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How to Make Your House Smell Good: This Is What You Can Do

You have company over in about an hour.

You’ve got your house clean for the most part, but there’s still an awful stench wafting through the place.

It smells like a mixture of garbage and what you cooked for dinner last night.

Don’t worry, and an hour gives you plenty of time to get the funk out of your home.

It only takes thirty minutes to boil fruit on the stove or bake spices in your oven.

We can tell you all about how to make your house smell good.

Keep reading for a few methods that will work every single time.

woman relaxing and enjoying that her home smell good

Add Essential Oils to Your Air Filter

If you need to make your house smell fresh in a hurry, put a few drops of essential oils in your air filter.

Your HVAC system will then set to work pushing the scent through your house.

It will make the place smell better, and as an added plus, essential oils are known for their health benefits.

For example, if you’re feeling stressed and want to make your house smell good, use Lavender.

It will solve both your problems and maybe make you feel a bit sleepy.

Some fun essential oil recipes:

Jasmine & Orange:

This combination is best for a gentle floral scent.

Chamomile & Lavender:

A popular choice for a soothing & relaxing scent.

Peppermint & Eucalyptus:

This duo is a must for a fun Holiday scent.

Ginger Cinnamon & Clove:

This combination creates a fresh baked cookies scent

Place 10 to 15 drops of your favorite essential oil directly onto your air filter.

It does not matter what side of the filter you place your drops on.

Do not confine your drops to one central area.

Spread them out to cover your air filter’s media surface.

lavender essential oil with lavender sprigs

Clean Your Garbage Disposal

If you have a funk coming from your kitchen, it’s most likely coming from one of two places.

The fridge or your garbage disposal.

You need to clean both on a routine basis.

Did you even know that you can clean your garbage disposal?

Put a few drops of fresh lemon down the disposal, turn on the hot water, and run the disposal.

The soap will circulate through it and get rid of the old food smell.

If you want to make your entire house smell good, throw a few lemon rinds into the disposal and turn it on.

It will be a little stronger, so the fresh lemon scent will spread throughout your entire home instead of staying confined to the kitchen.

lemon on counter with scrub brushes

Sprinkle Baking Soda on Your Carpets

Your carpets take a lot of punishment.

Between pet accidents and spilled cups of coffee, they can start to smell horrible after a while.

You can take some of these nasty smells from the carpet with baking soda.

Sprinkle it on your carpets and let it sit for a few hours before you vacuum it up.

Fun fact, this method works on other hard-to-deodorize parts of your house, too, like your mattress and plush furniture.

backing soda in bowl and scattered on counter

Make Your Own Freshening Spray

Air fresheners that you get from the store are full of chemicals.

They’re also expensive.

You can save so much money and have cleaner air by making your own.

Add water, alcohol, and your favorite essential oil to a spray bottle and give your house a quick spritzing.

That’s how to deodorize a house fast before company comes over.

homemade air freshener being sprayed

You can also make your own air freshener copy cat Renuzit Beads.

Oven-Baked Smelly Goods

There’s nothing that can make your house smell better than freshly baked cookies.

If you can’t bake or don’t have any cookies on hand, you can get this effect in different ways.

One way is to put a few drops of vanilla extract in an oven-safe container and let it bake for an hour.

If you want a spicier fall scent, sprinkle a little cinnamon and cloves on a baking sheet and pop it in the oven for thirty minutes or so.

freshly baked cookies

Tackle the Garbage Can

If there is a lingering smell in your house and you can’t find the source, it’s probably something in your garbage can.

Sometimes odors linger even after you take the trash out.

If you add a dryer sheet to the bottom of your trash can, it will absorb some of the bad smells for you.

You can also put a little baking soda in the garbage can and spray it with a disinfecting spray like Lysol.

woman adding dryer sheet to bottom of kitchen garbage can

Simmer Fruits and Herbs on the Stove

Boil a pot of water and add sliced citrus fruits and fresh herbs to it.

The smell will carry over to the rest of your home.

The good thing about this method is that it’s highly customizable.

It doesn’t have to be citrus fruits.

If you want to give your house a lovely fall scent, you can boil apples, cloves, cinnamon sticks, and an orange peel.

Want a subtler fresh smell?

Lemon, rosemary, and vanilla extract will do the trick.

There are a lot of recipes out there, like these from diyncrafts.com, that you can try out.

sliced oranges simmering on stove

Scatter Candles Around Your Home

The oldest and most effective way to make your house smell good is candles.

Most people light a few and put them in high traffic areas of their house like their living room or kitchen.

We’re here to tell you that you don’t always have to light them.

If you put a candle in a confined space like your pantry, it will fill the entire area with the scent.

 

wax melts melting in burner

How to Make Your House Smell Good in Time for Company

Have you been trying to figure out how to make your house smell good before company comes over?

The trick is to think outside the box.

Simmering fruits on the stove or baking vanilla extract is a quick way to fill your house with a sweet and pleasant scent.

Try out some of the methods on this list to kick bad odors out of your home once and for all.

Adding fresh scents into your house is a good start, but you can do so much more to breathe new life into your space.

Check out our blog daily for more tips and advice.

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