I’m frugal. Not because I have the time, the energy or the inclination. No, but because I hate paying more for something than I think it’s ‘worth’. You’re probably thinking: “Well, Stephen, isn’t that going to be everything?” And my answer would be something like “Hell no!” There are loads of products and services out there that I think are either undervalued or spot on.
With deals, savings and coupons there are even more items which don’t make me cringe or want to text someone to moan.
But then there are those pesky items which I just don’t buy because they are insanely expensive and from what I can tell, not worth half of what they cost. One of my biggest frown-bringers are home fresheners, so this is where I’m going to impart some wisdom on how to save a bucket-load and make your house smell nice in the process. Either that or you’re going to call the cheap police.
~ lap it up kid!
First there is a video on how to do this, but it’s boring. And there are like 1001 others, but I couldn’t be bothered to watch all of them to find one I liked to share with you, so I just linked to the one on top of “The Google”. But most of these videos include expensive ‘essential oils’, I’m not knocking them, some of them are way nicer smelling than the ones you can buy in a store and last longer too, but essential oils are not cheap (in fact about as expensive as the air fresheners to begin with) so it may defeat the point of this exercise for some of you, but we’ll get to that later.
I really did search for different recipes, but search engines can’t smell, so there is no way for them to tell which ones are good or bad or just plain silly. So I made some (I made a super mess which was fun) and the ones I liked the most were simple, basic and cheap-as-chips and used odor-eating elements in their making. They recipes and directions (including photos) are below. One of my final best air fresheners was chosen because it contains lemon, which is citrus, and I have cats, which notoriously hate citrus scents, so I can excessively spray the freshener on stuff I want them to avoid (like the corners of my sofa).
~ A photo of all the stuff you will need if you fancy doing both types of air freshener
- Combine ingredients & let fizz for a minute
- Pour into a fine mist spray bottle
- Spray whenever it stinks ~ photo
- Baking soda
- Essential oil of your choice
- Jar (the prettier the better)
- Fill up jar to about 1/3 with baking soda
- Add 10 drops of your favourite essential oil (I used lavender) ~ photo
- Pierce lid with holes (I used a hammer and a nail) ~ photo
- Place the jar in an area you want to smell fresh
- Shake to renew freshness
- (It can also be used as a shaker to sprinkle over smelly spills on fabrics, as the baking soda will absorb the liquid. Then just hoover to remove the baking soda)
I thoroughly enjoyed making all the recipes for the home made air freshener and the 2 above were my favourites for their respective categories (1 for a spray and 1 to just sit there). However, the spray bottle, while being more frugal, didn’t have as much smell as the essential oils one (cue shock and awe). I have a super sensitive nose and I had a tough time smelling any kind of lemon scent, but maybe that’s the purpose, it’s a more odor eating mix rather than odor replacing (or you could just double up on the lemon in the recipe or half the amount of water to boost the lemoness).
But I paid a hefty $20 for a 15ml bottle of essential lavender oil which is no chump change. Although, I think this little bottle could last me a fair decent number of years and I’m not certain how long the fresh lemon juice can last for in the spray bottle before going bad. So, really, to sum up I would go for both options (cop out), if you need a whole house refreshing go with the spray bottle and for rooms like the bathroom, basement and closets (anywhere where there is a lot of standing air), then I would highly recommend making your own home-made jar air freshener (you can even use fresh flowers or herbs like mint and lavender if you want to make it prettier and cheaper).
Hey, by the way, did anyone think the jar was uber cute? It was originally for sweets, but there are always 1001 uses for nice jars, so I keep them.
I want to see pictures of your home-made creations! Send them to me and I will pin them on our Pinterest page.
Other Resources
– A lovely post written by Kelly at imperfecthomemaking.com on making your own air freshener
– A simple solution from Shelly about using bars of soap to make a smelly place smell nice again
– Turn your music off and ignore the actual fragrance he uses, this video shows us how to re-fill and empty liquid air freshener