No More Stink. Or, An Alternative to Febreze.
Just a little natural hack for all you environmentally conscious folk who also like your homes to smell nice…
In our home we try to avoid the potentially carcinogenic chemicals in Febreze and all sorts of commercial cleaning/household products. Our ’safe’ version of Febreze is as follows:
Mix in a spray bottle:
1 cup water
2T. baking soda (natural odour remover)
2T. vodka (for the quick drying properties)
5-10 drops tea tree oil (natural antibacterial)
5-10 drops lavender essential oil
1t. pure vanilla
Adjust drops of oil for a stronger or weaker scent - I suggest reading safety guidelines for each oil on their bottles.
Shake well each time prior to spraying to ensure ingredients are mixed.
For use on most fabrics, I use 10-20 drops in 1 cup of water. For use as an air freshener, I use 20-40 drops in 1 cup of water.
This one is, obviously, the lavender vanilla scent. There are many other options to suit your taste - sometimes we use mandarin essential oil, mandarin/vanilla, eucalyptus in cold season, lemon/lavender/clary sage, lemon/lime, mandarin/grapefruit, ylang ylang/rose/bergamot… the list goes on.
September 22nd, 2006 at 1:49 pm
Call me old fashioned, but I’ve been thinkin a lot about trying your vodka creations.. you almost have me convinced - but I just can’t justify spraying alcohol on the carpets LOL
Thanks for the tips,though … I wouldn’t be surprised if I found myself out shopping for the ingredients this weekend!
September 22nd, 2006 at 2:02 pm
How’s you’re dad? We keep ya’ll in our prayers.
I love your idea for the freshner. Sounds wonderful!
September 22nd, 2006 at 2:16 pm
Maggie - good for you! It only takes a little…there’s always lots left to drink!
Deb - he’s actually doing much better with this round of chemo than the last one so far. He and my mom just took a 2 week vacation to the maritimes and that did a world of good. Thanks for asking!
September 22nd, 2006 at 2:48 pm
Awesome, I will have to try that sometime!!
September 22nd, 2006 at 8:02 pm
Ooo that sounds yummy!!!
September 23rd, 2006 at 5:11 pm
[...] I was so concerned about fabric refreshers being harmful for babies that I just stopped using them. Turns out there may be natural alternatives like this one: 1 cup water 2 table spoon baking soda (natural odour remover) 2 table spoons vodka (for the quick drying properties) 5-10 drops tea tree oil (natural antibacterial) 5-10 drops lavender essential oil 1 table spoon pure vanilla [...]
September 24th, 2006 at 3:24 pm
Regular rubbing alcohol will work? I didn’t know about your dad of course. I’ll keep him in my thoughts and prayers.