How to make your house smell amaaazing (on a budget!!)

[Rory786]

We recently had a leak so have a horrible damp smell in the house, any tips for making the house smell nice. TIA

M&S have gorgeous diffuser oils for about £3 a bottle. I bought loads of them. I put a few drops of a cotton wool ball in the vacuum cleaner and rub a drop or two onto radiators.

Also, washing soft furnishings and curtains makes the house smell wonderful for weeks.

I put tumble drier sheets under the carpets and in cushions and the house always smells nice.

Ffs please do not listen to anyone suggesting putting things in vacuums or on lightbulbs! Or the zoflora or fabric conditioner diluted in bottle sprayers. I'm not sure the insurance would pay out if your house burned down.

See if you can hire a dehumidifier if you can't borrow or buy one. All windows open for a period every single day. You need to tackle the source.

Big bunch of rosemary in a glass of water.

Damp house here too! (Saving up to get it sorted)
My friend got me a wax melter (burner?) thing. You plug it in switch it on and it melts the scented wax cake thing.
My living room smells lovely now as I put it on when I am home which is rarely.
The nice smell also lingers. I don't dread coming home now so I do recommend one. Think you can get the burners cheaper off the likes of Amazon than an "official" retailer. I then buy my wax melt things from a friend who does scentsy stuff, but they last aaaages so isn't a big cost.

You know those huge bars of soap you get in TK Maxx? There’s one tucked behind every radiator in our house. Works a treat.

@Alsohuman don't they melt? Touching the radiator itself, do you mean?

Honestly all these essentials oils/candles do not make a house smell nice!

No smoking inside
ALWAYS open windows when cooking
Open a few bedroom/bathroom windows for a good air out each day

also wondering how the soap doesn’t melt

Boil up a bit of orange peel and cinnamon, cloves or aniseed with water in a pan. The whole house will smell amazing.

Incense sticks

They're cheap and the smell is long lasting

The fabric softener/water/bicarb mix is absolutely fine for all soft furnishings.

The thought of a house doused in fabric softener or zoflora gives me a headache!
I would also recommend a dehumidifier and also windows open as much as possible. Fresh air through the house works wonders.
I also enjoy stove top “pot pourri”. There’s loads of recipes online... here’s a few to get you started...

Soak cotton pads in a bit of cinnamon oil (or another scent you like) and tuck them into your radiators.

Pour a cap of vanilla and some water into an ovenproof cup and bake for an hour at 100c.

Oil burners

I wouldn't put bleach on the walls you're only adding more liquid! Bleach will not kill mold that is growing on porous walls.

The problem with boiling infused water so that it scents the house, or spraying liquid everywhere or using a scent diffuser is that the house is already damp and you are only adding to the moisture doing all that stuff.

I would say open windows are the best starting point.

Be careful with essential oils if you have pets- some of them can be toxic to cats even in the air

I open windows daily. Bedroom ones open 7/24 unless out.

Also when going away I always make sure hard floors are swept, and swished over with week solution of Zoflora or Dettol. Loos flushed and cleaned, ecover spritz in bowl. All counters washed down with zoflora/dettol. Wooden floors and wooden furniture cleaned with method polish/cleaner or Wood Silk. Even when away for 2 weeks, when I return my home smells lovely fresh and clean.

I use natural essential oils. Few drops in a small bowl. Few drops on a slice of kitchen roll and placed in empty vases.
I'm asthmatic so can't use aerosols (air freshener / spray deoderant) or any chemicals (lots of household cleaners)
So use a lot of lemon etc.
Zoflora I think is massively overused due to Mrs H et al. It's massively chemical. And I worry about friends who use it with asthmatic kids.
Also agree with opening windows as much as possible.

I have a couple of oil burners, one upstairs and one down. I'm currently using a blend of sweet orange oil, bergamot and sandalwood oils and it smells amazing. Also Shearer's Amber Noir candles.

@ConorMcGregorsChin I’ve used Zoflora for decades. Nothing to do with Mrs H ... who ever she is

A proper electric dehumidifier is probably best but we also have one of these in the bathroom and it definitely lessens the damp smell caused by an ineffectual fan.

We had this problem a few weeks ago, very cold and rainy weather for weeks here in aus. After the problem was fixed (Gap around aN air vent, endless rain so it couldn’t dry out) we opened the windows whenever it was dry out, kept fans going and borrowed a dehumidifier. When it was at its worst we had a few open boxes of washing powder to mask the smell. The damp and smell is gone completely now.

Thank you everyone- great ideas.

Just want to run in with an important point. Don’t fling bicarbonate around if there is still any dampness. I tried it once to get rid of the smell of cat pee. Turned out the pee wasn’t fully dried and I ended up with a cake of cat pee and bicarbonate that hardened to the consistency of a house brick and had to be chipped off the carpet.

Lots of candles to absorb smells. Windows open daytime.

I don’t want my house to smell nice. I just want it to have no smell at all.