There are some people who, whenever they pass by, leave you with an alluring wonderful whiff of sweet-smelling aroma that makes you turn your head and inhale deeply to savour the smell. Unfortunately there are also those whose smell leaves you wrinkling your nose in disgust while trying to hold your breath without gagging or dying in the process.

Just as a sweet-smelling person makes for a pleasant experience, so does a sweet-smelling house. There’s nothing lovelier than entering a house that has a welcoming, pleasing smell to it. It helps to make one feel at ease and want to spend time in the place because the atmosphere warrants a positive attitude.

Our sense of smell is a strong indicator and sensor of what we like and what we don’t like and is usually strongly linked to our memory. Certain smells will evoke memories from the past; whether it’s a perfume, the aroma of a home-cooked meal or the smell of fresh grass after a thunderstorm, our olfactory system can remind us of certain events based purely on a smell. This is true even of people as I always observe that over time people tend to develop a certain smell that can be associated with them; for example, my grandmother always had a fresh, clean smell of Yardley talcum powder and that smell resonates with her memory.

In the same vein, houses also tend to develop a certain smell that can be associated with them, so it’s important to ensure that the smell that lingers is fragrant, not a stench.

There are several ways in which you can make your home smell good, some more natural than others, all dependant on the kind of smell that you enjoy.

The foundation of a sweet-smelling home is cleanliness; if your house isn’t clean then any smells that you purposely add will mix in with the stale smell of an unwashed house that lingers in the air. When cleaning your house you may choose to use scented cleaners such as pine or lemon which leave your floor smelling fresh and of a pinewood forest or a citrus grove. These products are effective; however, it’s important to use them in moderation as they can be rather pungent and overwhelming the house with a lemon smell is not the sweet-smelling solution that was intended.

Commercial plug-in air fresheners are also an easy and convenient way of sprucing up the smell of your home and with a large variety of odours to choose from, you can either stick to your favourite one or change the smell each time the odourizer finishes to always have a different sweet-smelling home. Again, these smells can be overpowering if over-used so switching the freshener on for a couple of hours at a time should suffice to maintain a constant fragrance.

Scented candles are such a wonderful invention! They’re so multi-functional, because not only do they make your house smell nice, they’re also pretty to look at and make for great presents. Whether you want your home to smell of vanilla essence, cranberry chutney or autumn spice, the scented candle business has boomed and flourished giving us plenty of options. As with all candles, don’t leave them burning unattended, near an open window or near flammable items such as curtains.

For a more natural and DIY smell, why not emulate the much-loved smell of a bakery? The distinctive smell emitted by freshly-baked bread and cakes leaves you salivating for more, so you can recreate that same feeling inside your home by baking bread or a cake, especially before expecting guests. This is a technique that is often used by people who are looking to sell their house because they know that the people who are viewing their house will leave with a good feeling and positive association to the property.

Another culinary trick is to simmer some cinnamon cloves or powder in water on your cooker. The smell is strong enough to waft through the house while still being natural.

If your chosen smell gets a bit too strong for your liking, open the windows and air the place allowing the smell to emerge. Don’t try and mask it with another smell as you’ll end up with a hybrid of fragrances that may not complement each other, resulting in a worse odour.

However, if you’ve got a house that already has stubborn odours which you’d like to be rid of, then try placing a bowl of white vinegar in the room where the stench is the strongest. Within 48 hours the vinegar would have eliminated the odour completely.

Once you’ve got yourself a sweet-smelling home, be sure to enjoy it and open it to others to share it with.

Tips

• Before adding any smells – wash the floors, vacuum the carpets and clear the house to have a clean foundation to work with
• Allow fresh air into the house
• Bake bread to have your house smelling delicious!
• Burn scented candles to enjoy almost any smell you want.
• Commercial odourizers like plug-in fresheners and spray products can help as a quick fix-it

Published in The Sunday Times – July 2011