14 ways to make your home smell amazing!
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Have you ever gone into someone’s home and thought, “this smells so fantastic … I want to move in!”
It’s always an amazing feeling walking into a fresh-smelling home. If you’re like me though, stinky dogs, smelly shoes and intense cooking smells can sometimes put a spanner in the works when it comes to making your home smell nice!
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So, how do you make your home smell amazing? I’m glad you asked! Today I’m sharing some of my top tips for getting rid of odours and making your home smell good enough to eat!
The great thing is… You can do many of the things on this list with items you already have in the house!
1. Put vanilla extract in your oven
This one is an old realtor trick! You can quickly make your home smell great by putting two caps of vanilla extract in an ovenproof dish and placing it in the oven at 300°F for an hour.
So, next time you go to a real estate showing, and you notice that the home smells like freshly baked cookies, but you can’t find the cookies, you now know how they do it! 😉
2. Crack open the window!
Looking for an easy solution to make your home smell great? Just open the window!
For all you folks out there who are allergic to perfume or scents, this tip is for you. You’d be surprised how many people actually forget to just let in some fresh air.
Marie Kondo actually does this every morning. No matter the temperature, she opens all the windows in her home, and burns some incense. She says she does this to circulate the air and let clear energy into her space. Whether or not you believe in that sort of thing is up to you, but one thing is for sure, opening the windows is a great way to refresh your space without the need for any work or the use of any products.
Letting the breeze in is a foolproof way to freshen your home and get rid of any pesky odours. Even if it’s freezing, braving the arctic winds for five minutes will be a massive help.
Word of warning: If someone is BBQing outside or has lit a bonfire, this might not be the best idea, unless you really, really like smoky smells!
3. Make your own fabric spray
If your bedding, sofa, and cushions smell a little funky, blitzing them with a squirt of fabric spray can work wonders.
It’s really easy to make your own, and the bonus is that you can create your very own personalised scent to suit your home!
Fill a spray bottle with warm distilled water, add a tablespoon of baking soda and ten drops of an essential oil you like. Give it all a good shake, and you’re ready to go!
My essential oils of choice would be citrus and tea tree for that super-clean smell, or lavender for a calming scent. Mix and match and see which fragrance suits your home!
Here is a super handy link to some great (and easy!!) essential oil recipes.
4. Dab your lightbulbs with scent
Did you know that heat makes smells spread faster? Use this trick to your advantage with all the lightbulbs in your home.
Apply one or two drops of essential oil to a cold lightbulb. When you turn the light on, the heat of the lightbulb will diffuse the scent and make your room smell fantastic!
The same technique will work with your radiators too. Dab them with oil, and they’ll spread the fragrance when the heating comes on.
5. Use dryer sheets around the home
I don’t know about you, but I love the smell of clothes fresh out of the dryer! If you want to make your home smell like one big clean pile of laundry (I know that I do!), then dryer sheets are your new best friend.
Leave dryer sheets in any place that could use a fragrance boost, like your laundry basket, clothes drawers or inside your shoe rack.
Or you can tape a dryer sheet to a fan, wipe down your furniture with one to freshen it up, put one under your trashbag … the options are endless!
My top tip… tucking a dryer sheet inside your toilet paper roll will help your bathroom smell heavenly! (You can also do this with essential oils instead of a dryer sheet!)
6. Give your carpets a DIY cleanse
There’s nothing nicer than the smell of freshly laid carpet. However, this doesn’t last long! Pet hair, spilt drinks and muddy shoes all make your carpet smell gross over time.
You can deodorise your carpets and rugs by mixing baking soda and your essential oil of choice together and sprinkling on. Leave overnight and vacuum up.
This will not only give your carpet a deep clean but make it smell awesome!
7. Make home smell like a cozy coffee shop
Do you love a cup of coffee in the morning… lunchtime… afternoon… evening…just before going to bed?!
If the answer is yes, this sneaky little tip will help your home smell like your favourite cup of java.
Take a glass or ceramic container, fill it with coffee beans, and pop a tealight in the centre. When you light it, the scent of coffee will make your room smell delicious!
Remember to change the beans out every few weeks as they do lose their potency over time.
8. A great way to actually use all those unused bars of soap
I don’t love using bars of soap because they take forever to use up, they get messy, and they look gross after awhile. However, for some reason, bars of soap is one of those weird things I always seem to end up with.
If you’re the same, and you have an unused stash of strong-smelling soaps that you’re unlikely to use at bath time, wrap them in a piece of fabric and pop them on a shelf. The material helps diffuse the smell of the soap and will help make your room smell beautiful.
You can also place them in a linen closet or undergarment drawer to keep things smelling nice.
9. Make your own reed diffuser
Reed diffusers are a great way to change the scent of your home. They’re eco-friendly and release a slow stream of fragrance throughout the day.
If you’re not excited by the reed diffusers on offer at the store, or instead of buying a refill for the reed diffuser you already have, why not try making your own!
Take a small glass container, fill it up with unscented baby oil and add a teaspoon of your favourite essential oil. Give it a quick stir to mix the oils together, and then pop some rattan sticks in.
Don’t forget to flip the sticks over every now and again to get a fragrance boost!
10. Make cotton wool perfume bombs
We all have a favourite perfume that makes us feel like we can take on the world when we wear it. Why not extend the smell to the rest of your home with this handy trick?
Just take some cotton wool balls and dunk them in perfume, cologne or scented oil. All you need to do is pop them around the house for a little scented boost wherever you go. You can even drop one into your vacuum cleaner, so you spread the scent when you do your chores!
Do remember where you put the cotton balls though. Otherwise, you’ll be picking them out of your cushions and from behind your sofa for months afterwards! (I speak from personal experience here!)
11. Refresh your fireplace
I love a cozy log fire, but not everyone loves the ashy, sooty smell it gives off afterwards!
If you love using your log burner, but don’t love the smell it gives off, try adding a few lemon or orange peels to the fire when you light it. The citrus scent will help mask the smoky smell and light up your room with a yummy, fruity aroma.
12. Plant the seeds and watch them grow
Indoor plants are great for your home. They produce oxygen, absorb toxins in the air and can help boost your mood. Pick the right plant, and the fragrance will freshen up your home too!
There are lots of incredible plants to choose from. Eucalyptus gives off a forest-fresh smell, jasmine has an exotic and rich scent, while tea olive plants are fruity and floral.
Herbs like mint and rosemary are good too. Not only do they give off an amazing fragrance, but you can use them in the food you cook too. Practical and great smelling, what’s not to like?!
Do be careful with some plants though, as they can be toxic to pets if eaten.
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13. Simmer spices in your crockpot
If you’re like me and you love Christmas, this one will make every room in your home smell festive!
Fill a pot or a crockpot (slow cooker) halfway with water and add the following ingredients:
- 1 sliced lemon (or just the peel!)
- 1 sliced orange (or just the peel!)
- 2 cinnamon sticks
- 4 cloves
- 1 bay leaf
Set your crockpot on a low heat and let the Christmassy mix of spices do their thing! The great thing about this recipe is that you can change it up depending on your own personal taste.
For example, if you prefer a fresh clean scent, take out the spices and add some pine needles instead.
There are an infinite variety of natural stovetop potpourri recipes out there, so you can use one of those, but also don’t be afraid to experiment with ingredients that you love!
14. Cut up lemons
When life gives you lemons… chop them up and use them to make your home smell good!
I’ve mentioned citrus quite a bit in this article; it’s a lovely fresh scent that is great at neutralizing greasy and smoky smells.
Grab a lemon, cut it in half and place it on a small dish in the room of your choice. This works especially well in the bathroom or kitchen.
Lemon juice neutralizes the smell of cat pee too, so stash one near your kitty’s litter box to keep it smelling fresh!
SCENTS TO AVOID
Scent is obviously a very personal thing, but when I’m shopping for scented candles, some scents I tend to avoid are:
- Cinnamon or apple smells – unless I’m actually baking real cinnamon rolls, in which case, THEY SMELL INCREDIBLE, otherwise, please keep those smells far away from me because they literally make me gag.
- most pine smells are also pretty bad, I just find them very hard to get right, they’re too artificial
- “Cotton” type scents – they usually just smell like Febreze to me. *gag*
- I also avoid any candles that are too “cologney” because usually they just smell like Axe body spray. Gross! ha
SCENTS AND CANDLE BRANDS I RECOMMEND
1. Nest New York makes some gorgeous home fragrance products, I love Rose Noir & Oud, and Moroccan Amber – they are all just gorgeous scents, so really just try whichever one inspires you and I’m sure you’ll love it.
2. Voluspa candles are AMAZING, I first discovered them around 5 years ago at Chapters in Vancouver and I have yet to burn one that I haven’t loved. Their scents are all complex and dimensional, and their wax is EXTREMELY saturated with fragrance. Highly recommend, check them out here!
3. Bath and Bodyworks candles are usually pretty good in terms of throw, and they will give you good value for your money. In terms of the actual scents they offer, I personally find them to be a little hit or miss, as I find them to be a little too synthetic. My favorite lately has definitely got to be the White Barn Palo Santo candle – next time you’re in BBW, take a whiff and tell me what you think.
4. Pecksniff candles – I discovered this brand a couple of years ago as well. I’ve only ever seen it at Homegoods here in Canada, and they are available on Amazon as well. They are very affordable and offer beautiful complex smells with a great throw. Check them out here!
And I want to share one little candle tip with you before I go – if you want to stretch your scented candles even further once they’re finished, freeze them, then crack the wax to get it out of the jar. Then burn the leftover wax chunks on a wax burner. I do this for the candles that I really love, that I’m not ready to part ways with yet. Usually I’ll get an extra couple of days of scent out of the leftover wax.
I hope that you have found some amazing tips to help your home smell as gorgeous as It looks!
Have you tried any of these tips? Which is your fave?
