Making Your Home Smell Nice

The key to making your home smell nice depends on a number of factors which when combined will ensure it doesn't offend any visitors.

Curiously, if you never go out you'll find that you can live quite happily with a disgusting smell and never even notice. Even highly offensive odours such as pet pongs and smelly feet will often be overlooked. If you dare to traverse into the open air for a few minutes and then re enter your not so sweet home abode you'll be shocked into action by your olfactory nerves. The science of smell is a fascinating subject.

Set aside a few minutes to go out of your house and take a short walk and some deep invigorating breaths then go back inside. Be honest with yourself - what do you smell?

Last night's curry? A dirty nappy in the bin? Unchanged cat litter? A mouldy cupboard? Your re-educated nose will tell you.

Discover the source of the smell and clean it thoroughly - immediately. Don't just squirt air freshener round to disguise the offending odour; you must address the issue first. Only then can you open the windows to ventilate when everything is squeaky clean and fresh. Once the strong smells of cleaning agents have dissipated, then you can be liberal with your scented sprays and atmospheric candles to recreate a pleasant ambience in your home.

Just like a niggling pain is a sign that there may be health issues to address, a bad smell in the home serves a useful purpose in alerting you to the fact that something could be potentially harmful. The pungent stench of gone off meat, mouldy bread or sour milk is there for a reason and the source of the offending odour has to be eliminated in order to tackle the problem effectively.

Your drain will stink if it's blocked. Your stored clothes will smell musty if you don't have adequate ventilation in your home and your carpets will begin to reek if spillages aren't dealt with as soon as they occur.

A clean home is an odourless home. To create a pleasant fragrance in your interior environment chose products that enhance each other. Use vanilla reed diffusers such as those in the Airwick range throughout your house and these can double up as attractive ornamental features too with none of the plastic, tacky look of some air fresheners.

For instance, you can introduce a background fragrance during the day and intensify the mood with vanilla scented candles in the evening, but be aware of fire safety and ventilation issues when positioning them. Air freshening products should never be so overbearing that they cause breathing problems or spoil your enjoyment of a pleasant meal but should remain in the background as a constant reminder that your home is a nice place to live in. Try to use the same scent throughout the home and opt for a change every few months when it's time to replace.

Nowadays there are a plethora of perfumed products on the market to create the atmosphere you desire but be sure to banish the bad smells first!