The other day I came home to a smelly house. I had left something extra nasty in the trash can and was totally regretting it. I immediately took it out of course, but I was scrambling to get the entire house smell out!
How does one little smell turn into something so BIG?
I searched around and found some awesome smell hacks that have helped me in a pinch.
Keep these around for the next time you are desperate to get your home smelling great. These would be perfect if you have company coming over!
10 Hacks To Make Your House Smell Good
The good news is just like with BAD smells…a little GOOD smell can make a noticeable difference.
Make your whole house smell fresh with this totally chemical free air-freshener hack we love.
Place a clip on air freshener for cars onto the vents in your house! via Krazy Coupon Lady
Use Gain Fireworks scent booster in your candle wax burner and your house will smell amazing. via Stock Piling Moms
Kick stinky smells in your house by filling your crock pot with water and baking soda. via A Year of Slow Cooking
Make your own room scents easily with ingredients right from your kitchen. via The Yummy Life
Place a tealight candle inside a jar filled with coffee beans for a vanilla coffee scent. via Smart School House
Banish carpet odors quickly with this simple DIY concoction.
Put a few teaspoons of vanilla extract in an oven dish and bake at 300 degrees. Your house will smell amazing. via Lifehacker
Quickly get the room smelling good by taping dryer sheets to a box fan. via Society 19
Another easy way that most realtors know is to bake cookies! I also like to set the bread machine because nothing smells better than freshly baking bread.
How to Get The Bad Smell Out Of Your House
After trying to make the house smell better without success, you might want to attack the root of the stink. Here are some common reasons a house smells bad with some very doable solutions.
How to get Smoke Smell Out of House
Try volcanic rock. I know this sounds crazy, but this super smart and surprisingly affordable option can help when complete renovation isn’t an option. via Julie Blanner
A common suggestion is to boil vinegar and allow it to waft throughout the house. This can also work for steaming clothing with a smokey smell. via Den Garden
Check out this list of odor-absorbing materials via NACHI:
- vinegar
- citrus
- baking soda
- coffee grounds
- charcoal
Change the air filters in your home and use the super smart filter hack.
How to Get Skunk Smell Out of the House
Getting the skunk house smell out is something I am more than familiar with! When we lived in Abilene, TX we had a set of french doors going to the backyard that were obviously not fully sealed. Repeatedly, a skunk who had entered our yard to drink out of the swimming pool and then find our dog, would corner poor Abby next to those doors.
What happened next filled the entire house with that skunky smell.
Now what?
I tried tomato juice. And then the whole house smelled like tomato juice…not to be super weird, but tomato juice doesn’t smell that much better than skunk.
The home remedy that really works via University of California Agriculture & Natural Resources:
1 quart 3% hydrogen peroxide
1/4 cup baking soda
1/2 teaspoon liquid soap
Do not bottle or save this recipe. It is unstable and will expand (or explode), but it can change the chemical composition of the skunk scent which means your house no longer smells like skunk!
Get Rid of Musty House Smell
This is also a hard one because you have to make sure the root cause of the musty house smell is gone or you will never get rid of it. Or like me, you will get rid of it until the next rain…when the damp comes back in and wets the old musty ickyness making the whole house smell.
1. Once you are rid of the source, then do a thorough cleaning of the entire room/house.
2. Use an odor absorbing material like vinegar, citrus, baking soda, coffee grounds or charcoal.
3. Then use the tips in the beginning of this article to make your house smell better!
My House Smells Like Rotten Eggs or Like Gas
Make sure there are no sources of fire on – fireplace, gas stove, etc. and open up a window.
If the smell is strong or seems diffuse (meaning it is not just in one small location), then get out and call 9-1-1 and then your utility provider.
That rotten egg smell is added to the odorless/tasteless/colorless natural gas to alert us about leaks.
So don’t play around with this house smell! It can be serious!
What is your favorite smell hack?
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Really great advice! Somethings I would have never thought of! I read once you can put a cotton ball dipped in essential oils into your vacuum cleaner’s bag to release a lovely scent when you vacuum. A deep clean for your carpet every once in a while by professionals is a great way to freshen up too, if you don’t have the time! Thanks for these tips!!
I’m going to give these things are try, I tried the downy unstoppable pearl’s and the purex crystals, I really loved the scent but they only lasted for a day, then the scent was gone, any suggestions on how to make the scent last longer, I have one in my kitchen and one in my dinning room two in my living room and one in each bathroom, Thank you for your ideas
I can’t take artificial scents or perfumy stuff so I spray white vinegar in the air and lightly over the carpet. I use white vinegar for a lot of things. I think I read somewhere that you can infuse vinegar with dried herbs over several weeks, strain and put the strained vinegar in a spray bottle to sprits in the air. I haven’t tried that, but I plan to! Otherwise plain white vinegar works to get rid of odors. The vinegar smell only lasts a short time, but the freshness remains.
A bit off subject but I like to keep a couple wax
melts in a small lidded jar that stays in my car.
I use a glass toothpick holder since the lid
already has holes in it but any jar would work,
just punch holes in the lid and voila! Living in
the Deep South, my car has no problem getting
hot enough to melt the wax, even in the shade!
Nothing can make getting in your hot car enjoyable
when its 100’ outside with 90% humidity but this
little hack takes some of the crappiness out of it
when you get in your hot car after a hot, gross day
and it smells amazing…my favs are lavender or
ocean/beach based which are great at helping me
relax on my drive home after a long, stressful day
at work.