The Best Natural Air Fresheners

There are plenty of natural options to freshen the air in your home without turning to store-bought air fresheners that can contain toxic or hazardous chemicals. Most of these DIY options are easy to make, take little time to prepare and will leave your rooms smelling fresh and clean. Here are some ideas for ways to freshen the air in your home in an all-natural way:

Natural Air Fresheners

Make A Sprayable Air Freshener

Filling a spray bottle with water, adding the essential oil of your choice and misting a room is a great way to freshen the air. Essential oils come in many scents, including eucalyptus, lavender, pine, rosemary, lemon and wild orange that will make any room smell amazing. Use different scents for each room (invigorating lemon for your kitchen and relaxing lavender for your bedroom, perhaps) or give your home a unifying, fresh smell. You can even mix them to create a unique fragrance for your home.

Create Potpourri

To make a pleasant-smelling potpourri, dry out fresh flowers and herbs by placing them between several layers of paper towels and microwaving them or by laying them on a baking sheet and putting them in the oven at a low temperature. You’ll know they’re ready when they become brittle without falling apart. Once they cool, release the fragrance by bending and bruising the pieces gently with your fingers, then place them in a covered container for a couple weeks to allow time for the aromas to set in and mix. When the mixture is done, after anywhere between two weeks and a month of sitting, place the potpourri in a bowl and set it out. The mixture will not only fill your home’s air with a beautiful aroma, but it will look decorative, too.

Set Out Fresh Flowers

Bringing fresh flowers into your home is a simple way to get your house smelling great. Certain types of flowers even do more than just create a lovely scent — they also detoxify the air. Tulips, for example, help to remove some chemicals and toxins from the air. Peace lillies are also known to clean pollutants from the air. A bouquet of flowers will also brighten up any space in your home, making them a beautiful air freshener.

Grow Houseplants

Plenty of houseplants are fragrant enough to double as air fresheners and improve the air quality in your home. Growing herbs such as basil, lavender, rosemary and mint can create a lovely aroma for any room. Other house plants, including scented geraniums, Arabian jasmine, eucalyptus and sweet bay, are also popular air freshening options.

Boil Lemons

Lemons have a strong, fresh aroma that can clean the air. All you have to do is thoroughly wash a lemon, cut it into quarters, add two cups of water and the lemon to a pot and boil. The scent that comes from the steam will fill the room and leave it smelling clean and citrusy. Afterward, you can use the solution by straining the cooled liquid into a spray bottle and use it as a citrus spray.

Use Diffusers

A diffuser is a glass or ceramic container that uses skewers or reeds to release essential oils into the room. You can purchase a diffuser or easily make your own with anything from a ceramic vase to a repurposed wine bottle. Simply fill the bottom of the container with water, add a few drops of your desired essential oil and place in a few reeds. The scent will slowly fill the room, and when the mixture runs out, simply make more.

Eliminating Odors

We don’t only need air fresheners for creating a pleasant scent — sometimes, we need them for simply getting rid of some bad ones. These natural options should do the trick and eliminate any lingering, pungent odor around your house.

Vinegar

Distilled white vinegar is an effective way to deodorize the air. There are a couple different ways you can use it: you can fill a spray bottle with vinegar diluted with water and use it as a spray for the air, carpets and rugs; you can fill a bowl with vinegar and let it sit out in the room that smells; or you can simply boil vinegar and let it simmer. Any vinegar smell will disappear as soon as it dries or is removed from the room, so your house will not have a lingering smell of vinegar.

Baking Soda

Using baking soda to eliminate odors is one of the more commonly known methods. An easy way to use baking soda is to set some in your fridge, closet, trash can, bathroom or wherever else an odor has originated from and it will quickly neutralize the smell. For more dispersed air cleaning, place a few spoonfuls of baking soda in a spray bottle with water.

Zeolite

Zeolite is a mineral that contains aluminum, silicon compounds, and oxygen and has a natural capability of eliminating odors rather than just covering them up. It’s commonly found in cat litter, detergents and fertilizers because of its odor-eliminating abilities. All you have to do is place the zeolite rocks around your home to freshen the air. Their functionality diminishes after a few months, particularly if they are being used to eliminate strong smells, but they can be recharged if they are placed outside in fresh air and direct sunshine for at least week.