Essential Oil Air Freshener By GlenT on Mar 15, 2009 - Updated Oct 15, 2011

I'm not a big fan of stinky sprays around the house. I really got addicted to Febreze, though. One cat and two people really don't make a lot of smells, but Febreze seemed to keep the bed covers and antique sofa smelling good. But what price all this good smell? Too much, I thought. I was spraying out about five bucks every two weeks.

So, as I like to do, I read the label ( I know, not a typical guy thing ). It seemed like it contained only water, alcohol and some smelly stuff. That got me wondering exactly how hard could it be to mix some up. On another mission, I visited my local natural foods supermarket ( the ONLY natural food market, actually ) and saw a rack of essential oils. Lavender seemed at least historically recommended. The word even comes from the French word for "laundry", or maybe it's the other way around. The Lavender and Tea Tree smelled a little better than the pure lavender.

I bought that one ounce bottle with a dropper top. It smelled good in a potpourri bowl, so I decided to try making a spray. They must be really simple, because I got it in one try. I took an empty Febreze spray bottle and rinsed it out. I splashed in about ten drops of the essential oil, about a third of a cup of denatured alcohol and filled the rest with distilled water.

From the looks of it, I'll have disinfecting, deodorant spray for my rugs, bedding and upholstered furniture through the rest of the year. That works out to . . . dang! Five cents a bottle instead of five bucks! Oh, I like this a lot!