Everyone’s bathroom needs a little freshening up sometimes--and by freshening up, we don’t mean spraying the air with the 100+ chemicals that are typical ingredients in conventional air fresheners. You can avoid volatile organic compounds such as formaldehyde, toluene, and benzene found in store-bought air fresheners by simply making your own.
Homemade air fresheners are simple to make, satisfying to use, and also easy to customize to your exact preferences. Plus, you get to enjoy authentic aromas as opposed to the fake, hard-to-place smells produced by chemical air fresheners.
Ready to flex your DIY skills? Check out these winning essential oil combinations and 5 DIY recipes for fresher smelling air in your bathroom:
- Essential Oils That Play Well Together
- Your Go-To Spray
- Your Go-To Spray, 2.0
- Spa Day Diffuser
- Gel Against Bad Smells
- Beyond-Basic Baking Soda
Essential Oils That Play Well Together
A lot of DIY air freshening solutions make use of essential oil combinations. To save you the time and trouble of testing different mixtures, here is a list of essential oils whose smells compliment each other beautifully, along with the effect or mood their combination tends to produce.
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Lemon + Grapefruit + Orange + Lime = Summer-y Energy
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Lavender + Lemon + Rosemary = Cheerful and Homey
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Lavender + Chamomile = Soothing
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Orange + Peppermint = Energizing
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Peppermint + Rosemary = Focusing
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Cedarwood + White Fir + Frankincense = Woodsy
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Orange + Clove + Cassia = Warm and Spicy
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Mint + Eucalyptus = Invigorating, Healing
DIY Recipes for Fresher Smelling Air
Your Go-To Spray
You only need 2 ingredients for this spray: water and white vinegar. Select a spray bottle of any size and fill it with a mixture of 1 part vinegar to 4 parts water. You can spray this simple concoction in the air to not only deodorize it but also disinfect it!
Your Go-To Spray, 2.0
This spray ditches the vinegar, but it contains essential oils for aromatherapy and makes use of witch hazel to help it dry more quickly. To create an 8-ounce bottle, you’ll want to use the following proportions:
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3/4 cup water
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2 tablespoons witch hazel
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One or a combination or your favorite essential oils
Spa Day Diffuser
There’s something about the clean look of a reed diffuser that says, “tranquility.” You can store these on a bathroom shelf or counter without having to worry about using heat or an open flame. You will need the following items:
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Baby oil
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One or a combination or your favorite essential oils
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Rattan diffusing sticks
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A vase
Put your desired amount of essential oils into the vase, and fill the rest of the vase with the baby oil. Then simply arrange the rattan sticks in the vase. Once the sticks start to absorb the oil, they will diffuse the scent of your essential oils throughout your bathroom.
Gel Against Bad Smells
Gel air fresheners are another great option if having open flames in your home makes you uneasy. You can make them easily with just a few materials:
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A clean, 1-pint, heatproof jar (mason jars work wonderfully)
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4 packets of unflavored gelatin
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Salt
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One or a combination or your favorite essential oils
First, add 30 droplets of essential oil to your clean jar. If you want a stronger smell, you can add more droplets. Next, heat 1 cup of water on the stove, and once it is boiling, pour in the 4 gelatin packets and stir. After that, pour this mixture into your jar and stir it one more time. Then store the jar out of the way so that the gel can set. Once the gel sets, you’re all done!
Beyond-Basic Baking Soda
Baking soda’s ability to absorb bad odors is legendary. It only makes sense that you could use it as a main ingredient in an air freshener. Here is what you will need:
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4-ounce mason jar with a jar ring
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½ cup baking soda
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10-15 drops of your favorite essential oil (citrus scents recommended)
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1 coffee filter
Using the jar’s inner lid as a guide, trace a circle on the coffee filter that’s a ½ inch bigger around than the inner lid. This helps to ensure that the coffee filter will fit on the inside of the jar ring and allow bad odors to be drawn in and good odors to travel outward. Discard the inner lid.
Put the baking soda in the jar, add the essentials oils to it, and stir it into a mixture. Put the coffee filter on top of the jar and keep it in place while you tighten the ring around the jar. Now all you have to do is decide where to put your new air freshener to absorb odors. To “refresh” your air freshener, give it a shake and add more essential oils every so often.
Are you noticing unpleasant odors coming from your drains? If so, a professional drain clearing might be the ultimate solution. Rather than using corrosive chemical drain cleaners, the professionals at EZ Flow Plumbing make use of plumber’s cables and hydro jetting to obliterate harmful and smelly clogs.