If you’re like most people, you enjoy opening your dryer door and removing clothes, sheets and kitchen towels that have a fresh, clean scent. And on days you forgot to take out the garbage, you’d probably prefer to never come home again to find the smell of your house resembling a cross between a spoiled potato and a wet dog.

If you’re like most people, you may also find yourself reaching for the store-bought, chemically concocted fabric softeners, room sprays and candles promising to cover up or mask unpleasant household smells, even if you’re not sure what they’re made of. Whether or not you’re bothered by the strong scents you encounter when you walk into the cleaning aisle at your local supermarket, those heady fragrances are loaded with toxins that are anything but good for you or anybody else.

In fact, more than 600 volatile organic compounds (VOCs — read: carcinogenic) substances waft their way through your home from the laundry products you use, including detergents, liquid fabric softeners and dryer sheets. If you’re looking for a product that can cut through odors, but you’d rather use something that’s all natural and free of artificial fragrances and dyes, here’s some good news: You can make your own, and all you need are four ingredients.

Recipe for an All Natural, Homemade Odor Eliminator

This recipe for a completely natural fabric and room freshener spray rivals anything you can buy at your local supermarket or dollar store, but without the toxic ingredients. In fact, other than water, the other three ingredients contain powerful and unique healing properties. Here’s all you need:

• 1 cup (8 ounces) of water
• 6 droppers of colloidal silver (about 1/2 tablespoon)
• 40 drops of lavender oil (about 1/2 teaspoon)
• 40 drops of eucalyptus oil (about 1/2 teaspoon)

Mix the ingredients in a glass measuring cup, then pour into a spray bottle and shake gently before each use. It’s that easy. (Note: It’s always a good idea to test a small corner of any fabric before applying essential oils.) The ingredients in this spray are derived from plants and minerals, quite unlike those chemical-laced offerings designed to make your laundry, kitchen, furniture, bathrooms and other areas of your household smell nice.

The formula has been carefully considered, as for one thing, lavender essential oil is recommended for clothing as opposed to other oils like lemon that may stain your clothes. Eucalyptus and lavender both contain a number of purifying compounds, and colloidal silver has powerful antibacterial, antifungal and antiviral properties.

The Attributes of Lavender Oil

Lavender (Lavandula angustifolia) oil has been used for millennia, as far back as the ancient Greeks, Romans and Persians. It was often used it in bathwater for both purification and fragrance, hence, the word “lavender” which means “to wash” in Latin. Lavender is a natural disinfectant and deodorant that’s been used in the most primitive settings, even for mummification, and castle keepers sprinkled it liberally on rush floors to disinfect and deodorize.

Today it’s a common ingredient in laundry soap, shower gels, candles and drawer sachets. Lavender oil is also an effective and soothing emollient to massage into your skin. Add it to an Epsom salt foot bath for sore, tired feet, and be aware that vaporized lavender oil is effective as a muscle relaxer. The light fragrance is also noted for helping relieve insomnia.

One reason lavender is effective for all these purposes and in healing is because of its volatile, organic compounds, explaining why it’s so soothing added to a hot compress to ease the pain of sprained muscles or tendons. With over 150 different components, pure lavender oil is chemically complex, with antifungal, antidepressant, antibacterial, antimicrobial, antiseptic and numerous other “anti” properties that do more than smell nice.