Recharging the Car Air Freshener

Spring is the time of year we notice dead animals on the side of the road…especially skunks! I’m sure they are all on their way to find food, or they are young ones who haven’t learned about traffic. (Maybe this is just a Pennsylvania issue!) Their odor gets sucked into the car as we drive by and it’s obvious…I need to think about “recharging” my air freshener!

In the past, I’ve tried commercial air fresheners that just hang on the rearview mirror. That lasts about 15 minutes before I pull off at a gas station and throw it away! The scent is always too strong and ends up being worse than letting the skunk smell into the car!

Two years ago, I explored ways to use my own essential oils (fragrance oils work too), to make an air freshener. There were a few ideas online using wood as the item to soak up the oil:

There were even suggestions of a slice of a branch to hang in the car. Either way, once the wood had soaked up the oil, it gently released the scent in the warm car.

Exploring the internet this year, I noticed a new air freshener attachment offered for sale. It had sticks that reached the little jar of oil and soaked it up to the round pieces at the top. Interesting. I think I’ll stick with the one Bert made me.

Two years ago, Bert ended up fastening a round block of wood to a clip with screws to hold it in place. Glue wasn’t strong enough. It was very time consuming to make, but it worked great!

This week, after one more time with skunk smell in the car, I pulled out the wood piece and chose the oil I wanted to use…vanilla and cinnamon sounded good!

I clipped the wood with clip to the side of a glass and proceeded to soak the wood with essential oil. The bottles were almost empty and seemed a great way to use up the oil.

Over a day, I added oil several time to really soak the piece of wood. It made the whole room smell good!

The last step was to plug it into the vent. When the warm air flowed by and through the wood, the whole car smelled good. Luckily, it wasn’t too strong either. Now we can drive by the dead skunks on the side of the road and not choke!

Since, of course, I like sharing stuff with others, I ordered more clips and Bert ordered more wood circles. With his advice, we tried to choose a different clip that would be easier to attach the wood piece. We’ll see how that works! Enjoy!