How To Make an All Natural, Environmentally Friendly Air Freshener

Earth Day is coming up this weekend and it's Earth Month over at Imperfect Produce and I've got a fun little idea to share with you today.

The Background - Pregnancy & Smells:

This actually came out of necessity (see this post on how pregnancy nose turned into barely being able to live in our home due to a "construction smell") which I finally fixed in part with this idea.

But it's also a wonderful way to use up leftover peels from your citrus (lemon/lime/grapefruit/orange) you name it.

I do this in the winter time when I want a holiday smell in the house, but I can't stand those fake sweet candles or incense and I'm allergic to real Christmas trees. Although then I use fresh cranberries, cinnamon, cloves, apple cider, and orange peels.

Spring Smells:

For this particular, spring, version of my aromatic "homemade essential oil diffuser" I specifically wanted something fruitier and something that would use up all of my citrus peels. During my pregnancy I have been on a big citrus kick, mainly downing a bowl of cottage cheese and Imperfect Produce Grapefruit every morning - seriously I add 5-7 of them to my box every week without question. But last week I also saw blood oranges on the list and thought why not! Well I peeled one to use for this moroccan chicken taco dinner and had the extra peels. I also had my extra grapefruit peels from the morning and figured they would be the perfect aromatics for my home scent.

What I Used:

Peels from 1 grapefruit and 1 blood orange (plus any other bits you didn't eat)
1 cup apple juice or apple cider for the sweet smell
1 cinnamon stick
3 cups of water

How To:

Add it all to a pot and bring to a simmer, keep at a low simmer until liquid gets low and then just keep refilling with water. I keep it going for a couple of days at a time (of course turning off at night) then make a new batch.

If you come up with a new combo I'd love to hear about it!