I am always trying to keep the house smelling nice and it is definitely not an easy task. The one place that I would like an ongoing nice scent is the closet, specifically my bedroom closet. It is a walk-in closet that seems to lose the scent that I place inside of it quite quickly. Replacing air fresheners on a regular basis can get quite expensive. So, of course, I wanted to try making my own. The only strange thing that I’m adding is sidewalk chalk for coloring. (The kind that kids use outside on the concrete or driveway). The other two ingredients are typical of what is added together to make an air freshener. If you don’t want to color yours, just leave out the chalk and just go all-natural or try some other type of product to color yours. Leave it to me to try something strange in a homemade item. So, let’s begin.
Ingredients:
- baking soda
- non-toxic sidewalk chalk (optional)
- fragrance oil (use any type essential oil or fragrance oil of your choice)
- containers
Instructions:
Before grating chalk, be sure to cover your surface. I am not sure if the chalk will stain the counter top. So, to be safe, I covered my counter top with aluminum foil and put a piece of wax paper on top. Begin grating the chalk or use any other type of substance that you think can be used to color a dry ingredient. I could’ve tried powdered food coloring but I didn’t want to spend much money. When grating, it should come out really fine.
Measurements of ingredients will depend on how large a container you will be using. Therefore, I am not going to give any specific measurements as it is not necessary. It will depend totally upon you. Mix in chalk until the color blends completely.
Add the amount of drops of fragrance oil that you would like. Of course, this too will depend on how strong the scent you would like. I added about 15 drops for mines according to the size of the container that I was using. Stir into the baking soda. It will form little wet balls at first. Just continue to stir and press down the little balls until they blend into the baking soda.
I’m using cheese shakers that I had and an air freshener container that no longer had any scent to it. The great thing about these two types are that they already have holes in the top so you won’t have to make any holes.
For the cheese shakers, I cut out a piece of thick paper to use as a divider when pouring in the baking soda. I also used a large mouth funnel to make it easy to pour into the containers. If the baking soda starts to get stuck in the funnel, use a regular straw to push it through. Just remove the divider when you’re finished and the colors will be nicely lined up beside each other. For the other container, it was much easier to fill because I am putting the colors on top of each other and do not need a divider. Try not to fill up the containers completely. I poured too much in the jar from the old air freshener. The reason for not filling completely to the top is that when the scent starts to fade, you can add additional fragrance drops and shake or stir it up. It will be hard to shake or stir if you don’t leave space at the top. Actually, I can’t wait for the scent to start fading because I’m curious as to what color will form when I shake up these different colors. That’s all it is to making the air freshener….simple as pie!
Have you tried making a homemade air freshener? How did yours come out?
Other pics:
Thanks for reading this post.
