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In this post: Wanna know how to make your home smell amazing? Here are 15 different creative ways to do it!
It’s a known fact that familiar scents can bring back the best memories, and how we scent our homes can have a huge impact on the way our homes feel. Plus, did you know how your home smells is often the first thing people notice about it? It’s true!
15 Ways to Make Your Home Smell Amazing
1. Simmering Potpourri
Simmer pot or stovetop potpourri is a super-easy way to make your house smell delicious and inviting! All ingredients can be kept on hand throughout the year to whip up the potpourri to make your house smell amazing whenever you want to!
How to: Fill a small saucepan or cast iron pot with water. Then add your simmering ingredients, using your own recipe or one of the recipes below, and simmer on low for a couple of hours. Add water as needed.
Visit this post to find 16 Simmer Pot Recipes for All Seasons.
2. Use reed diffusers
Reed diffusers are liquid air fresheners in a bottle with long sticks or reeds inserted to draw the scent up and out of the bottle into the surrounding space.
They’re also very simple to use – reeds are inserted into the fragrance-filled liquid, which then disperses the scent into the room.
Click here to find a DIY Reed Diffuser + Homemade Diffuser Oil Recipes you’ll love.
3. Clean your garbage disposal/sink drain
Rotting food waste can stink up a space very quickly.
If you have a garbage disposal, make sure you clean it regularly so its smell doesn’t start to waft beyond the sink.
The same goes for your sink drain as well…give it a good cleaning from time to time. I like to do this by pouring some baking soda in the drain, then I add vinegar and put the drain plug in. The combo of baking soda and vinegar effectively acts like a mini volcano of cleaner, foaming away a lot of the scent and grime that can accumulate in the drain.
4. Deodorize your carpets
There’s a reason so many have moved away from wall-to-wall carpeting and that’s usually because it’s so hard to clean. Dirt and dust tend to get trapped inside carpeting. And so do odors.
Even if you only have area rugs, they too can get stinky just from use and being in your home.
You can purchase a carpet deodorizer at the store or you can simply sprinkle baking soda all over your rugs, let it sit for several minutes, and then vacuum thoroughly.
5. Make your own room spray
Homemade room sprays are easier to make than you think! With some simple mixing, your home will smell delicious in no time!
The basic ingredients for homemade room spray are Epsom salts, distilled water, and essential oils.
6. Use fabric-safe odor eliminator
Much like carpets, other fabrics in your home can absorb odors. But these can be eliminated by using a fabric-safe odor eliminator like Febreze.
If you want to make your own odor eliminator, check out this post.
7. Bake something, anything, even just vanilla
Baking something to make a house smell warm and inviting is a trick that realtors have used for years.
Everyone loves the smell of baked goods!
So if you want to make your home smell amazing, try baking up your family’s favorite banana bread, muffins, or cookies.
Tip: if you don’t really feel like baking, you could simply put two capfuls of vanilla in an oven-proof dish and “bake” at 300 degrees for an hour or so.
8. Diffuse essential oils
One of my favorite ways to add scent to our house is to use our essential oil diffusers. Especially in the winter when our air is extra dry.
If you’re not familiar with essential oil diffusers, this post will help. It’s filled with everything you could possibly want to know about them…but explained in a really simple way.
And if you want to know which essential oils to blend together, check out these posts:
- Spring Essential Oil Blends
- Summer Essential Oil Blends
- Fall Essential Oil Blends
- Winter Essential Oil Blends
- Essential Oil Blends for Sleep
- Essential Oil Blends for Anxiety and Stress
9. Take out the trash/compost
Like I mentioned when I talked about drains and garbage disposals, food waste gets stinky fast!
Keep on top of it, by regularly taking the trash and compost out to the garage or shed until garbage day.
10. Use wax melts or candles
Wax melts or candles are two other ways to scent your home and make it smell amazing.
If you are at all sensitive to fragrances, try soy-based candles and test small candles before buying larger-sized candles or bigger quantities.
Tip: Candles can also be used on a candle warmer if you don’t want to have an open flame in your home.
11. Place plugins strategically
Before I became more sensitive to regular fragrances, I used to LOVE scented plugins. Especially the Bath & Bodyworks ones. And I still love the idea of them because they make scenting home so effortless. If you can use ’em, by all means, do!
I have also found these AromaHouse Scentball plugins that use a little pad to warm essential oils. They work pretty well too and a little oil goes a long way. And you get to control what goes into them.
12. Add live plants or flowers
Of course, plants can both clean the air and give off natural scents. If you’ve got a green thumb, include your favorite plants in your decor to make your home smell good too.
If you don’t have a green thumb, buy fresh-cut flowers on occasion. They’re pretty and they smell good. (But not lilies. They do not smell good!)
13. Wash your pets (& their stuff)
I don’t know about your dog, but ours gets stinky real quick!
Regular grooming of your pet and washing of their bedding and soft toys will help to keep your home from smelling like a wet dog.
‘Cause no matter how much you love your pet, no one likes that smell!
14. Use scented surface cleaners
All of us mommas know how often we have to wipe down counters, sinks, cabinets, tabletops, and other often-used surfaces. #alot
Why not make it a little more enjoyable by using the scented surface spray cleaners you love?
My favorites include:
- Mrs. Meyer’s Multi-Surface Cleaner (my favorite scent is Apple Cider)
- DoTERRA’s On Guard Cleaner Concentrate
- Young Living’s Thieves Household Cleaner
You can also make your own…
In a spray bottle combine the following and give it a good shake:
- 2 cups of Water
- ¼ cup of White Vinegar
- 10 drops each of Eucalyptus, Wild Orange, and Peppermint essential oils OR
- 15 drops each of Lemon and Lavender essential oils
15. Choose a signature scent
I’m going to talk about this more in another post. But choosing a signature scent for your home is a fun way to make your home smell amazing.
Essentially, you choose a scent or family of scents that you love and place them strategically around your house.
For instance, if you love cinnamon and baking scents, put a cinnamon plugin near the front door, simmer some cinnamon sticks and vanilla in the kitchen, and light a cinnamon bun candle in the living room.
These layers of scent are sort of like the layers of your decor…they add depth and dimension to your home.
Of course, there are other ways to make your home smell amazing too. For example, you could open the windows if you live where there is clean, fresh air. We live near some large farms in the suburbs, and a couple of times a year, the air is not so fresh or good-smelling. If ya get my drift! 🐮💩 😂
More Home Cleaning Hacks
Do you use any of these methods to make your home smell amazing? Which ones are your favorite?
