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.

To be honest our house does smell of curry most of the time as this is what we cook a lot of. Cumin has quite a distinct smell and our house often smells of that

Well, my DH left fish and chip wrappers in his car for a week, and that really got rid of the smell of dog!
Don't know if I recommend it for the house, though 😁.

For the washing machine you may need to clean out the little drawer. It might come fully out so you can clean it properly depending on the machine.

I make sure to open windows a lot to air out my home, I also have a cat and I don't think she smells at all. Dogs have a smell to me though in other people's houses so maybe she does.

Air the house daily.

Exactly what I was going to say. Running the Hoover round regularly and keeping drains clean are 2 easy cleaning wins to prevent odours. Opening the windows also helps to prevent mould.

@Vroomfondleswaistcoati did that with my rug and ended up with ants in the house 😭

Oh that's a shame! It's not happened here - yet.

If you can afford, get rid of carpet and replace with vinyl and washable rugs. There's lots of nice designs in vinyl now, nothing like your grannies kitchen! Much more easy to clean with children and pets.

From reading this, I wonder how you all find the time for so much cleaning.

I don’t think my house smells but I’ve no animals and shoes/boots are spread around but no-one has particularly stinky feet.

I run so I won’t be putting my expensive trainers in the washing machine. We have mainly hard floors but our stair carpet is pure wool and I know you have to be careful about getting it too wet. Bedroom windows are opened all year round so hopefully that lets in a bit of air. Doors not so much as I’m concerned about rats/mice.

Constantly pouring bleach down the toilet is no good for anyone. Don’t you just clean your toilet? You will be inhaling a lot of these chemicals eg Zoflora, bleach etc and a bit of dirt is good for your immune system and that of your children.

I’ve no time or interest in making my house as clean as an operating theatre and curious as to why others do.