What do you use to make your home smell good?
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I'm tired of the febreze plugins not lasting very long and the scent seems to disappear after 3 or 4 days.
Steam machine for cleaning, airfilters always open, climate/humidity control, no smoking.
I don't use scented stuff, it is bad for your health breathing in all these chemicals. With scented candles and incense, burned chemicals. My wife was into the diffuser stuff and all, but stopped after a few days because I had increased asthma attacks.
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Air the house out regularly, remove the sources of odor instead of trying to cover them, check and maintain moisture levels, clean drains, don't let dishes pile up, avoid synthetic textiles that emit high levels of VOCs, get bins with lids and take them out regularly, store shoes outside if possible, laundry should be in a laundry basket with airflow
Synthetic textiles are a major contributor to funky smells in my experience, and I wasn’t aware of it until a few years ago. Sheets especially (microfiber sheets are disgusting, I regret ever using them), but also window shades, couch pillows etc. They can smell nasty, and it’s a kind of lowkey rotting plastic smell. Gross. I’ve switched to as many natural textiles as possible (been on a huge linen kick lately) and my place seems much fresher.
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I'm tired of the febreze plugins not lasting very long and the scent seems to disappear after 3 or 4 days.
I keep my house very clean, and when the weather allows I open windows to let in fresh air. I also have reed diffusers throughout my house to add a little scent. IMO the key is to choose one scent for your whole house so that it smells cohesive, and to choose a scent that is mild, not too artificial or overwhelming. Right now I've got the Life in Lilac diffusers in Peppermint Bliss and they smell great. All I have to do is flip the reeds once a week.
You might also be going nose blind to the febreze plug-ins if the scent is disappearing after a couple of days.
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Synthetic textiles are a major contributor to funky smells in my experience, and I wasn’t aware of it until a few years ago. Sheets especially (microfiber sheets are disgusting, I regret ever using them), but also window shades, couch pillows etc. They can smell nasty, and it’s a kind of lowkey rotting plastic smell. Gross. I’ve switched to as many natural textiles as possible (been on a huge linen kick lately) and my place seems much fresher.
I swapped them out due to microplastics but since then the smell and VOC readings have been so much better
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I'm tired of the febreze plugins not lasting very long and the scent seems to disappear after 3 or 4 days.
Candles, preferably. I am cleaning constantly, but I've always had an overly sensitive nose so I sometimes need something stronger if there is a smell I can't get rid of.
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As someone who doesn't use these, the first things I think when I enter a home with them are:
- This smells nauseatingly, overwhelmingly artificial.
- This can't be healthy (spoiler: correct).
- I wonder what they're masking to want to spend money on these things.
- I would prefer to be outside right now.
OP, as the other comment said, keeping a relatively neutral smell hopefully is a good goal and then maybe add pleasant undertones later. Instead of trying to introduce positive smells (cook at home more often or grow some plants, and you'll get a bit of that!):
- Make sure dirty laundry is kept in a hamper with a lid and washed at regular intervals.
- If you have pets, make sure they're housetrained and that accidents are cleaned – preferably with an enzymatic cleaner. Bathe your pets regularly too. If you have small animals in an enclosure, keep that clean.
- Shower regularly, and clean your bedsheets regularly.
- Make sure the house isn't excessively humid.
- Vacuum at least periodically.
- Make sure dirty dishes don't just sit dirty out in the open for long periods.
- Make sure smelly garbage has a lid over it and is taken out routinely, especially if there's stuff like meat scraps in it.
- Open the windows on nice days when it's around room temperature.
- If it's especially bad for some reason, an air purifier may help.
- Regularly clean your bathroom.
- Keep your fridge organized so food is less likely to go bad (or bad food gets caught quickly).
- If you have a shoe rack near the door and you want to be really extra, you can once in a while deodorize your shoes. Maybe I'm a freak that I don't do this.
- Make sure the house isn't excessively cluttered.
This isn't all-or-nothing: any of these will help with the odor, and that's the goal.
wrote on last edited by [email protected]I violently agree with the first part, I HATE air fresheners with a passion.
That said, I'm extremely lax about many of the other things but have no problems with the house getting stinky (though I don't have pets, and am rigorous about not having smelly kitchen garbage, and as it is an older house is not air tight and so air does get in and out).
My laundry and shoes do not smell. Maybe I'm just lucky biochemically, but the same thinking / influences that lead people to think they need air fresheners can lead them to fuck up their skin biomes with harsh cleaners (especially anti-microbials), deodorants, and other unecessary "product" may actually lead to a greater tendency to be smelly. Houses have biomes as well and the same may apply. Unless you are immunocompromised or running an operating theatre you do NOT need antimicrobial anything.
If you sweat something up, change it right away and hang it to dry, and it should not get smelly. Do not put it wet into a closed hamper, or it WILL get smelly.
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I'm tired of the febreze plugins not lasting very long and the scent seems to disappear after 3 or 4 days.
Soap, particularly the one made for washing floors. It has a very discreet smell and doesn't linger too much. I also have quite a small bathroom so I hang laundry to dry in most other rooms.
I mostly prefer my home smelling "clean" rather than perfumed, but I have on occasion used those sticks in containers with perfumed oil, but with only one or two sticks (the fragrance can be really overpowering when using all the sticks, and the oil will last longer with fewer sticks in it) - maybe try that? It will last a few weeks at least.
Still...3-4 days sound very short for a plugin. It might be that you get used to the smell after a few days? Most of us become nose-blind to our own homes. Ask someone else to visit and tell you if they can smell it once you think the fragrance is gone.
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I'm tired of the febreze plugins not lasting very long and the scent seems to disappear after 3 or 4 days.
Whenever I cook, the house smells amazing for a few days. Last was 2 batches of banana bread!
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Incense. Lavender mostly, helps keep away certain insects too
I love incense, although I once had a neighbor and smoking buddy tell me that my place smelled like "a French whorehouse."
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I'm tired of the febreze plugins not lasting very long and the scent seems to disappear after 3 or 4 days.
The main thing I recommend is having house plants. They will filter out things in the air and will add additional oxygen which to our noises make things smell cleaner. I would also recommend cleaning more often especially your floors. We use Florida water whenever we clean our floors which lingers in in the air for days. We also leave bounce sheets under our garbage bag in our closed garbage can it captures the main source of bad odors for a house. We also use incense sticks in our bedroom which smells great. In the winter when the house gets very stinky and stale we like to set up a simmer pot. Its basically just a boiling pot filled with good smelling spices, fruits, and / or spices. It also humidifies the house which is great.
