Homemade Air Freshener for Fabric and Rooms

Do you love to use air freshener? It smells great, but can be bad for your health. Learn to make all-natural homemade air freshener that will leave your home smelling sweet.

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I love a fresh smelling room and used to be a store-bought room freshener addict. A quick spritz after cooking a meal, before company came over, or as a last step to housecleaning made me feel like my home was clean and fresh. I was spraying it ALL THE TIME…

Until I began to learn more about the toxic chemicals in many household products. I checked out my favorite Febreze’s ratings on the Environmental Working Group consumer guide and found out that most of their products score a D or F for “significant hazards to health or the environment.”

I was shocked to find out what was I spraying around my home and decided to never use commercial air freshener.

Dangerous Homemade Alternatives

Online recipes for homemade fresheners usually contain a dangerous mixture of fabric softener and water. This mixture replaces one health hazard with another health hazard!

Both commercial air freshener and homemade air freshener with fabric softener can:

Act as hormone disruptors.
Cause asthma to develop in healthy people.
Cause cancer in humans.

How to Make Room Freshener with Essential Oils

The best homemade room refresher is simple: water, vodka, and essential oils.

I often use vodka to clean around my house (it’s in my homemade Window Cleaner and natural Lemon Disinfectant Spray Cleaner). Vodka is a great cleaner because:

It leaves no scent when used in natural cleaners.
It leaves no residue (like the baking soda found in some homemade refresher sprays).
It is naturally antibacterial, anti-fungal, and it’s a natural deodorizer.
Alcohol emulsifies essential oils into an evenly diluted spray that does not need shaking.
Cheap generic vodka cleans as well as more expensive brands.

Homemade Air Freshener Recipe

Mix together in a glass spray bottle mix:

1 cup distilled water
½ cup vodka (use a bottom shelf, cheap version)
10 drops to ½ tsp. essential oil of your choice

Shake to combine.

Room Freshener Scent Combinations

Start with 5-10 drops of essential oil and add more until the desired level of scent is reached. My favorite scent combinations:

Zen Spa – 10 drops eucalyptus essential oil, 5 drops lavender essential oil
Sleepy Time/Relaxation – 10 drops lavender essential oil, 5 drops vanilla essential oil
Floral Dream – 8 drops ylang ylang or lavender essential oil, 8 drops jasmine essential oil

Free Printable Labels

Dress up your homemade cleaner with a free printable label or vinyl sticker (see the 2 options below). Both DIY versions are available to download in my free printable library.