Skip to Content

Homemade Air Freshener with Baking Soda

Homemade Air Freshener with Baking Soda

Homemade Air Freshener with Essential Oil & Herbs

Sometimes our houses get a little smelly.  Whether it’s a stinky trash can under the sink or your bathroom (for obvious reasons) making your own homemade air freshener is the perfect way to fight the stank.

When I was a kid my family always had a can of your average store bought aerosol bathroom air freshener sitting on the toilet tank ready to “freshen” up the bathroom at a moments notice.

Those sprays never seemed to do anything to get rid of the odor.  They just added a sickly sweet smell into the mix, and ended up making the room smell worse.

Try making this homemade air freshener as an alternative to aerosols from the store.

This air freshener isn’t just for bathrooms, it’s great under the sink, in the fridge, in a closet, cupboard, or anywhere else that stinks.  Not only does it put off a pleasant aroma, but it absorbs all the bad smells too.  Give it a shot and see for yourself.

Time: 5 min.

For an alternative quick and easy diy air freshener see my Rice & Essential Oils Diffuser post.

– Ingredients –

You don’t need much, and you probably have most of what you need already laying around the house.

  • ingredients for homemade air freshener1 cup baking soda
  • 15-20 drops essential oils
  • dried herbs
  • jar or shaker container (diy mason jar shaker)

– Step One –

homemade air freshener adding in baking soda1 cup Baking Soda

Baking soda is the primary ingredient in this homemade air freshener.

Add in 1 cup of baking soda into whatever you’re mixing or storing you air freshener in.

Baking soda is great at absorbing odors, it is what will suck all of the bad smells out of the air leaving your room smelling fresh and clean.

– Step Two –

homemade air freshener scenting15 drops Essential Oil
& 1 tsp Herbs

The best part of this is that you’re not restricted to what they have on the shelf at the grocery store, you can make your air freshener smell like anything that you want from peppermint, to sandalwood, or pine like I’m doing.  You can use anything you want to scent your air freshener, from any type of dried herb to any or multiple essential oils.

I’m adding in 15 drops of pine essential oil and 1 teaspoon of rosemary for this batch.  Feel free to add more or less of either of these ingredients depending on how strong they smell, or how strong you like it.

Herbs are optional, I like them not only because they add a little scent-wise, but also because they give the powder a little more visual interest.  It’s not a big deal, but white powder with some cheery green flecks is prettier to look at in my opinion than a jar of nondescript white powder.

That’s just me though, make it your own!

– Step Three –

 Mix it up

If you’ve poured your ingredients into a jar like me shake it vigorously to thoroughly to break up the essential oil drops and mix them evenly throughout the entire mixture.  If you’ve been making this in a mixing bowl stir it all up making sure to mix everything completely.

– Storing Your Air Freshener –

Pick your container

You can put this into whatever you want, it doesn’t really matter so long as the air that you’re trying to freshen up is able to come into contact with the air freshener that you’ve made. You can use a mason jar shaker like I used, or you can just use a little dish or something similar, whatever works for you.
That’s it, now take your homemade air freshener and stick it somewhere stinky.

Let me know how this air freshener works out for you in the comments.

-Lance

Homemade Air Freshener with Baking Soda

homemade air freshener

How to make your own homemade air freshener with only a few basic ingredients.

Prep Time 4 minutes
Active Time 4 minutes
Total Time 8 minutes

Materials

  • 1 cup Baking Soda
  • 15-20 drops Essential Oils
  • 1 tsp. Dried Herbs (optional)

Tools

  • Jar or Shaker Container

Instructions

  1. homemade air freshener adding in baking sodaAdd baking soda to container.
  2. homemade deodorant powder add in essential oilsDrop in essential oils.
  3. homemade air freshener scentingPour in dried herbs. (optional)
  4. Mix/shake well.
  5. homemade air freshenerNow take your homemade air freshener and stick it somewhere stinky!

Bonnie Brown

Thursday 4th of October 2018

Some diluted fabric softener in a spray bottle also works wonders :)

Love your blog, keep up the good work!

Mollie

Thursday 23rd of January 2020

Interesting suggestion. Thank you for commenting Bonnie!

cestmwa

Sunday 21st of September 2014

You're welcome. :) Your article inspired me to re-freshen my carpets. I went to the Dollar Tree, bought a big container, and made a big new batch. I do find though, that I need to wear a mask when "smooshing" it lightly into my carpet, since it does get briefly airborne.

Thanks for sharing your recipe and thoughts with everyone!

Rhek

Monday 7th of July 2014

Borax is commonly used as a deodorizer

Lance

Monday 15th of September 2014

Thanks Rhek!

Rebekah Moore Murphy

Monday 23rd of June 2014

Thank you so much for sharing, Lance! I'm getting ready to try it.

Lance

Monday 15th of September 2014

No problem Rebekah, I hope it works well for you!

Jason Silverback Cutchins

Thursday 20th of February 2014

I assume the borax is to kill dust mites and any other critters. Borax is 100% borac acid which is extremely toxic to insects yet completely inert to mammals. It is also used as gold flux in case you wanted to smelt some gold.

D Smith

Thursday 1st of March 2018

Borax is not inert to mammals. While it may be less toxic than most household chemicals, it does have irritative properties if it makes contact to skin or muscous membranes. I would stick with baking soda here (or rice like you posted on another pin).

Lance

Monday 15th of September 2014

Good to know, I'll definitely use the borax, I don't want my cats getting fleas. Thanks Leanne!

Lance

Thursday 20th of February 2014

Jason, that makes sense, thanks for the info. I'll have to rethink using borax, dead carpet critters are good. Thanks for taking the time to comment and let me know, also I'll keep borax in mind when I get around to doing some gold smelting.

Skip to Instructions