Running any home is certainly a challenge, and the more people in it, the more time you have to spend making sure it’s a comfortable place to live. That includes eliminating nasty and lingering odours so that everyone can enjoy the living spaces and get the most out of them.

But with kitchens, bathrooms, garages and everywhere else generating their own particular hums, some of which you may battle to get rid of, how do you go about keeping your home smelling great all year around?

Here are some tips to help you keep your cherished home in great olfactory shape all throughout the year.

Plant Power

Who doesn’t like plants? We’re not just talking about flowers, or the nasty-plastic variety, but actual living, green indoor plants that will not only look amazing in your kitchen, living room and elsewhere, but also help to suck up carbon dioxide and give off life-supporting oxygen.

Plus, they’ll emanate their own individual fragrances and add a mighty dollop of calming zen to rooms. So get yourself down to the garden centre and grab some indoor plants that will help to battle smells in the home. You can even take out an indoor-plant subscription. Just make sure they’re suitable for various temperatures and light conditions in each room, and care for them by watering and removing dead leaves as they fall off (otherwise you could have another stench on your hands as they rot).

Bake Off

You know that baking soda that’s been in your cupboard for ages and is hardly ever used, as your baking plans are always shelved? Put it to smell-busting use straight away. Baking soda has the ability to absorb odours and also has antiseptic properties — who knew a humble baking ingredient could do so much? Put a bowl of it in the fridge and let it soak up the various smells of the different foods there, and put a few large spoonfuls in the toilet and leave for a few minutes before flushing. You can also eliminate the odours from smelly shoes and trainers by sprinkling some on the insoles.

Up in Smoke

By far the worse olfactory offender in the home is tobacco. Cigarette smoke has an uncanny ability to stick to just about everything and linger like an unwanted guest way past their welcome. Anyone with a smoker in the home knows that, soon enough, the entire place and everyone in it will be reeking of sickly and stale tobacco smoke — on sofas, carpets, curtains, clothing, hair and everything else — to the point you’ll feel mortified at the prospect of welcoming guests. The answer is to have your smoker use e-cigarettes instead — which provides all the taste and flavour (and more), but none of the smell or health risks associated with smoking. They can go online and check out some vape reviews to see what to get, and easily order what they want at an online vape shop.

Insensible

When all else fails and you want to banish bad smells and fast, reach for one of your favourite incense sticks and get it burning — they’re so much better, and healthier, than spray air-fresheners and scented candles, which are potentially hazardous. The powerful, pungent smell of incense will waft throughout the home, masking even the most robust of pongs. And if you find it’s a bit too overpowering and you fear your house may be turning into a temple, you can always get yourself a trendy reed diffuser that will do the job on a more gentle level. They come in all sorts of refreshing, airy scents, including lavender, cotton, lemon and more, and the reed soaks up the oil-based fragrance and disperses it around the clock — no need for batteries or to plug it in.

Taking a few simple steps to beat odours around the home will have it smelling as fresh as a
daisy all year round.