How do you make your house smell gorgeous?

[carolmillen]

I try to keep my house well ventilated but as we have a pet, I think the house needs a bit of extra help. Are diffusers any good and do they keep their smell?

Home made air freshener - water and a drop or two of your fact quite essential oil in a spray bottle

I'm not keen on "house perfumes" , such as diffuser sticks, air fresheners, incense etc. But I do quite the smell of cleaning products, especially Flash and bleach! At Christmas, I love all the spicy smells - mulled wine, cloves, cinnamon etc.

Febreze candles are good, although I'm a bit disgruntled as they appear to have stopped doing my favorite scents .

Are there candles/sprays that actually remove smells rather than just mask them? My lounge smells of stinky farmer and it's difficult to throw the windows open as the yard smells worse

Oh no Daisy Can you insist on a complete change of clothes + shower before he enters the room, or is that completely mean? I know farmers work very hard!

I would KILL for a downstairs decontamination chamber shower but we don't have the space. I really wish he would get changed or at least wear an overall but old habits die hard! I was perplexed why his mum had bottles of bleach everywhere when I moved in. I quickly learnt!

I mop my tiled floors with boiling water, dash of zoflora and a tiny amount of bleach. The zoflora really does leave a nice smell. I have quite a few scents under the sink, yesterday I bought a limited edition cinnamon Christmasy style one.

I also dilute it in a spray bottle for wiping down my kitchen worktops.

Ps being positive rather than just whining, I like the Febreeze New Zealand one - the spray works well on the sofas. If there's an air freshener like this then I would be really interested!

pippa zoflora is highly concentrated disinfectant which comes in tiny glass bottles and an array of strong scents.

I find vacuuming the carpets and a good dust of all the ledges and skirtings helps to keep things smelling fresh.

I am not keen on the nasty artificial smell of plug-in air fresheners.

We keep the house smelling nice with plenty of plants and fresh flowers from the garden and opening the windows. In the winter, hyacinths are lovely.

And we have a dog.

I've had the Body Shop jasmine and something Rees diffusers for over a year and they're great, but my colleagues bought me Wax Lyrical reed diffusers for my birthday and they are much stronger, especially the Bathtime one. Lovely!

I make my husband strip his work clothes off outside if he has been dealing with livestock. His farm dog sleeps outside but is allowed inside on the ground floor only and never on furniture. We dont have carpet downstairs. I don't use air fresheners.

I had a friend say once that she expected our house to have an odour so I must be doing it right.

So I would suggest regularly cleaning sofas and carpets.

Yes, my farming friends have work wear they take off outside which gets washed frequently.

Cleaning the windows, shower cubicles and anywhere that black mould likes to gain a hold helps too. (We open windows to get rid of steam after a shower and that helps).

Daisy I'm not sure if it would work on smelly farm smells but I use the Prices Chefs candle after cooking fish and it does really work. The entire house would smell after frying salmon but I light this after cooking now and leave for an hour or two and there are no lingering smells at all.
I got ours in a tin from Lakeland but you can probably buy online somewhere.
I've used the air freshener sprays which claims to eliminate odours but I find them rubbish tbh.

My farming friend swears by fresh flowers. I don't like air fresheners, incense, candles, oils - pretty much any home perfume apart from turf incense, which I buy in Ireland in bulk. I only use them on dank miserable days but they make the house smell all peaty and homey. Otherwise I just open the windows.

In praise of Zoflora, it's making my downstairs loo smell much better, and it's £1 in Morrisons right now!

acqua di parma room spray when it goes in the new yr sale.

I have an assortment of beautiful aromatics in my tea/coffee cupboard so that when you open the door you get delicious wafts. I change them around. I've had: bashed coffeebeans in a little open dish, bashed cardamom pods, sprig of lavender, different herbal teabags, little pieces of vanilla pod, a tiny dish of cinnamon or cloves... The smell of my tea cupboard makes me so happy and is one of the things I miss most when I'm away from home.

In a bathroom I don't think there is any nicer smell than bleach. Not over the top OCD bleach that stings your eyes, just a gentle reassuring whiff.

Lavender is beautiful for bedrooms, or a sensual-smelling candle for evenings. You used to be able to get a truly beautiful amber one in selfridges floristy bit, but I can't find it anymore, and I haven't found another as nice, although space nk ones are lovely, and do go in the new yr sale.

A good leather cleaner smells nice in living rooms (though obvs a little weird if your furniture is fabric!)

Any essential oils on a damp flannel on radiators work nicely, and those lightbulb rings are clever if you can find a nice oil - easier said than done IMO.

Ooh and the world's your oyster fragrance-wise if you have wood-burners. You can burn cinnamon sticks, dried citrus rind, cloves. drop a little essential oil on your kinding...

Cinnamon sticks simmering on hob in Autumn and Winter. Bunch of Dried chamomile in little sack for Spring and Summer. House aired out daily.

Xpost with madmomma!

a jasmine plant gives off a lovely scent too, as do lillies. Hyacinths smell great but they set off my hayfever

We have dogs and if I have to make thE house smell nice in a flash I'm hanging discreetly couple of Black Ice car fresheners...smells fab
Also tumble dryer sheets on radiators, but it works only when heating is on

Nothing nicer than coming downstairs in the morning to the smell of the bread maker. My house mostly smells of baking and cooking. Hate anything artificial.