Pin it Monday - DIY Air Freshener

Ok, so a couple weeks ago I did my post on the Lavender spray (you can find it HERE) and told ya’ll that if you bought the lavender essential oil that I would have another use for it coming up….well, here it is!

DIY Air Fresheners, YES, that’s what I said. I guess people are starting to catch on to this cause I am now seeing multiple people post about it on Pinterest. As most of you know, air fresheners can be ex-pen-sive and recently it came out that many contain VOC’s.

What are VOC’s you ask? Here is a description from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA):

Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are emitted as gases from certain solids or liquids. VOCs include a variety of chemicals, some of which may have short- and long-term adverse health effects. Concentrations of many VOCs are consistently higher indoors (up to ten times higher) than outdoors. VOCs are emitted by a wide array of products numbering in the thousands. Examples include: paints and lacquers, paint strippers, cleaning supplies, pesticides, building materials and furnishings, office equipment such as copiers and printers, correction fluids and carbonless copy paper, graphics and craft materials including glues and adhesives, permanent markers, and photographic solutions. (source: http://www.epa.gov/iaq/voc.html)

Anywho…the gist is that the more items you have in your house containing VOC’s the worse off you are! It’s not totally known what all they can cause, but I’d rather limit my family’s exposure as much as possible.

When I first heard about this problem I was UP---SET. I don’t know about you, but I don’t want my house to smell like I have 2 dogs and 5 kids….even though we do!

Over the last couple of weeks I have been trying the refilling my air fresheners and have been able to do it with every brand that I have. This includes: AirWick, Glade and Bath and Body Works. This is the original pin that I got the idea from.

Supplies needed:

-used scented oil air freshener plug-in and container
-water
-Essential oil (I used lavender)

 Steps to refill air freshener:

1)    Pry off the plastic top that contains the wick (don’t remove the wick)

2)   pour in the essential oil (depending on how strong you want the smell, I usually fill it about ¼ of the way)

3)   add water (leave enough space at top to allow for the top)

4)   replace plastic top and plug it in!

YES, it is really that easy!