My car has recently had the scent of teenage boys. My son is training for a mini marathon and I have hauled him and his friends back and forth to practice. I honestly had no idea boys could smell that bad. So, to help make the car smell better I decided to make this DIY car vent air freshener.
I love using my essential oils as an air freshener, so I figured I would try to make something with them. I immediately thought of the air vent fresheners and wondered how I could make one of those. I came up with the idea for these decorative air fresheners. They are not only cute but because they go into the vent they make the car smell better than the hanging air fresheners. Plus they only cost a dollar or two to make.
I started with some large bobby pins. Depending on the size of your vents you might be able to get away with regular sized bobby pins, but these worked better on my vents.
I used some old cardboard to make sure the bobby pins didn't get hot glued together when I was gluing on the ribbon. I just placed the bobby pins on the cardboard.
Next, I cut some ribbon to the length I needed to cover the bobby pins. I added an extra finger spacing in so I could slip in a cotton ball.
I then used a hot glue gun to glue on the ribbon. If you don't have a hot glue gun, you can use any glue that will work on both fabric and metal. I placed the glue on the bobby pin and then I pressed the ribbon onto the bobby pin.
Once I had given it time for the glue to dry I removed them from the cardboard. I cut a cotton ball in two and added 4 drops of essential oil to each cotton ball. I used a sweet orange, but you can use whatever scent you would like in your car. Vanilla may be a great one to try too. I am not brand picky with essential oils, but I do love Fabulous Frannie essential oils. I have noticed that they are just as good as the more expensive brands but cost much less. You can head over here to grab one of their gift sets or just buy one bottle. They are usually less than $5 a bottle.
Then I slid the cotton ball into the space at the end of the bobby pin.
You can now just slip the bobby pin over one of the vent flaps and let the car fill up with a great scent. The best part is you can use them over and over. When the scent starts to disappear, just add another couple of drops of essential oils to the cotton ball. If you want to try a new scent just throw out your old cotton balls and add some new ones.
I love how easy these are to make, plus I like the decorative ribbon instead of plain black air vent freshener. It adds a pop of color and scent to my car.
Loren says
About how long would the scent last with the initial 4 drops?
Julie says
Mine usually lasts for about 2-3 weeks. It depends on how strong you like the scent to be.
Shirley Fenstermaker says
Love this. My hubby always spends way too much on air fresheners.