep out of direct sunlight. Have fun mixing and matching your own favorite scents to make your own custom blend.  I would love to hear your scent blend ideas.

 Enjoy the wonderful smells of home without any nasty chemicals!  These would make terrific Christmas presents or house-warming gifts too!

*By the way, the bottle in the pictures, I bought at the Dollar Tree.  I have several of them, and they work great!  For only a dollar- Woohoo!