Air Freshening Sprays

I love the concept of Febreze and other products that are intended to remove odors and freshen things up, but I don't love the ingredients in products like Febreze (Benzisothiazolinone, Sodium Polyacrylate, Cyclodextrin, and synthetic fragrance, for example), It doesn't take long to discover that  it's not the sort of thing that you want to be inhaling.

Awhile ago I ordered the book, "Better Basics for the Home" by Annie Berthold-Bond. 

Its a really fabulous book with a ton of information.  This is one of my favorite recipes for making your own air freshening sprays from her book. It's incredibly inexpensive, smells pretty, works on odors and it only takes a few minutes to make.

Simple Air Freshening Recipe

Ingredients and Directions

(You can double this depending on the size of your bottle.)

• 12-15 drops of pure essential oil (I like grapefruit, orange, lemon, rosemary and lavender, but go with any scent that you enjoy)
• 1/2 cup white vinegar
• 1 1/2 cups water

Just combine all ingredients in a empty spray bottle and mist in the air, on carpets, linens, etc.  I have sprayed this stuff on all my fabrics and have never noticed any stains from the oils.

You can also make an even stronger version of this spray by using a higher ratio of vinegar to water and upping the essential oils (more like 20 drops) to use in a small diffuser bottle. This works better for just a quick spray into the air to freshen up a bathroom before guests, as opposed to the less concentrated spray that you would spray directly onto/into items.