What's the best way to improve a stale smelling house

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I'm out a lot. I'll often leave for work at 6am and arrive home at 11pm. I'm really aware that my house smells stale when I get home. I know all the common sense and correct advice about ventilation etc but I'm not home enough to do it.
I'm also slightly hindered by having an internal kitchen with no windows so smells do linger. Anyone got some really good air freshener or scented items recommendations?

Leave all of the internal doors open so that air can circulate.

Keep bedroom and bathroom windows open. Mine are open 24/7.

You need to remove the stale air and replace it with fresh air. Just adding more smells on top, even if they are nice smells, won’t help. Open windows and run the extractor in the kitchen to draw fresh air through the house.

Yeah my problem is not being in for long enough to do this

love the pine cone idea and lots of other good tips here- thank you!

Can you put your windows on a latch? This is what we do and we rarely even close them at night time through the spring and summer.

I got an air purifier off amazon with a little slot for essential oils, I have it set up in the upstairs hallway with lavender in and run it 24/7. It smells amazing when you come in the front door.

If you dry your clothes inside that could also be contributing.

Oh...missed the bit about coming home at 11PM. You obviously can't open all the windows then! But on the days you're home earlier, and when you're cooking, getting in the habit of letting the house air will help a lot.

I don't personally like artificial air cleansers or fresheners at all, and they're potentially not good for you.

I mentioned essential oils but you still need to be working with fresh air otherwise you're just masking the staleness.

if you don't want to leave windows open all day- open at least one, as wide as possible, on each side of the house on each floor as soon as you get in. (creates a draft) making sure all internal doors are open. Leave them open at least 10 minutes.

And then leave them cracked open all night. (if you can, do the 10 min thing again in the morning. It is the German Way and it's pretty good.

Also check behind furniture that you rarely move, wardrobes, sideboards etc, to make sure there's no mould growing or whatever.

I'd have a look at what is causing the smells. Humidity or damp, pets, soft furnishings that need a good wash, carpets or rugs that need cleaning, laundry, bins, or just upping the cleaning tasks a bit. Don't add other smells to try to cover it up.

Have you tried wiping your walls and ceilings? They get dirty too and can hold onto smells over time from things like cooking, smoking and drying clothes.

Valentte do amazing reed diffusers and oil drops, I used to spend££££ on Ko Malone reed diffusers at the airport until I discovered them. The Rosemary one is my favourite, it smells fresh and clean.

I suspect you have a whiff coming from somewhere and that’s where the lingering stale odour is originating. I had a slow leak from the dishwasher waste just dripping behind it it was tiny but created a stale smell as it dried that was hard to pin down. I’d check under sink cupboard drip tray from behind fridge, behind radiator, scrub out the bin.

Lots of good ideas on here already. Just be careful with plug ins as they are not great for your lungs especially with low ventilation and no good for pets, if you have any.
Does your bin lid close tightly? Ours didn’t and was the cause of a lot of our stale whiffs. I swear by zoflora and have a diluted solution that I spray in the sink plug hole before I go out. Extractors need cleaning too and often smell stale, maybe check those.

My friend often buys these for me for Christmas and/or birthday. They are lovely!

Don’t do this. You are trying to mask a stale smell by creating toxic indoor air pollution. Just open some windows when you are home. I only do once a week or so and my home smells fine.

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3018511/

Assuming you have an extractor fan in a bathroom get it switched out for one that’s on continuously. They pump fresh air in and stale air out.
https://www.extractorfanworld.co.uk/continuous-running-fans-121-c.asp
greenimprove.co.uk/benefits-continuous-ventilation-extractor-fans/#:~:text=A%20continuous%20ventilation%20system%20(as,removes%20excess%20moisture%20and%20odours.