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Cleaning and Sweetening Your Home

In my intense couponing days I would pick up little air fresheners cheaply. Since I’ve slacked off with the coupons during this busy time of year, “Super Simple Homemade Air Freshener”  from The Complete Guide to Imperfect Homemaking, caught my eye.
DIY Air Freshener, Cleaning and Sweetening Your Home, Joyful Homemaking

This is all you need:

DIY Air Freshener, Cleaning and Sweetening Your Home, Joyful Homemaking


Baking soda, a jar, essential oil in a pleasing scent
Fill your jar about a third of the way full with baking soda, and sprinkle a few drops of essential oil on top (I found my orange essential oil at The Vitamin Shoppe, but probably any health food store would carry essential oils).
Then, put the lid on and be sure to poke some holes through the top in any shape your like. I put a big decorative bow on my jar, and it even looks fine in the living room. Every once in a while, give the jar a little shake to stir it up, and keep the scent coming out.

DIY Air Freshener, Cleaning and Sweetening Your Home, Joyful Homemaking


Real Simple
has some good tips for cleaning and deodorizing your home, such as putting leftover orange or lemon peels in your garbage disposal, and then running it with warm water to freshen it up.

DIY Air Freshener, Cleaning and Sweetening Your Home, Joyful Homemaking


To keep your sinks looking shiny,  use this handy dandy awesome cleaning tool.

DIY Air Freshener, Cleaning and Sweetening Your Home, Joyful Homemaking


Then Real Simple recommends taking a little baby oil and polishing up the chrome.

DIY Air Freshener, Cleaning and Sweetening Your Home, Joyful Homemaking


Here is a picture after I used the magic eraser and baby oil.

DIY Air Freshener, Cleaning and Sweetening Your Home, Joyful Homemaking


My sink is kind of old, but the faucet shined up nicely.
Magic erasers are really great for a lot of things that need scrubbing. I’ve removed lots of marks on walls with them, although using a light touch is best so your paint doesn’t fade. They also work on scuff marks on floors and little girls’ shiny shoes and insides of refrigerators…

Baking soda of course is great for a lot of cleaning purposes including teeth and a soft scrub for sinks and tubs, but it also can help freshen your carpets. Just sprinkle it over your carpeting and wait 10-15 minutes and then vacuum.

DIY Air Freshener, Cleaning and Sweetening Your Home, Joyful Homemaking

 

DIY Air Freshener, Cleaning and Sweetening Your Home, Joyful Homemaking


I’ve seen lots of suggestions for using lemonade koolaid in your dishwasher to clean it up inside and get rid of deposits.

DIY Air Freshener, Cleaning and Sweetening Your Home, Joyful Homemaking


So of course I had to try it, and even though I didn’t notice a huge difference as far as stains, my dishwasher smelled so good after I ran it.

Hope these tips are helpful, and that you have fun making and decorating your own air fresheners.

DIY Air Freshener, Cleaning and Sweetening Your Home, Joyful Homemaking

 

DIY Air Freshener, Cleaning and Sweetening Your Home, Joyful Homemaking

24 Comments

  1. Great tips! Got a couple more for you. You can use Magic Erasers on white tennis shoes that are not so white anymore. It is positively amazing. Also, non sweetened KoolAid works great on hard stains in the toilet. Put packet in bowl, scrub, leave over night, flush in the morning. It was too crazy for me not to try. Not only did it surprise me on how well it worked, it is safe for goofy dogs.

  2. Good morning! This is great! I love how simple these are & who doesn’t love a great smelling home? I would love for you to link this up to My Favorite Things Friday Party that just started for the week. I’m stopping by from the Show & Tell Staurday Party.
    XoXo
    ~Iffy~
    StayAtHomeNation.blogspot.com

  3. Great tips! I want to try the Kool-Aid. Thanks for the comment you left on my blog. I appreciate you stopping by!

  4. Great tips! I am going to try the orange peel in the disposal and the Kool-Aid in the dishwasher!! I love the fresh smell of citrus.

  5. Never heard of the Kool-Aid trick, but that sounds good to me; the scented dishwasher products never really smell that good! Some really super ideas, especially during the holidays.

  6. I am addicted to scenting my home with candles or oil. Have to try this! Would love love love for you to share this at our party going on now . Happy holiday! My

  7. Wow… thank you for sharing these tips. I’m all about a yummy smelling and clean house! Can’t wait to try these! I’m your newest fan… please stop by bellanest.blogspot.com if you get a chance! God bless!

  8. Love it! I use Shaklee’s basic h2 and I add essential oils to mine. It cleans any surface and at a penny per bottle when you mix the concentration. 🙂

  9. These are great tips – especially love the baking soda room freshener idea. I don’t like to buy the commercial ones, so this is perfect for me. Thanks and Merry Christmas!

  10. Hi Margo,
    These are just great tips for us to use. We just love the Magic Eraser, it is the greatest. Thank you so much for sharing with Full Plate Thursday. I am wishing you and your family a very Merry Christmas!
    Come Back Soon,
    Miz Helen

  11. Hmm, the “orange and lemon peel on the sink” idea looks like a nice alternative if you want to freshen up your house. It’s cool when you discover new things by yourself, especially those which are pretty useful. Those are some pretty nifty ideas! 🙂

    [Tyler Perkins]

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