Deodorizing Disks for Trash Cans, Cars, and More

Supplies:
Baking soda
Essential oil
Water
Soap mold, cookie cutter, or piece of foil

We humans face a constant battle of odors throughout our lives. There are unpleasant smells in shoes, musty smells in the basement, and what is that odor coming out of your child’s room? We wage the battle by using spray fresheners, gel fresheners, scented candles, sachets, and other aromatic products. It becomes expensive, especially since you know that you’ll never completely win the war. Keep on fighting, though, by replacing some of those store-bought products with ones that you make yourself; it’s super easy to create gel air fresheners, jar fresheners, and sachets. Another easy deodorizer is made in the form of a disk and will keep even the most stinky place – the trash can – clean and fresh.

You might already be using aromatic trash bags, and they can help, but nothing beats the deodorizing power of a homemade disk. You’ll be able to tame odors in trash cans, vehicles, shoe closets, cat litter box areas, and other smelly places, for pennies. It won’t take a long time to make the disks and each one will last about a month. You probably can’t say that about your aromatic trash bags.

You don’t absolutely have to get out measuring spoons and such; you’ll end up about the same way if you guess at the ingredients. The recipe is so simple that you can’t mess it up. Just pour some baking soda into a bowl and add about eight drops of essential oil (lavender is a good choice) for every two ounces baking soda. Before stirring it together, put in a little water, and then mix. If needed, add more water, and work at creating a thick paste.

Put the paste mixture into a mold, a cookie cutter, or even a piece of shaped foil. Allow to sit out at room temperature until it hardens. When it’s setup completely just pop it out of the mold. Put a disk in the bottom of the trash can, another under a seat in the car, and another behind the cat litter box. The lovely aroma overwhelms other bad smells and leaves you with a fresh, clean place.

Each disk will last about a month and then you can throw it away – or even use it again. When you put the disk in the washer with, say, a load of smelly shoes, the disk will deodorize them as it melts away forever.