how to have a great smelling home?

[ServingGod]

What do you do?? My home doesnt smell gross...but I want it to smell better.

[Krystyne]

I used home fragarnce oils from the bodyshop, Either lemon basil, of pink grapefruit. I also take the left over orange peels and boil them with some nut meg and cinnamon. I open up the windows even on a cold day to bring in fresh air.

[Mothering by Heart]

I have a ring that sits on a light bulb. I put essential oils in that.

You can also put EOs in a spray bottle with water and spray around your home.

[Soliloquy]

We open windows every day of the year--no matter what the weather. Even if it's just for a few minutes, the fresh air does wonders. On days where it's nice, they're open 24 hours. We prolong turning the heat or A/C on as long as possible by dressing warmly or using fans as needed.

Certain plants are really good at absorbing odors and chemicals in the air. Spider plant is one, but I know there's others, too.

[gamomof2]

Candles, candles, candles!! I have a candle in every room (except my kids' rooms of course) and I keep them lit when I am there. My favorites are Yankee candles. I also have airwick air wizards plugged in to the outlets in my bathrooms and in the kitchen. I also love sprinkling baking soda mixed with a nice smelling essential oil on my carpet before vaccuuming. My favorite is lavendar. :grin

Also, it helps to regularly clean out your trashcan when you take the bag out.

[ArmsOfLove]

Yes--ita with the candles. I love scented candles and they smell wonderful even if I don't light them :)

[jujubnme]

Someone here posted before about putting EO drops in the vacuum bag before vacuuming. I tried it with pepperment EO, and the house smelled all fresh and minty after I vacuumed. :grin

[Mothering by Heart]

You can also put a few drops of EO on a cotton ball and suck it up with the vacuum.
I second opening the windows.

[DebraBaker]

Bake homemade.

Cook homemade.

Put citrus down the garbage disposal.

Use lemoney cleaners.

Dittos on the candles.

Lavendar.

If things are a little stale sprinkle baking soda on carpet and upolstery(sp) and vacume.

Debra Baker

[Punkie]

I either cook (that's my dh's fave way to make the house smell good!) or light candles / eo diffusers. It just depends on what I'm in the mood for :)

[poetmom]

Candles, candles, candles!! I have a candle in every room (except my kids' rooms of course) and I keep them lit when I am there. My favorites are Yankee candles. I also have airwick air wizards plugged in to the outlets in my bathrooms and in the kitchen. I also love sprinkling baking soda mixed with a nice smelling essential oil on my carpet before vaccuuming. My favorite is lavendar. :grin

Also, it helps to regularly clean out your trashcan when you take the bag out.


I have scented candles burning all the time here, too...and my girls are preteen/teens, so they are allowed to have one in their rooms, also. Amy has Chocolate Truffle from Yankee Candle, and Adrienne has a berry (I think Raspberry) soy candle we got at the Renaissance Faire last fall....my favorite right now is my lilac soy candle, also from the Ren Faire. I'm definitely planning to get some more THIS year (dh wants to try "Sex on the Beach"....LOL).

[Soliloquy]

I want to ditto the baking soda. Once in awhile, I'll sprinkle the carpets with baking soda before we go outside. When we come in an hour or so later, I vacuum it up. It really works!

Also, eucalyptus smells wonderful! I prefer to buy fresh and dry it myself, but the dried stuff at craft stores smells great, too. (Unfortunately, one of our cats thinks it's for him, so we can't have any at the moment!)

You can simmer on the stove or in a crock-pot some sliced lemons or cinnamon sticks, too.

[TulipMama]

A bowl of vinegar will eliminate smoke smells (if you have a smoky fireplace or someone in your home smokes.) It will also eat up urine and dog smells. The house where we are living had three dogs in it before--horrid dog smell in the master bedroom. Between opening the windows and vinegar, it's pretty much gone.

[ServingGod]

vinegar bowls??? Really! My dog peed last night when we were gone....it smells wretched. :banghead :banghead Im going to have to try that.

[Boys and Angels]

What do you do?? My home doesnt smell gross...but I want it to smell better.


LOL! Aside from cleaning with scented bleach, the smells in my house come mostly from cooking!

[GodisGood]

Replace your carpets and paint! :giggle Ok, a less expensive suggestion is the baking soda on the carpets suggestion. Works wonders. :)

[kalemommy]

Scented candles aren't really common here. I prefer to just have the windows open. We open them even when there's snow outside. It's very healthy.

[Mother of Sons]

I hate having our windows open because the house gets full of mosquitos. Plus I don't think it's safe with the kids. Our stupid dog has wrecked every stitch of carpet we have in the house so I think our only hope really is to get rid of all the carpeting AND the dog although realistically, neither is going to happen any time soon.

I did buy some scented oil that plugs in from the pet store. It's suposed to get rid of pet and house odors. It's working pretty good downstairs. I can stand to be there now.

[newdawn]

I tried the essential oils with the vacuum in my apartment last year, and it works!
I put a few drops on a shredded tissue, though, didn't have any cotton balls.
I used rose, or hyacinth, or lavendar.

I also used a plug in that took drops of essential oil onto a little cardboard strip, and it came with several strips, so you could change the scent. It got hot, though; I had to watch it.

I have black cherry candles (from walmart) in one bathroom and in my kitchen cupboards (I've never lit them, though...at Christmas I'll light candles), and lavendar in the other bathroom. Avalon bar soaps smell wonderfully, too. I love the lavendar one, but can't find it anywhere.

X-O cleaner for bad pet smells on the carpet...expensive, but it even took out our rabbit spray odor back home, and a gallon of milk that broke in the back seat of the car in the summer, phew that was awful.

When I remember, I spray Febreeze in the diaper pail and trash can bag. Sometimes on the carpets when they're really bad.