Make Your Home Smell Amazing, Naturally! DIY Reed Diffusers

Not to scare you (BOO!), but the chemicals found in most air fresheners and candles are absolutely terrifying. From carcinogens to elements that irritate airways, most chemical ‘fresheners’ are anything but fresh. While I love my diffuser for clearing the air, there’s another natural way to make your home smell amazing with no harmful ingredients– DIY reed diffusers! They are a cinch to make and work beautifully in areas that don’t easily accommodate diffusers like bathrooms, closets and litter box areas. In my opinion, homemade reed diffusers should be in the natural cleaning hall of fame (there’s totally one of those, right?)

While you can use wooden kabobs as the reeds, I’ve had better success using actual reeds I ordered online. They pull the liquid up better than kabobs so the minimal investment was well worth it. See those little holes in the reeds? It’s like an essential oil super speedway of heavenly scent.

As for the bottle, use anything that will fit your reeds! You can use mason jars with a narrow opening in the lid:

Antique bottles (wash them realllly well in case they contain trace amounts of whatever was in them previously):

Or any narrow mouthed glass bottles or vases, you can find them at The Dollar Store, craft stores, thrift stores, or online right here.

You want to aim for a 30% essential oil to 70% carrier oil combo. Or 20/80, but no less than that or you won’t get a proper scent. Use your favorite oil (I only use Young Living because it’s pure, and I also prefer citrus oils for this project because they’re less expensive). For carrier oils, use a lighter one like sweet almond oil because the heavier ones won’t travel up the reeds as well.

Ingredients:

1/4 cup of carrier oil (such as sweet almond oil)

30 drops of essential oil

1 TB Vodka (helps it travel up the reeds better)

4-5 Reeds

Directions:

1. Mix together the oils and vodka. Pour into the container (you may need to use a funnel).
2. Place reeds in the bottle. Let the mixture saturate the reeds for about an hour, then flip them so the saturated end is sticking out and the clean end is in the oil.
3. You’ll want to flip every week to continually renew the wonderful scent! When you notice there’s no scent even after flipping, you’ll need to replace the reeds and refresh the mixture.

Favorite reed diffuser oils and combos:

• Lemon and Lavender
• Lime and Thieves
• Citrus Fresh
• Rosemary and Lemon
• Cinnamon and Orange
• Lemon and Lime
• Grapefruit
• Tangerine
• Purification

Don’t they look so pretty? This is the shelf in our bathroom so they do double duty there.

Here’s the supplies I mentioned:

And of course my very favorite essential oils can be found here.

Go ahead, whip up a bunch of these reed diffusers and enjoy your naturally fresh air!

This post is sponsored by my Young Living business! Check out my essential oils page for more information on how you can get these amazing oils in your hands too along with helpful freebies, a gift from me, and tons of support: