DIY Febreeze

As the owner of a very bad dog, mother of small children and wife to a person who may or may not realize that leaving something that smells less than desirable in our home makes our home smell less than desirable, I am a febreeze addict. I spray the stuff every day on curtains, pillows, beds, carpet, etc... For better or worse, I love febreeze.

The one thing I don't like is purchasing it. Even the generic brand runs a higher price tag than I would like to include in my household budget. Luckily, a friend of mine emailed me a recipe for DIY febreeze (Thanks Julia!). I tried it, unsure if I would really beleive that it could replace my trusty bottle of fresh smelling spray. 

Here is the recipe to make 32 oz (the size of the bottle I had on hand):

- 1/8 cup fabric softener of your choice
- 2 tablespoon of baking soda
- enough hot tap water to fill the bottle to the top

Simply put the baking soda and fabric softener into the bottle and fill it with hot tap water. Give the bottle a shake and you are done. That is it. One quick suggestion - mixing the baking soda in with the fabric softener makes it easier to get the backing soda into the bottle if you don't have a funnel handy.

The verdict: It works! Smells great, has not clogged my spray bottle and appears to have better scent staying power than what I was purchasing.

The pros of making this at home include the obvious: cost. My fabric softener costs me about $6 on sale. I used about 2 oz, so the cost is 38 cents. The cost of the baking soda is pennies. So, for 40 cents I have made a full bottle of febreeze. This could be cheaper with a lower priced fabric softener, I just prefer the scent of Mrs Meyer's Lemon Verbena. That is the other pro. Being able to choose the scent of lemon verbena is great. Now my home has a smell that I really enjoy.

So far I have not found any cons, but if one pops up I will let you know.

I'm off to spray the carpet...