Let’s face it. Things get stinky.
My cat. He gets stinky. My kid, stinky. My hamper. Yep. Sometimes it’s stinky.
Inspired by all this stink, I began thinking seriously about no-spray air fresheners. Serendipitously, my brother-in-law texted me a day later asking if I had any ideas for a car freshener.
So we’re going to talk about options for the house, and the car!
Now your life can be just a little less stinky. Or a little more fresh. I guess it depends on whether or not your litterbox glass is half full.
The Essential Oil on Fabric Method: Enjoy this one for its ease and effectiveness. You’ll be amazed at how well it works. Simply use a small piece of fabric (I cut up an old pillowcase to use for my homemade dryer sheets, and had a few scraps leftover) or a cotton ball and drip your favorite essential oil on it. Depending on how scented you want your room, use anywhere from two drops to soaking it all the way through. Place this small fabric or cotton ball against one of your household vents and let the air conditioner or heater run. The scent I recommend? Ylang-ylang. It’s romantic, but somehow warm and comforting.
The Sea Salt Rindinator: I just named it that. You like? This tip, which I found at Tip Nut about a year ago, has fended off the litterbox funk many times. Slice a lemon (or orange, or lime) in half, scoop out the flesh and use it for cooking, tea, or a facial scrub – and fill the hollowed out half of the rind with sea salt. Tuck it anywhere that musty or icky smells loom – near the hamper, behind the toilet, by the litterbox, in the back of the fridge, you name it. In about two months, the salt goes away, and that’s how you know it’s time to buy more lemons.
Dry Herbs In Your Car – Twofer! This idea was just brought to my Twittertention the other day, and I fell in mad, crazy love. Basically, you pick out or cut some fresh herbs, put them on a newspaper in the backseat of your car, and let them dry for a few hours while your car is parked and the windows are up. Apparently, this is a very fast way to dry herbs, and the aroma hangs out in the car for a while. Be sure to choose herbs with scents that please you, since they’ll be hanging out. Nothing like a cantankerous dill odor to ruin the drive to work.
The Old-Timey Pomander Method: If you look over to your left, you’ll notice that this is not a finished pomander. I ran out of cloves before I got a quarter of the way through. It worked out well, because that also happened to be when my fingers started cramping and I started yelling at the cat for breathing. Nonetheless, the unfinished pomander smells like Springtime and Thanksgiving if they had an illegitimate season-child. Yum. I will finish it.
Instructions are: Shove as many whole cloves as you can fit onto one orange. Put it in your drawer or hang it somewhere that needs freshening. Mine is going in my closet. (I want my clothes to smell like illegitimate season-children.) The longer it sits, the better it gets.
Don’t Burn Incense in Your Car: You knew it was coming, didn’t you? You could tell by the first picture. Somewhere, somehow I was going to say the word “incense.” Well, here’s what I do with it. I don’t burn it. I put it in my car air vents. It’s especially nice in summer, when the car starts to smell a little musty and whatnot. When you crank on the air, you get a blast of crunchy goodness with it. My favorite incense? Anything that contains the word “amber” and not the words “nag champa.”
My Grandma’s Method: Nothing makes me think of my grandmother more than the smell of a freshly burnt match. She did not smoke. She used it … as an air freshener, in the bathroom, when things got a little untoward. I’ll be darned if it doesn’t work, too. And while it does work, I stuck this in more as a tribute to old-fashionedness than anything serious. Thank you, Grandma. Thank you Grandmas everywhere, with your pomanders and your lit matches and your crinkled up Kleenexes always ready for a good cry.
And that’s all I have for today, folks. Mainly because it’s midnight, the cool, rainy breeze is drifting in through my windows, and I’m exhausted. The perfect recipe for sleep.
Do you have any air/room/car freshening tips to share?
In fresh-as-a-summer-breeze crunch!
Easiest DIY Facial Recipes From Around the Web
I just saw a recipe for “DIY Febreze” which consisted of fabric softener and baking soda. I know fabric softener isn’t very crunchy, so would essential oil work instead?
After the clove’s dry out remove them out of the organe and grind them up. Sprinkle on you’r carpet wait for awhile then vacuum right off you’r carpet or sprinkle on the carpet’s in you’r car.. Peeling’s from orange’s lemon’s or lime’s wash real good then peel and put some in a zip back in freezer and some in a jelly jar with alittle water and vinegar store in a dark place for 2 week’s and you got you’r self a very awsome cleaner.. Enjoy i know i have…..
LOVE it!
I’ve saved this tip in my little “tip folder.” I hope you don’t mind if I use it sometime (with credit to you, of course)!
I’m so glad you’re here! Come back and comment more often!
I have the match on my list too. You have some great ideas here. I need to do the essential oil on fabric in the diaper pail. I’ve just been too lazy too. Love the herbs drying in the car and I’m going to try the salt in a citrus rind too, b/c we are all about citrus around here.
Love your blog! It’s adorable.
Let me know what you think about the rindy thing. It took a few days to really get comfortable with the fact that the rind wasn’t going to mold or start being decomposing in smelliness. I have heard TONS of people say that just a tiny strip of fabric with tea tree oil in the diaper pail (or clothes hamper) works wonders. Good luck!
And come back soon!
first time visitor via HCHW… random knowledge: is it Egyptian Goddess incense? My friend told me she looooved the smell of this perfume and of course that’s all I call her now 😉
Great post btw! thanks for the info.
You know what’s weird? I think it IS Egyptian Goddess incense. It’s something goddess, anyway.
That’s so weird.
I have got to get back to that Tibetan store soon and find it (I threw away the box and just have the little bag it came in) again. This is going to drive me nuts now!
Come back soon!
I love all of these tips. I’ve actually done the incense in the air vents before…much more pleasant smelling than burning them.
Okay THAT was amazing! Definitely going to try a few of those! 🙂
Wow, love this post! I am always seeking out natural alternatives to nasty toxic smelly air fresheners. I use Citrus freshener but I love all these techniques much better! I especially like the incense in the air vents one! I am always burning incense in the house and my favorite scent is Gonesh sticks Vanilla. I can’t wait to try these out.
I love the pompador! If you have any suggestions to keep an office smelling nice, I’m all ears (or eyes). We have an office cat and just no matter what it smells a little like cat… We love her, but would like it to smell “Fresh Cotton Clean” 🙂
Well, this may not be all that much of a “homemade” tip (although there’s a little thrown in there). If you’re hinting at litterboxishness, we use SwheatScoop litter – and it’s so amazing. I throw a little bit of baking soda in with it and occasionally a little sprinkle of lemon juice or lemon essential oil. Fiance is REALLY good about cleaning the litter every day (it was my only requirement for getting a cat – I don’t do litter), and I’m sure that helps. But he only changes it once every two weeks, and it’s only at the VERY end that it starts smelling a little off.
Kitties. It’s weird that they can be so stinky sometimes.
I love you! Love the grandmother tribute with their wrinkled kleenexes!
I am a fan of the pomander. I once did a bunch of them for Christmas decorations and our house smelled amazing. Like illegitmate season children! I also read that a bowl of cloves in the pantry can help with those pesky moths I was battling. Don’t know if it works, but my pantry smells good now!
I’m a fan of your pillow case method as well!
I do a little distilled water and vodka with some lavender EO and use it for a linen spray. Smells so good!
Thank you for your great ideas! You rock!
Haha! Your comments are always so freakin’ uplifting.
Come live with me and be my personal commenter forever.
I’m going to try the distilled water/vodka/EO thing, only I’m using ylang-ylang. I’m back on my ylang-ylang kick right now. I think it’s the rainy weather.
Mwah!
These ideas sound great! Can’t wait to try the Sea Salt one in the camper bathroom. Also, think the herb one sounds like a winner. Wonder what herbs would smell best in a Nissan Pathfinder?
I think that depends on whether or not your dog is in there. Ha.
Definitely try the lemons in the camper. You should have asked me about that sooner!
Hope my kid isn’t, you know, running around and screaming too much for you tonight. Because that’s what he does. Runs around and screams. Yeah.
oh yes…matches in the bathroom….a necessity!! 🙂
great tips!
Haha. Isn’t it silly how something so simple can work so well? The only thing about matches is, now that smell is associated with bathrooms for me. And it’s weird.
Such good stuff as always! I like to boil things on the stove (no, not rabbits, although I’m still stalking you). Like apples and cinnamon sticks, or lavendar. Smells yummy. I’m definitely doing the salt thing.
Seriously, I had to sit on my hands not to include a simmer pot. But I wanted to wait and do a post about simmer pots when it started to get chillier.
Mmm. I’ve never tried apples and cinnamon sticks, though. Writing it down. Remembering it for autumn days and posts to come.
i do this too, especially with citrus rinds, cloves, and cinnamon sticks. makes my whole house smell amazing.
love your other tips!
I am definitely going to try the sea salt lemon rind trick, it sounds cool! On your pomander, try pre-poking the holes with a thumb tack or toothpick. The cloves will be easier to push in then. Can you tell I’ve made those before? For general air-freshening, we just open windows and turn on fans (or do the match thing)…:P
See. I knew – I KNEW – there would be a reason why I ran out of cloves so early on. I have little patience, and it was bugging me, breaking cloves and whatnot. This is the reason I ran out. Because you were supposed to tell me before I finished it and went completely crazy.
Thank you. Thank you. My sanity thanks you, too.
Mmmmm, love me some incense! Anything that reminds me of leafy/woodsy/rainy-grassi-ness!
There’s this one stuff … I can’t ever remember the name of it. I don’t know why I’m even mentioning it. But it comes in this flattish, roundish paper packaging, and it’s from India (big surprise). But it’s, like, Goddess something, and the packaging is a beautiful yellow. And it’s my favorite of any incense ever.
I am no help at all.