Want to know all the secrets of people who always have amazing smelling homes that make you feel great when you're in them? Here are our ten top tips for creating and layering scent in your home naturally.
1. Start with a natural clean.
Clean your home regularly - it sounds like a no brainer, but here's the trick. Use only natural cleaning products. You can find so many of these on the market these days but its actually also very easy to make your own as well. You can also absorb bad scents with baking soda. Keep a bowl of this powder in the fridge and in musty cupboards and change it regularly.
2. Bring in some house plants.
Plants can help you purify the air and neutralise bad smells. Add one or two to each of the major traffic areas of the house.
3. Use an essential oil based room spray
Room mist can help to instantly lift the scent in a certain area. Just a quick spritz and you're good to go. Having different scented room sprays for different rooms and times of day (for example using a fresh zesty scent in the morning or a sleep inducing relaxing scent at night) could be all you need to reset a space too. And you can control how much you use, a little mist or a lot. Use room mist in linen cupboards and drawers for a quick refresh. Shop our Room Mists.
4. On your natural wooden furniture instead of harsh varnishes use a natural beeswax.
We aren't saying go out and buy all new wooden furniture but your home may benefit from sanding back your old wooden furniture and rubbing in some beeswax furniture polish. Try to go for only natural wax polish rather than synthetic ones. You could use an unscented one, so all you smell is the lovely honey scent of beeswax, or one that is scented with essential oils. This way your furniture will gradually emit fragrance into the air over time.
5. Use natural beeswax candles
Beeswax candles are the only candle that actually purifies the air and a tiny bit of warmth even when they are unlit makes them emit that delightful honey scent.
Shop our beeswax candles here.
6. Create scent zones.
Each room can be zoned with scent, just make sure that each scent compliments the other. You could have have one scent for bathrooms and one for the kitchen but that don't conflict with each other. If they are both citrus but lemon for the kitchen and lime for the bathrooms it will be a subtle but enjoyable experience to move from one room to the other.
7. Use a pot simmer.
Especially in winter when the air can be a little dry, a pot on the stove simmering very gently away can be used to scent the home very naturally. Experiment with different ingredients but some very popular ones are things like orange and lemon slices, cloves, cinnamon sticks, apple pieces and even herbs like rosemary and sage (picked straight from your garden for the ultimate romancing the ordinary experience). Just be sure to keep the stove to the lowest simmer and don't let the pot run dry.
8. Mist linens and upholstery with a spray.
Use your room mist to keep curtains and couches smelling fresh too. A light spritz on all your couches after vacuuming and after washing your pillow covers feels like the perfect finishing touch.
9. Make your own lavender infused vinegar to absorb bad smells and keep things clean.
Its so easy to make an infused vinegar. Take a handful of dried lavender and place it in a 250ml jar. Fill with white vinegar and leave in the cupboard for 1-2 weeks. Strain and rejar or pour into a mist bottle. Use to clean your tiles and surfaces. Vinegar has a compound in it that binds to scent molecules which neutralises bad smells.
10. Hang dried herbs and flowers.
Drying your own grown herbs and flowers around the house will naturally scent the air as well as being something very practical. After they are dried you can jar up the herbs to use in your cooking.
