Dusty, Musty and a Little Funky

If you live in the U.S. and have watched any amount of news in the past couple of weeks, there is a pretty good chance you may have seen photos or video of the enormous dust storms, or "haboobs" as they've been calling them, that have swallowed us up twice in the past two weeks. Haboobs are actually quite common in the desert but rarely do we see ones of such epic proportions. One of the storms produced a wall of dust nearly 60 miles wide and stretched 3,000 feet up into the sky. Wind gusts varied between 60 and 80 miles per hour within the cloud. Visibility dwindled to zero. The airport closed. The freeways slowed to a crawl. Thousands lost power. And every inch of my house was covered in fine layer of grit.


Phoenix metro getting gobbled by a sand monster.

Dust, heat, lack of precipitation....aren't desert summers fun?? It's for these very reasons we hole up in the house from June to September, only escaping when absolutely neccessary. We are serious about keeping the cool in, and the dusty heat out. Blinds and curtains stay shut, fans stay on, and we live in our summery semi-darkness I like to call "cave light." But just like a real cave, our house tends to get a bit musty in the summer time. Opening the windows to air things out is just not feasible this time of year. I have to come up with other options for freshen up and get rid of everyday odors.

 

Candles are good. I'm a candle girl. But because I'm a candle girl, I burn through them like crazy and can't always afford to replace them. Candles, especially the eco friendly ones, aren't cheap. I've also tried simmering yummy things in a pot to scent my home, but I forgot about it and scorched the pot so badly I had to throw it away. Chemical plug-ins and freshners work too. They aren't my favorite options (who knows what's really in them) and most require expensive refills. So how do you un-stinkify your pad without breaking the bank or depleting the ozone?

 

You make your own air freshener of course! Here's the recipe that works for me:

 

Cave Stink Eradicator

1 cup water

1 cup vodka

Essential oils – about 15-20 drops of lavender and 12-15 drops of lemon or whatever you fancy

One empty refillable spray bottle

Mix, swirl, and spray! It's that easy. Cave stink be gone!!