Natural Ways to Beat Spring Allergies
(Health Secrets) If you are buying air freshener for your home or workplace, natural air freshener you make at home can be a much better choice. There are many toxic ingredients in the common aerosol and even wax air fresheners that are on the market today. Many of these harsh chemicals can trigger asthma or allergies and can lead to headaches. With the number of toxins in our home environment already, we need a alternative that won’t break the bank or lead to health problems. Here are directions for making fabulous natural air freshener.
Many of the staples you will probably find in your kitchen can be used to brighten your home with delicious scents and even bring a unique blend to any holiday. To make natural air freshener, you’ll need some mason jars, variety of herbs, spices, citrus, and possibly some essential oils to mix for different scents!
Step 1:
To start with you’ll need to figure out what scents you think will work best for your home. Try some of the suggestions listed below, and mix and match as much or as little as you want.
- Citrus/Fruits: Lemon, Lime, Orange, Grapefruit, Cranberry, Strawberry
- Essential Oils/Extracts: Eucalyptus oil, Almond oil or Almond extract, Vanilla extract, Spearmint oil
- Spices/Herbs: Basil, Cilantro, Thyme, Rosemary, Pine sprigs, Bay leaves, ground or whole Nutmeg, ground Cinnamon or Cinnamon sticks, ground or whole Cloves, ground or whole Allspice, Vanilla beans
- Suggested combos: cilantro lime, lemon basil, lime mint, eucalyptus spearmint, orange cinnamon clove, pine clove allspice, eucalyptus vanilla, orange vanilla clove
Step 2:
Combine the ingredients. You’ll usually want to use approximately 2 cups of citrus/fruit, 2-3 fresh herb sprigs, and 1 tsp of essential oils, extracts, or spices as a guideline, but feel free to adjust quantities to mix up the flavor.
Step 3:
Fill the rest of the jar with water.
Step 4:
Heat it up and let the smell permeate! There are many different ways to heat the mixture depending on how large an area you’d like the smell to fill, as well as how long you’d like it to stick around. The best and quickest way to fill a large area is with steam from cooking it in a pot on the stove, but you’ll really have to be careful that the water doesn’t dry up. Some of the slower methods include a crock pot, candle warmer, or a ceramic/glass bowl with a tea light underneath. These are going to release slower smells and won’t need constant attention.
You can make mixtures ahead of time and keep them in the fridge for quick use. You can reuse each of these mixtures approximately 2-3 times, but you might want to add a few more ingredients to refresh the smell the 2nd or 3rd time around. Make sure to store mixtures in the fridge when not in use.
For more information:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iF1bbSym2ho
Published with permission from Alignlife. Original article link is here.
