Sometimes you just need to know how to make your house smell good!
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!
Fresh air! Fresh air! How does one little smell turn into something so BIG?
I searched around and found some awesome smell hacks to make the house smell good that have helped me in a pinch. I have created this list of my favorite ways.
Keep these great ideas around for the next time you are desperate to get your home smelling great. These would be perfect if you have company coming over!
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. It is amazing how a little change can make the house smell good.
Make your whole house smell fresh with this totally chemical free air-freshener hack for your air filter we love using your favorite essential oils.
Placing a car air freshener to the A/C vents in your home is a great way to make the house smell good!! via Krazy Coupon Lady
Make very very very strong tea. Use multiple tea bags in hot water (I like to add in some citrus peels) and keep warm over low heat or in a slow cooker. Later you can dilute it for drink!
Use Gain Fireworks scent booster in your candle wax burner and your house will smell amazing. via Stock Piling Moms
Make your own room DIY air freshener with natural ingredients and some drops of essential oil so you can make it the perfect scent for YOUR home. We like to have a small spray bottle of this handy for your room sprays!
The best way to 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 fresh scent easily with ingredients right from your kitchen like cinnamon sticks, fresh herbs, orange peels and other natural pleasant smells and simmer in a small saucepan. At first it is your own stovetop potpourri, a personal simmer pot, but later you can use them packaged in mason jars. via The Yummy Life
Place a tealight candle inside a jar filled with coffee beans for a vanilla coffee scent which does wonders for removing unpleasant odors from the air. via Smart School House
The easiest way to banish carpet odors quickly with this simple DIY concoction that uses drops of your favorite essential oil.
Put a few teaspoons of vanilla extract in an oven dish and bake at 300 degrees. Your house will smell amazing. via Lifehacker
A good idea is to quickly get the room smelling good by taping dryer sheets to a box fan. via Society 19
Need some help with a stinky garbage disposal? Check out this short video on getting the smell out of the sink drain and garbage disposal:
Washing machine odors can be not only annoying, but penetrate the entire laundry making your clothes stinky too. Yuck! Check out this easy way to fix a smelly washing machine. via Bob Vila
What if the unpleasant smells are coming from your vacuum cleaner? This is an easy one! Take some cotton balls and dip them into your favorite pleasant scent, we like essential oils for this and when you turn on the vacuum it will put you into a good mood…guaranteed!
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. One batch can make the whole house smell good.
I know this might seem real simple at this point, but a very good option for adding a subtle scent to the room is using essential oil diffusers!
How to Get The Bad Smell Out Of Your House
After trying to make the home smell better without success, you might want to attack the root of the stink. Here are some common reasons a house smells bad and has bad odors with some very doable solutions. It is always best when you can correctly identify the source of bad smells and then try these little hacks.
How to get Smoke Smell Out of House
If the source of odor is smoke, 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. I tried water and vinegar solution and didn’t love the vinegar smell either!
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 strong scents which means your house no longer smells like skunk!
Get Rid of Musty House Smell
This is also a hard one because the musty smell 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!
More Sweet Smell Ideas from Kids Activities Blog
- We have the real solution to how to get rid of smelly feet.
- How to get your house to smell like the holidays.
- Get that real Christmas tree smell from your fake tree.
Do you have any tips or tricks on how to make your house smell good?
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.
Love the smell good ideas
Dont ever put toxic stuff in your candle warmer!!
Those things are toxic! I’m surprsed it’s being advertised in a kids website!
The Mt Sinai Children’s Environmental Health Center advises to avoid perfumes and scented products.
“Artificial fragrance contains up to 100 chemicals that may disrupt hormones and alter brain and reproductive development”
Here’s a link. Mt Sinai Hospital cares for 9/11 first responders so they know something about toxic chemicals.
Why would anyone EVER promote the use of air fresheners and dryer sheets?! They’re TOXIC for you and the environment. They don’t belong anywhere near us.
Really excited to do these activities. We clean our carpets every year to get the smells out of the house, but after quarantine we’re going to need to do a little bit more haha Thank you so much for sharing.
I use the perfume samples in magazines. You can put them in drawers, on the bottom of trash cans, in the vacuum cleaner, on top of heat/air vents, tape to a fan, put in shoes, put in closets and other places.
I love this idea!!! THANKS for sharing.