What methods are you using to keep your house smelling good? I like cooking a lot but this means that my flat (a small one) smells like food all the time. I keep my windows open and wash all that can be washed from the kitchen often by I still feel the smell of food. Right now I'm looking for cheap and healthy options and I don't want to use those automatic sprays (I find the refills expensive).
My husband and I make a lot of our own products (soap, cleaners, creams, etc.). When you make it, you don't have to worry about all the chemicals. Try making your own cleaning spray and put it in a bottle. Using natural scents such as oranges or lemons gives the room a fresh smell. Nothing worse than the smell of conventional cleaning products.
Did you ever try putting one of those three week candles to burn? I don't know if they will actually neutralize the smell of food, but I find that having a candle burning a few hours a day at my house makes it smell heavenly! I particularly prefer Bath&Body Works candles, but any other good quality candle brand should do the work!
For me the best thing to do is to open the windows and let the air flow through the house. My place can get very stuffy and with all the exercise I do, it can smell a bit like a locker room. Air fresheners simply over power the other odors so I prefer not to use them. Keeping the laundry clean, taking out the garbage and getting rid of the sketchy items in the back of the fridge helps keep the air clean and smelling good. Sometimes a flowering plant is nice as long as the smell isn't strong.
Me too. I burn one of those big jar candles, open the windows and make sure that the trash is taken out and the dishes washes so that nothing bad smelling is sitting around. I also have some houseplants to help with the air quality.
Candles are the only thing I have used in the past, but due to chronic sinus problems my sense of smell is very impaired anyway, so I don't bother unless guests are coming to stay. Baking and candles were the only things that came to mind when I saw this thread, but some interesting ideas from others too.
I use a plug in and candle as my flat is also small. I do find that if I have it on to long it makes me feel nauseous and gives me a headache. If you have hardwood floors mopping them regularly with fabreeze floor cleaner also make the house smell lovely.
Try some nice quality incense or use essential oils of lemongrass or orange when you clean your kitchen. I find the smell of curry hangs around for ages. I open all the windows when I cook Indian food, but to be honest, I don't mind it lingering around for a while. For some reason it gives me warm and cosy feeling.
Make sure you regularly wipe down and wash your walls and other surfaces too, cooking can leave behind greasy residue on those as well which contribute to the odors. At least once a week, usually Saturday afternoons, I would clean my apartment from top to bottom, and would mop my floors with an ammonia/water mixture, as well as wipe down the walls with it too. It's a bit rough to breathe while doing it, so open the windows and run your fans (even in the winter) but it worked for me. And it's worth repeating, to never ever mix it with bleach, which will create a very toxic chlorine gas that can suffocate you very quickly. Aside from that, I preferred to use those scented wax discs in a melter. I had the kind that you put a tea candle under to warm them - which I didn't mind since tea candles are dirt cheap and add ambiance without having to buy a lot of expensive scented candles. The wax discs will give you a lot of uses before they completely lose their scent. The wooden reeds in a bottle of perfume work too, but some of the dry out in just a few days. I had the Orek air cleaner, and that thing was useless (not to mention expensive at $500) and it was noisey. It sucked trying to watch a TV show with that thing running. It couldn't even clean the air in my tiny 500 square foot apartment at the time. My bosses at a previous job used to also sell those ozone air purifiers, and we had them running all day at work. You can definitely notice a change in the air and the smell, but it's not necessarily for the better, and there are a lot of reports indicating it's actually bad for you. In fact they warn you against using them if you have birds as it can kill them - doesn't sound too safe to me.
What I know is that some people use air fresheners to keep their houses smelling good. If you have such then it is great. But also you need to choose wisely the type of air freshener so that your house does not smell a lot that people will feel like vomiting.
