To ask how you get your house to smell nice?

[SomeOtherUser]

Posting here for traffic!

As you all probably know, every house has a certain smell. It's hard to perceive your own home's signature scent, but I suspect ours isn't great. We're not the cleanest or tidiest; we have kids and a cat; we have (not very clean!) carpets; we have a washing machine that insists on smelling like stale bog when running for some reason. I'm making it my mission this spring to get our house smelling nice.

Aside from the obvious (i.e. regular and thorough cleaning), I would welcome any tips to give a house (and laundry) a long-lasting pleasant smell.

Bleach in toilets every time you leave the house

Following. About to move into a new home, have the keys and access to the house and it smells like old people. Really want to get the smell out before we are settled

If you are planning to repaint or decorate, wash the walls down first with soap and water, and allow to dry properly. This helped when my old house was permeated with the smell of smoke from a previous tenant.

You need to open the windows a lot more than you are already doing.

Get the carpets cleaned.
Clean everything thoroughly and keep on top of it.
OPEN WINDOWS.

I was in hospital for a while last year and I could instantly tell that my DH hadn’t opened the window once.
I was RAGING.

When we viewed our house it smelt amazing , every room had a slightly different smell, no diffusers , plugins etc were visible , a few months later while cleaning I found cotton wool balls and pads behind the radiators , the previous owners had put scented oils on them , the house smelt amazing for months , one room in particular had a smell of orange zest and vanilla. I now do this when my mother in law is visiting !! It gives the assumption that my house is cleaner than it is !

Housework mavens will rightly be contemptuous, but I run air purifiers 24/7. One's a proper little workhorse - gets rid of cooking smells within an hour (I live in a flat) - and the other's a combined dehumidifier & purifier. The dehumidifier made quite a difference, as damp smells even if the place isn't discernibly damp.

Open windows obviously do both jobs for free. I'm a wimp, though, mine are closed all winter!

Fresh air is the key. I air my house out every day sub degree weather or not. Keep things clean and don’t leave dishes lying around. I use the Ecover yellow fabric softener. I don’t notice much scent from it on clothing and bed linen but it’s definitely nice when washing is drying. I have some posh expensive candles. I light them for a short time in the evening so they tend to last a long time. Houseplants are everywhere (they filter the air) and fresh flowers in my kitchen. I find my house always smells natural and sort of neutral.

For the washing machine, I never use fabric conditioner, but put just a capful of conc disinfectant in the conditioner drawer on each wash. Washing comes out fresh and disinfected, and I never have any issues with a pongy machine.
No issues with any skin irritation either.
I think that if you only wash at 40 c it isn't hot enough to kill bacteria or mould and fabric softener can act as a food source to these microbes that makes the problem worse.
So that's why you either need disinfectant in the wash each time or a hot wash with washing soda once a fortnight.
I wash the cat beds once a month and have a Vax pet shampooer that I used on the carpets and upholstery about 3 times a year.
I dust and hoover about twice a week, wet wash hard floors once a week and open the windows daily .
Bed linen gets washed at 60c with a disinfectant rinse and the bedroom window is always open an inch or so at night whilst we sleep.
Never have any issues with stale pongs when I come back from holiday.
Perhaps if you are struggling with your carpets you should replace them with laminate or tiles as they are easy to clean and don't hold smells?

I could write a book on this but…

wash - cushion covers, throws, coats, scarves, bath mats, anything fabric you don’t think about usually washing
open windows every single day
keep the washing machine door ajar and do a service wash on it with a washing machine cleaner

I use these scent sachets in the wardrobe (fairy scent)
reed diffusers - I like rituals
I burn scented candles and wax melts (not all at the same time)
rhubarb floor cleaner from method
zoflora in plug holes
linen spray on clean bedding (usually just at the foot area so it’s not next to your face but you get a nice whiff of it)

my house honestly doesn’t smell strong because I seem to constantly have windows open but I get regular comments on how nice it smells or how nice I smell

I like to put a few drops of orange essential oil on a cotton ball and vacuum it up first when i am about to vacuum the house. The air flow spreads the smell around.

How do you know if your house smells neutral? I would say mine smells neutral too but I've had 2 people in the past year say that my house has a distinctive smell. (No pets) and both qualified it with 'don't worry, it's not a bad smell' type comment but I can't help wonder what the smell is and if it is indeed not great and they were being polite but I can't smell it at all!

I leave my windows open from about spring until it gets too cold to live without the heating on. I appreciate that I'm very lucky to be able to live in an area where it's safe to leave windows open when you're out, but fresh air helps!

That, and I recently hired a cleaner to help with staying on top of the housework. Otherwise, I was drowning in it...

I think my house smells quite nice and fresh but I do stay on top of the cleaning. Bathrooms deep cleaned once a week. We Hoover downstairs everyday after dinner. Bleach in the toilets every morning before we leave the house. Hard floors mopped with Zoflora once a week. Bed sheets changed every Sunday.

I dont do all this hard core cleaning and our house smells very fresh

A couple of things I do are always have windows open they are open all year round on the jar, never shut, locked into an open position.

Shut the kitchen door when cooking and have the kitchen window wide open

Keep the washing machine door open unless in use, we dont use softner

Weekly clean, nothing major

Hoover rugs, we dont have carpets and the rugs are not washable they're jute and sisal. We have some other smaller rugs which get washed

I wahs cushion covers and sofa covers a few times a year, blankets and throws slightly more regularly but not much more

Change bedding weekly, althoughs ometimes it falls to fortnightly

Hard floors are mopped but only weekly

Ive never cleaned a skirting board and like others on the thread I wont use bleach on hard surfaces, we have a lot of painted wood and it would ruin it.

I wrote out a really long reply and Mumsnet have just eaten it!!! Gah.
my house smells of outside so is neutral. It smells Airy to me - Because I have fresh air coming in all the time. Might not be the warmest in the winter but my mum always told me when I was younger you have to change the stale air in an house every day. When I’ve been on holiday and the house has been shut up the first thing I do is open the back door and the windows. My house is really clean and I stay on top of it ever week. And it’s tidy and I think that helps a lot too. I also have hardwood floors not carpet downstairs and that possibly makes a big difference…. I’d maybe try doing a deep clean. Open all the windows and buy a few plants. Spider plants are the best at purifying the air! Also check for damp as that can have. A bit of a smell. Hope that helps a little.

Can I ask what you do as a ‘deep’ clear once a week as opposed to just a clean?

Competitive cleaning Im learning about on here

Same with competitive empty bins

I’ve just opened all my windows. You can do a spread bet on how many minutes they’ll stay open before DH runs round closing them again.

Yankee candle plug ins. Scented candles. Open doors and windows as much as possible. Rug doctor the carpets once a year, use foam/spray to freshen up the rugs

we have dogs so the above is imperative to ensure a nice smelling home!

We use old fashioned furniture polish because we have wooden furniture and that always makes the house smell nice.

Yes, we have wood floors too, and the special stuff I get for cleaning them smells amazing.

Only because I like a consistent, fresh and cohesive smell to my house and so I choose my scents accordingly. I don't want delicate florals fighting against conflicting bathroom cleaning smells, too many smells give me a headache.

My way, not necessarily the right way, but my house never smells funky
open windows when you first get up even if only for 15 mins. Even in the cold and rain, let the musty night air out and fresh air in

hoover carpets regularly and if they’re grubby looking get them cleaned. Carpets hold a lot of dirt and grime that starts to smell

change bedding regularly. That hold lots of smells

washing things like cushion covers, blankets and throws frequently

for the washing machine l, don’t let wet washing sit in the machine for too long, get it out and hung up as soon as possible

get washing dried as soon as you can either outside of on and indoor airer. I have a dehumidifier and it’s dry in a couple of hours but I prefer to dry it outside where I can. If the ground is dry my washing will be out

clean the things that clean, hoover, washing machine etc regularly. I do my washing machine once a month. And I make sure I use a hot wash for things like towels and bedding to help make sure the machine is clean too. I use a white vinegar rinse int he machine for any musty smells.

I do have reed diffusers in the livingroom and my bedroom but only because I like the smell not to try and cover any unpleasant smells that always makes things worse if you try that.

Agree with everything re. cleaning and letting fresh air in as much as possible.

Pet bedding should be washed regularly, the hotter the better, and ideally pegged out.

If clothes are smelling musty, then they are taking too long to dry and if you are regularly washing at 30 degrees then it's maybe not hot enough to get rid of the smell. Peg out if you can. Don't overload an airer - either do smaller loads or buy extra airers if you have to do large loads to keep up.

Food smells can linger, keep kitchen door shut, use extractor, open a window when cooking.

If your washing machine is smelly it needs cleaning. And consider what laundry products you are using. I don't like the pod things, I went back to powder and I can adjust the amount I put in to suit the load. And I usually wash on 40 or 60. I don't think pods used constantly at 30 are ideal for either cleaning your clothes or keeping your machine fresh.

Zoflora smells nice when you wipe the worktops with it, and I use it for washing the floor, with a tiny dash of washing up liquid.