There are several great air fresheners that you can make from essential oils. The best ones are easy and fun to make, and only require a few affordable ingredients.
My favorite air freshener is a simple spray bottle that you can fill with water and scented oil and take anywhere to add instant fragrance to your life. But there are many other options that include decoration ideas as well.
Take a look at the list of do-it-yourself air fresheners below and tell me in the comments which one you like the best.
1. An Air Freshener Spray Bottle For Instant Aroma Anywhere
This is an extremely simple task that doesn’t even really qualify as a “craft” or “project” because of how fast it is.
All you have to do is take a spray bottle of your choice, pour in some water, and add a scented essential oil of your choice. You can choose any oil, or multiple oils if you want to get creative.
Vanilla and cinnamon? Lavender and vanilla? You get to choose any scent combination you desire.
When mixing up the solution, you should add a small sprinkle of salt to the water and oil. This will help the oil mix with the water so that it sprays better.
If you want a scented spray bottle that just sprays into the air, then all you need is the salt, water, scented oil, and a mist-type spray bottle.
But if you want a scented spray bottle that you can use as a cleaning solution, you’ll want to use water, scented oil, and rubbing alcohol instead. The rubbing alcohol will help kill germs and clean surfaces. And, you should consider using a heavy spray bottle instead of a mist one.
I’ve assembled the list of ingredients for each mixture below:
- Plant-based Scented Oils – A value pack that comes with 6 plant-based scents, like lavender and peppermint – Click here to view.
- Food-based Scented Oils – If you prefer the smell of mom’s cooking, then consider getting this collection of 6 food-based scents like gingerbread and pumpkin pie – Click here to view.
- Small Mist Spray Bottle – For a light mist sprayed in the air, not on surfaces – Click here to view.
- Large Heavy Spray Bottle – A heavier spray bottle for cleaning surfaces with your scented spray – Click here to view.
- Rubbing Alcohol – Add this to your spray to give it germ-killing power – Click here to view.
2. A Hanging Air Freshener For Your Car
Most people have seen the pine tree-shaped hanging air fresheners that are popular in cars. They hang from the rear view mirror and give off weak scent.
But did you know that you can make your own hanging air freshener for your car, and create a shape that’s much more creative than a hanging pine tree?
Not only that, but your handmade air freshener can also be re-usable by adding more scented oil. And on top of that, you even get to choose how strong the scent is by adding more or less scented oil to it.
If that sounds fun, that’s because it is. Any time you want your car to smell better for a day or two, just add a few extra drops of a scented oil of your choice to your own hanging air freshener. The scent will permeate your vehicle and smell great.
The steps are extremely simple:
- Get some felt fabric of any color you want. Cut it into any shape you want.
- Punch a hole in the top and put a string or ribbon through it.
- Drip some scented oil onto the felt fabric – any fragrance you desire.
- Hang it up in your car. You’re done!
Now doesn’t that sound easy, simple, and fun? I sure think so.
I’ve assembled a list of all the ingredients you’ll need for this fun and simple craft project:
- Plant-based Scented Oils – Comes with 6 scents – I recommend using plant-based scents for your car because they tend to work better in a vehicle than food-based scents – Click here to view.
- Colored Felt Fabric Pads – Cut these into any shape you want – Click here to view.
- Stencil Shapes – You can use stencil shapes to help you cut your felt pads into nice-looking designs – Click here to view.
- Hole Punch – Makes it easy to add a string hole for your hanging air freshener – Click here to view.
- Colored Ribbon – Use this or any kind of string to hang it up – Click here to view.
3. A Hanging Scented Ornament For Your Christmas Tree (Or Anywhere Else)
You can make a hanging wooden ornamental air freshener that adds a new fragrance to your Christmas tree – or to anywhere else you want to hang it for the rest of the year.
The process is even simpler than the hanging car freshener in step #2 above, because these wooden ornaments are already carved for you and already have string holes.
All you need to do is pick out a few wooden shapes, set them in a bowl, and drip some scented essential oils onto them. The more oil you add, the stronger the scent will be. Once the oil dries, put a string or ribbon through the hole and hang it up anywhere you want.
This is an absolutely fantastic decoration idea for a holiday party that will impress your guests with your creativity and thoughtfulness, and it only takes a few minutes to create.
I’ve picked out some Christmas-themed wooden shapes below, which will work great with a peppermint scent to remind people of the winter holiday season. But you can choose any wooden ornament and any scent that you want.
- Christmas-themed Scented Oils – A set of 6 scents that will fill you with the Christmas spirit – Click here to view.
- Wooden Hanging Decorations – A set of Christmas-themed wooden shapes for creating your scented decorative ornaments – Click here to view.
- Colored Ribbon – For hanging your ornaments – Click here to view.
4. A Scented Clip-on Clothespin For Your Car Air Vent
You may have seen the popular clip-on air fresheners that are made for car air vents. They typically come with a small plastic container of scented gel and a plastic clip that attaches to the vent.
Instead of relying on buying a new one of those every month to refresh the scent in your car, did you know that you can just make your own out of a super cheap clothes pin and some scented oils?
This task is ultra-simple and can be done in just 1 minute. You just drip a bit of scented oil onto a wooden clothes pin, let it sit until it has thoroughly soaked into the wood, and you’re done.
Your clothes pin can be clipped onto an air vent in your car, or onto basically anywhere else you want to smell a fresh scent. You could even bring it from your car into your office and clip it onto your computer monitor to keep the scent right there with you.
And the best part about this do-it-yourself air freshener is that any time the scent starts to fade, you can just add a few more drops of oil to refresh it. That’s way cheaper than buying a new air freshener device from a retail store.
- Scented Oils 6-scent Value Pack – Comes with 6 plant-based scents like eucalyptus and lemongrass – Click here to view.
- Wooden Clothespins – For absorbing scented oil and diffusing it anywhere you want – Click here to view.
5. Scented Wooden Cubes For Your Drawers & Cabinets
You may be noticing by now that pretty much anything made of wood can be scented by letting essential oils soak into it.
A nifty little craft idea for creating miniature, portable air fresheners is to get some small wooden cubes and apply scented oils to them. You can even decorate the cubes by drawing on them with markers if you want.
Add just a few drops to each cube for a light scent that will add a pleasant smell to a dresser drawer or a cabinet. Or, soak the whole cube in scented oil inside of a small plastic baggy to maximize the scent coming out of it, for use in larger areas like your car or a bathroom.
- 6-scent Value Pack Of Scented Oils – Comes with 6 different plant-based scents – Click here to view.
- Wooden Craft Cubes – Click here to view.
