How do you keep your house smelling good?

[Puppmom]

I have a big dog, a baby and a teenager so sometimes I feel like it's stinky in here! I use fabric refresher on the furniture and Bath and Body Works plug in air fresheners. Other than, I just generally try to keep the house clean and vacuum every other day at least.

How do you keep your house smelling clean? I feel like what I'm doing doesn't always cut it.

 

[oranges]

open the windows and air it out -- i don't use any home fragrances- i'm allergic to most of them.

 

[Nashville]

Weather permitting, I air the house out every day. All the windows open, fans blowing so all the air is circulating up and out. I make sure the trash is taken out every night, and the dishes are done (I hate dirty dish smell!!!!)

I usually Febreze the couch and have delicious smelling candles burning pretty much all day. My house smells very inviting, like a bakery. Oddly, this greatly reduces my cravings

I also buy mostly fabrics that can be easily washed, like cotton for my curtains and furniture covers, and always have the stove vent or windows open when cooking. I'm extremely sensitive to smell!

 

[PinkTower]

I think it depends upon your climate. We are in a subtropical climate. Target has their dehumidifiers on clearance now. We got a rather large one, and getting the excess moisture out of the house makes it smell so much better.

 

[OUpearlgirl]

Keeping moderately clean and my fabulous Scentsy pot!
http://www.scentsy.net/en-us/index.aspx

 

[february2003bride]

I open windows but lately I have become hooked on Yankee Candles! Right now I'm burning Sparkling Cinnamon in the kitchen. It smells SO good in here!

 

[Imdanny]

I don't use air freshers. They only mask smell. In fact, they add to it.

I clean my house by cleaning the floor, all fabrics like the bed and curtains, and the kitchen, and, of course, getting rid of garbage.

To me, my house smells good when it has a neutral smell to it, if this makes any sense.

I live in the tropics, and in the mountains, so I have to clean my house a lot. Otherwise, everything would turn into a pile of mold.

 

[NewEnglandLady]

We have two giant dogs and I'm admittedly crazy when it comes to trying to keep the house smelling fresh. I do vacuum every day and open the windows when possible--in fact, they were open all day today. Right now in our house we have:

3 plug-ins (with fans)
4 reed diffusers
2 Renuzit air fresheners
3 bowls of potpourri
1 of those spray fresheners that goes off every 9 minutes

In addition to these, I Febreeze our bed and the sofa every single morning. Also, I use a carpet deoderizer on our rugs every Sunday (we have hardwoods).

Oh, and I try to keep the dogs bathed regularly, which is not easy since they don't exactly fit in the bathtub and it takes 2 hours to wash and dry them. I just bathed them today!

 

[monarch64]

SO is allergic to lots of things involving fragrance, and he's adverse to a lot of candle scents. I try to keep windows and doors open, weather permitting, as others have said, and it does help that the washer and dryer are on the first floor so that scent sort of permeates and helps with "freshness." Otherwise, our house probably stinks! I wash the dog's bedding almost every other day, and vacuum a lot, but I'm sure at times it smells pretty stale. Eh, all I can do is keep the joint as clean and sanitary as possible, and I just can't be bothered worrying about how it smells all the time, ya know?

 

[Autumnovember]

Reed diffusers for the bathrooms
and Yankee/Beanpod soy candles all over the place.

Me and SO love collecting candles, gosh they smell so delicious.

My favorites were: oatmeal cookie, cafe au lait (sp?), and cinnamon bun.

We usually have just one candle going at a time.

 

[monarch64]

I love candles, but aside from SO not being able to tolerate very strong scents, I am really, seriously afraid of starting a fire because I forget to blow them out! Maybe 10 years ago I had a friend who left a Yankee candle burning in her bathroom and it caught fire by way of the shower curtain it was too close to and burned the entire house down. My mother also lost her grandmother in a house fire caused by a gas explosion and when I was little, our own house's water heater exploded and started a fire that caused quite a bit of damage so I am just really freaked out by candles in general. I love them, though!

I try to take the obvious precautions, but I find that I'm still riddled with angst whenever I light one (SO will "allow" the occasional fresh linen or ocean scented ones), and it seems to take all the relaxation factor out of the whole process for me! Maybe someday I will overcome this...until then I guess I'll make do with using room sprays or potpourri.

 

[Autumnovember]

I love candles, but aside from SO not being able to tolerate very strong scents, I am really, seriously afraid of starting a fire because I forget to blow them out! Maybe 10 years ago I had a friend who left a Yankee candle burning in her bathroom and it caught fire by way of the shower curtain it was too close to and burned the entire house down. My mother also lost her grandmother in a house fire caused by a gas explosion and when I was little, our own house's water heater exploded and started a fire that caused quite a bit of damage so I am just really freaked out by candles in general. I love them, though!

I try to take the obvious precautions, but I find that I'm still riddled with angst whenever I light one (SO will "allow" the occasional fresh linen or ocean scented ones), and it seems to take all the relaxation factor out of the whole process for me! Maybe someday I will overcome this...until then I guess I'll make do with using room sprays or potpourri.

Thanks for sharing that story, I'll make SO read it. He constantly leaves candles burning while he is at work during a 14 hour shift

 

[monarch64]

Oh jeez! Ya gotta blow those suckers OUT before you leave the house!!!! Fire safety 101, girl! Ok, even though he's a Reds fan, I might have to kick your SO's butt or at least talk some sense into him!

AN--your new mission in life is to make sure all the fire is extinguished before you or he leave the house. We don't want you two cuties or your house burning down!

 

[Brown.Eyed.Girl]

I love candles too, but I can never have them in my house. One, I'm just too clumsy to trust myself with them, and two, my cats ... oh man, they will knock those down I bet. Though I miss the smell of just-blown-out candles - is that weird?

I prefer just keeping windows open to air out the house. When my kittens were going through their sensitive tummy phase (i.e. smelly poo) I used the Glade Plug-ins but I prefer to keep my house/apartment smelling fresh, rather than scented, if that makes sense.

 

[monarch64]

I love candles too, but I can never have them in my house. One, I'm just too clumsy to trust myself with them, and two, my cats ... oh man, they will knock those down I bet. Though I miss the smell of just-blown-out candles - is that weird?

I prefer just keeping windows open to air out the house. When my kittens were going through their sensitive tummy phase (i.e. smelly poo) I used the Glade Plug-ins but I prefer to keep my house/apartment smelling fresh, rather than scented, if that makes sense.

Makes total sense, B.E.G. Sometimes there's nothing worse than perfumey smells that are obviously trying to mask less splendiferous odors! Ok, bottom line, I hate flowery sprays that are meant to cover up yucky household smells. All that ends up happening is that the environment smells like perfumed sh*t. And it's more of a turn-off than if someone had just opened the windows and turned on a fan.

 

[Brown.Eyed.Girl]

I love candles too, but I can never have them in my house. One, I'm just too clumsy to trust myself with them, and two, my cats ... oh man, they will knock those down I bet. Though I miss the smell of just-blown-out candles - is that weird?

I prefer just keeping windows open to air out the house. When my kittens were going through their sensitive tummy phase (i.e. smelly poo) I used the Glade Plug-ins but I prefer to keep my house/apartment smelling fresh, rather than scented, if that makes sense.

Makes total sense, B.E.G. Sometimes there's nothing worse than perfumey smells that are obviously trying to mask less splendiferous odors! Ok, bottom line, I hate flowery sprays that are meant to cover up yucky household smells. All that ends up happening is that the environment smells like perfumed sh*t. And it's more of a turn-off than if someone had just opened the windows and turned on a fan.

Exactly! I hate using the scented stuff, because you can ALWAYS smell the nasty smell underlying it. Combined with something super scented or floral and it's just a horrible combination. Nothing can beat fresh air (I'll open my window to air out the place even in the middle of a Montana or Chicago winter - just need to bundle up first ).

 

[Autumnovember]

Oh jeez! Ya gotta blow those suckers OUT before you leave the house!!!! Fire safety 101, girl! Ok, even though he's a Reds fan, I might have to kick your SO's butt or at least talk some sense into him!

AN--your new mission in life is to make sure all the fire is extinguished before you or he leave the house. We don't want you two cuties or your house burning down!

Yeah! Its bad! I'll come in the house while he is still at work on his 12th hour and there is a candle burning that I know has been there since at least 11 am before he left the house!

I just made him promise he would stop doing that. Bad bad!

 

[monarch64]

Oh jeez! Ya gotta blow those suckers OUT before you leave the house!!!! Fire safety 101, girl! Ok, even though he's a Reds fan, I might have to kick your SO's butt or at least talk some sense into him!

AN--your new mission in life is to make sure all the fire is extinguished before you or he leave the house. We don't want you two cuties or your house burning down!

Yeah! Its bad! I'll come in the house while he is still at work on his 12th hour and there is a candle burning that I know has been there since at least 11 am before he left the house!

I just made him promise he would stop doing that. Bad bad!

Oh god...I am sending you a mental fire extinguisher! LOL, but not really!!! Ok, we have to train this man to put out fires for his lady. YOU ARE IN CHARGE!

 

[Autumnovember]

Oh jeez! Ya gotta blow those suckers OUT before you leave the house!!!! Fire safety 101, girl! Ok, even though he's a Reds fan, I might have to kick your SO's butt or at least talk some sense into him!

AN--your new mission in life is to make sure all the fire is extinguished before you or he leave the house. We don't want you two cuties or your house burning down!

Yeah! Its bad! I'll come in the house while he is still at work on his 12th hour and there is a candle burning that I know has been there since at least 11 am before he left the house!

I just made him promise he would stop doing that. Bad bad!

Oh god...I am sending you a mental fire extinguisher! LOL, but not really!!! Ok, we have to train this man to put out fires for his lady. YOU ARE IN CHARGE!

I'll be there allllll weekend long which means I get to supervise his behavior

 

[geckodani]

I am a candle girl for the most part. Mmmm.

Here's an alternative idea. Put a few drops of essential oil in your vacuum bag, or on a small scrap of tissue in the canister if you have a bagless and vacuum. I sprinkle lavendar flowers on the carpet and vacuum them up and it has the same effect.

 

[meresal]

After 2 months of baby, I was worried our house was starting to smell like his diapers, so I put Plug-in's in each of the bedrooms (minus the nursery). I hid them in sockets that you can't see easily, and it has actually spread thru our house VERY well. It always smells good when I come in the door.

I didn't put them in our main areas (kitchen, living room, den, dining room) because I didn't want the scent to be overbearing, and I didn't want them to be seen.

ETA: I also have candles around the house, but don't light them. However, at holiday time I buy a certain candle and light it every night I get home from work.

 

[MichelleCarmen]

I love soy candles and burn those at night. My new cat (still technically a kitten) is racing around on counters, etc., so now we don't burn them nightly, just a few times a week.

Also have a plug in essential oil for one room.

Every morning I open all the windows. We have A LOT of windows in our living room b/c we also have french doors that open to a deck so bright light and fresh open windows help wake me up!

 

[elrohwen]

Fresh air works best for me. I have two bunnies - they don't really smell, but they go through a lot of hay which tends to leave the place smelling a bit like a barn. Opening the window closest to their cage seems to help the most. We open windows almost every day, even in the winter.

Vinegar helps to capture smells. If things are getting bad I'll put out a small dish of vinegar - the vinegar-y smell dissipates after a little while and then it sucks up some of the odors in the air. Also, wiping down with a 50/50 water/vinegar solution helps a lot. I really dislike smelly things like candles or air fresheners, so I never use them. We have a Febreeze Air Freshener spray, but that only gets used if the garbage can (the big one in the garage) gets super bad for some reason (and hosing it down isn't really an option on a weeknight when it's filled with garbage bags)

 

[TooPatient]

Clean house mostly. I'm very allergic to scented stuff (including most candles, sprays, plug-ins, potpouri, oils...) so that doesn't work for us and it is getting to the time of year where it is just too wet outside to open windows without being miserable.

Dirty dishes get loaded & washed each night. Trash/recycling taken out to bins. Sink rinsed with boiling water (usually left over from the kettle when I make my tea). Stove/counters wiped as needed using vinegar or Lysol kitchen.

Vacuuming MUST be done daily (just a quick vacuum is okay with more detailed vacuuming twice a week) -- we've got 2 cats and 2 dogs so the fur and dirt really piles up fast.
Every once in a while (monthly or so) I sprinkle baking soda on the little bit of carpet we have and let it sit for 20 minutes before vacuuming.

Laundry must be kept up with - I toss a load in the wash every night when I take the cat food downstairs then switch it to the dryer in the morning when feeding. Repeat daily and the pile of laundry stays pretty small (or even gone).

Bedding & couch-covers get washed at least once a week (I try for twice).

Dog bed gets washed weekly.

I toss 1/2 cup or so of baking soda in with the towls, couch cover, and bedding on occassion for extra freshness. (I think this is hard on the fabric so I only do it once a month or so)


If I'm TOO exhausted I'll rinse the dishes and vacuum just the living room but I usually wind up regretting that.

Also, I open the windows whenever practical to let fresh air in.

 

[gemgirl]

I try to get fresh air into the house every day, except in the dead of winter when it's freezing outside. I keep the house clean and the floors vacuumed, sometimes not absolutely perfectly, but clean. The dogs get a good bath once a month like clockwork and when they get bathed, their bedding is thrown into the washing machine.

Other than just keeping everything clean, I light a Yankee Candle every morning for about four hours and in the winter I bake a lot. The candles and cooking and baking give the house a nice natural homey smell.

 

[sctsbride09]

I hear you, puppmom. DH and I have 2 dogs, so I feel like its a never ending battle sometimes lol. Heres what I do..

I vacuum daily, really helps with all that darn hair. Once a week I sprinkle baking soda on the carpet 15 minutes prior.

Candles, I mostly like the ones that are seasonal (pumpkin spice, apple cinnamon, etc) so when I run out of those, I like to simmer some water on the stove along with some cinnamon sticks and cloves, smells delish.

Other than that I just try to keep the house nice and clean ( i have bad allergies, so I cant tolerate dust, or much pet hair), keep the dogs clean (and brushed daily too, outside!), keep up on the laundry, and air the house whenever I feel like it.

 

[OUpearlgirl]

I love candles too, but I can never have them in my house. One, I'm just too clumsy to trust myself with them, and two, my cats ... oh man, they will knock those down I bet. Though I miss the smell of just-blown-out candles - is that weird?

I prefer just keeping windows open to air out the house. When my kittens were going through their sensitive tummy phase (i.e. smelly poo) I used the Glade Plug-ins but I prefer to keep my house/apartment smelling fresh, rather than scented, if that makes sense.

My cat is the number one reason I switched to Scentsy. I witnessed her tail go through the flame and immediately after putting the fire out, I threw away some candles.

I do love WoodWick, though, sometimes I will burn one while I'm in the bathtub!

 

[packrat]

I have a Scentsy pot like OUPeargirl does. I love it.

I also am addicted to Clorox cleaners b/c they have a bleach smell and it smells so clean to me. Or vinegar. I love to clean with vinegar. And, I admit, I'm a bit of a Febreeze nut. It smells like clean laundry and I like it.

I like having the windows open but the DUST that comes in is about enough to give me heart failure. Especially now during harvest time. Our ceiling fans run 24/7 and the dust that cakes on the blades is horrific. And the dust that gets into the vents/duct work. Ack. Trapper stuck something in the vent yesterday so I pulled the cover off and got a bit light headed when I saw the nastiness in there. Time to scrape up the cash to have them cleaned. That stores odors too. I have a super sensitive nose to smells so I'm taking a big snort every time I come home to make sure it doesn't smell icky.

 

[Puppmom]

Thanks guys - I'm definitely going to try some of these suggestions. I opened the windows today! I think we're going to have to break down and get a dehumidifier too. I'm noticing it's pretty moist in here. I can tell because the laundry takes forever to hang dry and sometimes smells a little mildewy. Oh, how I love REWASHING everything!

The dog doesn't usually smell "doggie" but, every now and then, he's a stinky boy! My daughter's room is STINK-E! There's nothing quite like the smell of teenage BO covered up with cheap scent.

 

[Autumnovember]

The dog doesn't usually smell "doggie" but, every now and then, he's a stinky boy! My daughter's room is STINK-E! There's nothing quite like the smell of teenage BO covered up with cheap scent.

Is it weird that I miss that smell?