What does your house smell of?

[Crunchie14]

I'm after some tips on how to get my home smelling lovely, You know when you walk in to some peoples homes and they smell fresh and 'just cleaned'.
Everything is done regularly, mopping, a deep clean of the kitchen etc, but unless I have just mopped or used a product the house never really smells fresh, not stale but not that fresh clean smell I love.
My mum used to come and spray everything 3/4 times a day with air freshener when we were children, it was just up your nose all day and i'm not a fan of the stuff now.
Should I be using plug ins? Any tips would be great. x

Thank you all for the replies!
Sorry for the late response been away for a week. First thing we did was open all the windows and doors to air the house, especially after the stuffy weather.
JiltedJohnsJulie No I haven't seen the electric diffusers!
I agree with pp's the smell of cooking doesn't do it for me, i do shut a lot of the doors in the house, especially as we eat a lot of fish
I have ordered some essential oils, I liked the idea of febreezing the curtains then realised we only have blinds all round the house.

Im an avid candle burner. Generally from Home Bargains or Dunelm. Love the Aldi version of Febreeze and of course all the windows open.

Oh and of course Zoflora!

Diffusers, scented candles (on a good day), but not when the cats have been busy in the litter tray. I clean it twice a day and shake the diffuser sticks up a bit.
Books. Fresh air.

I don't like air fresheners, and the problem with the candles is, although they smell lovely, the walls get a bit of grime.

I use this gorgeous smelling natural cleaner. Makes all surfaces smell of flowers and lasts for ages as you dilute it as required.

www.allnaturalpet.co.uk/cleaners/general-household-cleaner

Our house smells of freshly sawed wood when we come back after a few days. It’s timber framed and I love it.

Hate all artificial stuff like diffusers and plug ins - they’re overwhelming to me and smell horrid and they’re bad for asthma and allergies and migraine sufferers. People’s sense of smell varies hugely - what’s undetectable for some is overpowering for others

If the house is cleanish and well aired it’ll smell OK. Bins out daily, no food left out etc.

but unless I have just mopped or used a product the house never really smells fresh, not stale but not that fresh clean smell I love

You sure you're not just addicted to the chemicals?
I remember the smell when my mother had just mopped the oilcloth with Flash (powder, years ago.) I suspect that's the sort of thing you mean.
I tend to use eco-friendly products, which actually don't smell of much. I am a bit addicted to fragranced candles though, and have them burning just .. . . . Because.

My house just smells like home, to me. And we get lots of visitors overstaying their welcome, so it must smell ok.

I just have one reed diffuser in the living room and a small one in the hallway by the front door as I can't tolerate a lot of scented stuff.

Febreze is a definite no no, as well as any other air fresheners,for me as it causes some horrible reactions coughing and wheezing so I don't buy anything like that.

I also have a small 250ml spray bottle that I add a few(3 or 4) drops of my favourite shower gel(Lancome La Vie Est Belle) into water and use it as a light room spray and on fabric.

It's great for keeping the dust levels down as well . .

Bluebeard is on the thread

We use reed diffusers, scented candles upstairs.

We can't use aerosol air freshener as child has bad reaction to them.

You sure you're not just addicted to the chemicals?
I remember the smell when my mother had just mopped the oilcloth with Flash (powder, years ago.) I suspect that's the sort of thing you mean

Possibly! I've asked a few people when they've been over what the house smells of, and everyone including my very brutally honest parents have said 'nothing'. Maybe it is the chemical smell i'm trying to chase, although things like plug ins and air fresheners I can't stand, too artificial for my liking. I do love walking bast the bathroom quite a few times after using the bleach
Essential oils and spray bottles sound like great ideas, what are the best reed diffusers??

I hate the artificial smells too. Whenever I buy things second hand, I always ask whether it's from a smoke and pet free home, but what I really want to ask is whether they use air fresheners, as they linger for ages. My pram still smells of whatever it was, six months on...
My house smells of puppy (like pp, been without a dog for too long, so loving it), bread (I bake every other day) and probably mud, as I live in the middle of nowhere

I have plug in wax melter things, one in the hall and one in the kitchen. (Dog, plug kids, plug stinky chef DH) I can leave the windows open 24/7 and never get a "clean" smell. I stick different scented wax in each pop them on for an hour in morning hour at night and my whole house smells lovely. Even converted my fussy mil who was a diehard scented candle fan (scented candles give me headaches)

You get accustomed to the way your house smells so you don't smell it, if you know what I mean? For example, my friend came the other day and said how nice the flat smelt and what product did I use! It was just a quick febreeze spray over the linen before she arrived but I personally couldn't smell it after 5 mins.

I HATE plug ins / air fresheners etc. They make me feel really toxic and like I can’t breathe. A couple of my friends have them in their bedrooms which can’t be doing them any good at all. I sprinkle essential oils (especially lavender, orange, lemon and geranium) on to the carpets and bath mats. We’ve got hard floors downstairs so I add it to the water when I mop them. Totally agree about opening windows etc

My house smells like apples at the moment. Not chemically "apples" but actual green apples.

I have a cool mist diffuser from amazon that I put scented oil in, currently a grapefruit one, it smells amazing and is way cheaper than scented candles.

I second cool mist diffusers - they're perfectly safe around children (no risk of fire or burns), have automatic shut off timers and you can add any essential oil you like (and make it as subtle or heavy as you prefer).

I use ours daily and they're especially useful when the DC have a cold or a blocked nose (eucalyptus oil) or are particularly anxious or fractious (lavender).

Our sitting room diffuser has been burning grapefruit and bergamot during the hot spell and when Autumn comes we'll move on to pumpkin and fig. LOVE IT!

Reed Diffusers(don't trust myself with candles!!)

Wax Lyrical and Shearer are the ones I've used which seem to last a long while.

Do you have a link to the diffuser you have, Lala?

Honestly I absolutely can't stand the smell of Febreze and other similar artificial "fresheners". A former child minder of ours used to be mad on it- and cheap pot pourri- and the children smelled of it hours after they came home. Yuk!

For those who use esstial oils, and the receipee up thread to buy oils in water and vodka. What do you put the mixture in?

Would you just pour some in a shallow dish/jar and leave it on the side?

Sorry for silly question

Please, will someone tell what this zoflora is. Is it bleach?

Zoflora is the most toxic vile smelling stuff known to man. My DD is obsessed with it but it gets me right in the back of the throat. It's a horrid cheap artifical smell.

I buy good quality candles (cheaply from Homesense) and leave the lids off so you get a faint waft, and frequently use bicarb over the carpets/sofas to get any odours out. And I've always got a window open.

I use those wax melt things, especially when we've been cooking. I've got various ones, but the one in the kitchen at the moment is "peach melba" and smells lovely