Make Your House Smell Amazing

You never get a second chance to make a first impression this is true for first dates job interviews and the first time someone comes over to your house and if your house doesn’t smell great that is always gonna be remembered by the visitor and even for you in your own home you don’t deserve to live in a house that doesn’t smell amazing so in this article we’re going to talk about various ways that you can make your home smell great.

Find the source: Smells don’t just appear and disappear out of nowhere there’s always a cause a reason why something smells it could be a short-term thing or a long-term problem but either way when there’s a smell it’s a symptom and it’s your job to find the root cause, you’ve got to do your homework to find the source of that smell and then once you find it it could be as easy as picking something up and tossing it away or it could be indicative of a more systemic issue that has to be fixed for example a mold problem or a moisture problem.

Odor sponges: Hard surfaces in our homes like flooring and countertops aren’t porous which means they don’t generally absorb stains and odors and that is good for you to know because when it comes to the main source of odors in our homes we’ve got to blame it on the soft surfaces the carpets drapes upholstery bedding linens clothing the things that are nice comfy cozy cushy places for dust and debris and odor molecules to land and settle and build a life so when it comes to bad odors in your home one of the first places you want to tackle are those soft surfaces and there are a couple of ways that you can do this the ideal thing to do here is to launder those surfaces if you can that means you know stripping your linens changing them regularly. The other thing that you can do and this makes a huge difference is vacuum it’s not only good for reducing dust in your home but by removing dust the matrix that is dust that little you know grid combination of hair dead skin cells all that other stuff traps odor particles and that kind of makes your home smelly too so if you can get rid of the dust you can get rid of that stuffy smell.

Trap & Eliminate: If there’s a soft surface that you can’t launder or you want to refresh it and keep it smelling great between washings there is another way use a room freshner.

Steam & Enzymes: There are some alternative ways that you can deal with odors first up is steam cleaning you know i’ve talked about steam cleaning for a long time the downside and i’m very happy to share this with you right up front is you have to invest in a steam cleaner and you’ve got to take the time to learn how to use it and if you have kind of a not great steam cleaner it’s not going to get you the results you want so it really is an investment but let me explain to you how and why it works inside the steam cleaner you’ve got this kettle-like situation that just kind of like a pressure cooker it just boils up all this water generates steam and when you press the trigger it shoots out steam that’s supposed to be very very hot and the idea is that it’s hot enough to melt things away kill bacteria so on and so forth so what’s cool about it is if you have say a soft surface that’s smelly you can kind of blast it with steam and the idea is that it refreshes that surface option two is using an enzyme cleaner now the way enzyme cleaners work is you spray them onto a surface you allow them to sit for a little bit and the enzymes which are kind of like what’s in your saliva to help break down food start to attack and break down the source of the grease grime or odor whatever it is and enzymes what’s cool about them is they’re designed to deal with certain things so you can pick up very siloed enzymes you know this one is for pet stains this one is for grease they’re they’re really neat but again it’s got a bit of a learning curve and you have to have that product at home to deal with that particular issue.

Pantry Staples: We’ve talked about our soft surfaces we’ve talked about our hard surfaces but now we’re going to talk about kind of plasticky surfaces and other alternative surfaces or spaces that we deal with that get smelly and to deal with these we can use pantry staples like vinegar and baking soda vinegar is great for cleaning or deodorizing things like plastic bins so if you have a smelly container or an organic spin or garbage can you can just soak that with white vinegar and vinegar does a great job at removing odors and baking soda you know it’s kind of like the triple threat it it deodorizes it whitens and it is also a mild abrasive so you guys know I talk about baking soda all the time but some really neat odor absorbing applications for it include putting it into your spice cupboard I found that to be really effective and it’s so easy and inexpensive to do and the same thing for the fridge you’re always told to change out your box of baking soda four times a year you probably don’t do it but even a couple times a year is great because baking soda helps take out those bad odors and smells from your fridge and just neutralize everything so things don’t get weird when you go for a snack.

Fresh Air: Over the past couple of years we’ve learned a lot of lessons and I think one of them that is going to be a trend that’s here to stay is the importance of indoor air quality not only does clean air smell better but we know it keeps us healthier too so if indoor air quality is something that you want to focus on to help your whole home just smell and feel better overall there are a few things you can do first get an indoor air purifier i’ve been talking about this for a long time I really really believe in them you turn them on it’s a set and forget it situation and it just cleans the air that you breathe in second you can open a window it’s easy and it’s free just be mindful of the time that you do it for example if it is peak allergy season don’t open the windows. Keeping your home smelling fresh doesn’t have to be complicated the methods aren’t expensive they’re simple and easy to do it’s just a matter of being mindful and attentive to those smells so that you can eliminate them and breathe in some fresh air.

Thanks so much for watching and we’ll see you next time.