Sunday, September 9, 2012

Air Freshener

I have an old plug in air freshener that has been sitting in the closet collecting dust for way to long.  It's not that I don't want to use it, I just always forget to buy the replacements.
I came across this website http://holycrickey.tumblr.com/post/7394307755/diy-wallflowers-scented-plugin
about how to refill your air freshener using essential oils.  AWESOME!!! Now I don't have to go to the store and once again come home annoyed that I forgot the plug in refill. Now I can just come home annoyed that once again those marketing genuineness got me and I bought something I didn't need.

The instructions sounded very easy
pull the wick out
clean out the bulb
pour in the oil, filling the bulb about 1/3
fill the rest of the bulb with water
put the wick back in
Plug in and enjoy

I decided to try two different oils.  I knew I was going to spend a full day in the office so I thought the citrus twist would be a great one to help keep me awake and the office is right by the entry way so as a bonus, the entry way will smell great if anyone comes.

Once the citrus was done, my plan was to wash it out and refill it with lavender for my room to hopefully bring on a peaceful nights rest.  


For both oils I decided to not fill the bulb all the way up but I still did 1 part of oil to 2 parts of water. 

 I plugged in the citrus scent in the office and waited for the magic to happen....
and waited....
then waited....
more waiting....
finally after 9 hours of being plugged in, I could finally smell it while sitting at the computer.  Eventually the whole room smelled great, but for some reason the scent refused to leave the room.

It's not like it had to travel far, it's right by the door next to the entry way for heavens sake, but apparently there was some invisible air bully that kept beating up the citrus scent when it tried to make it's way out of the office.



After the citrus scent was done, it was time to move onto the Lavender.  I pulled the wick out, rinsed the bulb, filled the bulb with oil and water and......    hmmmmmm........ we have a problem here.  Apparently the wick did not like being yanked out of it's home again, and it fell apart. 
 But don't worry, after some cursing and spilling some oil I got that little sucker back in the bulb.  HA HA! Take that you little piece of fabric!

After leaving the Lavender scent in for MANY hours, I still couldn't smell anything

I had to get thiiiiiiis close in order to enjoy the soothing aromas of the lavender.  How was this going to help me sleep if I couldn't smell it from my bed?



Maybe I can sleep by the air freshener!?!?!


However, after about 5 minutes I remembered that the ground is hard and my bed is soft.  Hmmmmm so how can I enjoy the smell of the lavender AND enjoy the comforts of my bed....



Tie the plug in to my head?
EUREKA!!!!


 The Verdict: In my opinion it's not worth the money.  I think you would have to use a lot of oil in order to smell it in a bigger room. Even though the citrus finally filled the office my husband says he couldn't smell it at all.  Plus the wick fell apart.  Maybe other plug in air fresheners would work better, but not the kind I used. I think I'll pass and move onto another method.




10 comments:

  1. cute post! I wondered how well they would work.

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  2. I love this cuz!! Hilarious, insightful and pleasing to the senses! Hmmm, not sure if I ever would have thought to add oils to a Walmart plug in, but then again, I tried to mow the lawn tying the push mower to the back of my bike. So, cheers to creativity and genius!

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    1. A lawn mower being pulled by a bike..... I would love to see that.

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    2. Yes I have also tried this with the air wick and I was not successful. I went online and bought some porous polymer wicks. The original wicks expand because they are made of paper. I have also heard that the glades plugs in don't have this problem.

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    3. Yes I have also tried this with the air wick and I was not successful. I went online and bought some porous polymer wicks. The original wicks expand because they are made of paper. I have also heard that the glades plugs in don't have this problem.

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  3. I've tried this trick, didn't work for me either :-/

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  4. My wallflower plugins work until the oil is half gone, then...nothing...no scent, even though the plugin is warm to the touch. I ran into the SAME problem! I was going to stick some holes into the top of the wick with a needle, as it had swelled up so much that I think the fibers were actually blocking any scent from coming up. But the minute I touched the wick at the top, it fell apart, and then I couldn't get it back into the hole at the top of the diffuser! So mad! I tried poking holes anyway and then set it upside down overnight. Not ONE drop of oil came out, and no smell either.

    I have found a site that sells wicks that look like these, so I'm going to buy some and see if I can just start all over with a fresh wick.

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