To think air fresheners are for dirty people who don't open windows enough?

[deliakate]

They are so hideous, and actually make my eyes smart, as I discovered when house hunting.

The only time (apart from obvious causes that were easy to remedy, like an un-emptied nappy bin, or cooking smells) that I've noticed a gross smell in my house was when the spare room wasn't getting hoovered regularly enough, so we just stepped up the cleaning.

All the adverts for them, please can't people just air their homes more??

Love these MN threads which are really all about class.

As somebody already said; air fresheners are 'naff' or Hyacinth Bouquet ie. lower middle.

If you are truly classy then you just jolly well open a window to let out the smell of wet dog/pony.

It's just the silly old cleaner who fusses about with glade or fabreze isn't it ?

We open the windows and doors AND use air freshner (well, I do, DH hates it).
What class does that make me?

But if you were really posh you'd have a massive house in the countryside and opening the windows would be likely to make the house smell more like shit than keeping them closed.

Beeswax candles, oil burner and fresh flowers here! One star-gazer lilly can easily scent a room. Shearer beeswax candles are pretty good value for money, IMO. LOVE my oil burner, particularly with Culpepper oil blends. I have a Price's Housekeeper's candle in the kitchen and loo for particularly stinky times.

I rest my case

It is the same type of people who clean with white vinegar as they couldn't possibly let their delicate little mits come into contact with a CHEMICAL even though natural things are also made of chemicals

Its slightly different in the loo if you don't have a window in there. But in normal rooms - bad. Its not about class though. The whole fresh air, clean as a new pin, scrub the front step thing is more working class than upper, surely?

Fresh air clean as a new pin is working class circa 1940. Post war it's all been about chemicals. Which is fine by me.

Anyway deliakate you said loo rather than toilet so you've outed yourself as yet another middle class MNetter.

I bet they all swear by glade and fabreze on the other parenting website

Hang on I"ve got lost here. To busy thinking about smell/air freshener combo"s.Are you middle class if you use air fresheners or if you open windows.Please clarify so I know whether to pay union dues or not.

My next door neighbour is addicted to them and she smokes. When she opens her patio doors near our back garden, I have to go back inside the house because I feel so sick

They are hideous and vile. They use them in my place of work and I often take the batteries out in secret.

Maybe it's just about sense of smell? A lot of smokers seem to use air fresheners, nor realising that to non-smokers, it smells of stale fags and chemicals.

Glad to hear that other people hate Lilies too - hideous suffocating scent and every once a decade single time anybody sends me flowers they are always ridden with the bloody things.

The make me feel ill

Not all rooms have good ventilation, so I don't have a problem with air fresheners - some smell lovely and are quite subtle!

Having said that, I nearly threw my DH's magic tree out of the car when I was 7 weeks pg! At that stage, everything made me feel sick.

Surely if you are working then you will have locked up your house and windows for all the hours you are out of the house.
You can't leave open windows wafting lovely fresh diesel fumes air round the house while you are out.

I love my unscented Oust in the windowless loo - makes it feel like we care, even if the man poo is overwhelming.

notletting - How well I remember the combined effect of early pregnancy and car trees on a hot summer's day!

Glad that"s settled then.

Man poo & Oust.
Good combo.

I agree, if it smells clean it. As for bathrooms that is what extractor fans are fir.

Pip, you don't need to leave them open all day, even if you're working you can open them for a few minutes in the morning. I don't like air fresheners, would rather just open a window. I don't think it's dirty people that use them, it's more likely people who are obsessive about cleaning.

for the man poo/fart stench, I do really recommend this stuff. Ignore all the guff about mood etc, it is the most effective stink neutraliser I have come across, and as I said before, it doesn't hang about itself. It has a nice lemony scent which works fast and disappears about 2 minutes later. I used it between clients in my rooms, and also use it on DH (who really is stinky). It lasts ages as well - I brought a bottle out to Australia when I came here 2y ago and it's still going, so although it appears expensive, it's good value for money.

Or man poo.......

sausagesandmarmalade, the more meat you eat the smellier your poo will be -that is one reason why MOST men's poo smells more than MOST women's poo, as men eat far more meat. Think dog-poo compared with horse poo.

It does depend on the person though. My dh and my son smell far worse than dd - I don't think one can judge one's own poo very effectively!

The air freshener and the window locked open in the middle class loo here.