11 Ways to Make Your Home Smell Amazing!.

One of the first things that you notice when you walk into a home, whether it's yours or someone else's, is the smell. And if it's pleasant, it usually sets the stage. You feel a little bit more relaxed, a little bit more inclined to take a glass out of the cupboard and have a drink. Whereas if the smell isn't so great, you might start to question things and wonder what else is going on or what's causing that smell. And it might make you a little uneasy in that house. So to me, smell is one of those really key signifiers when I walk into a space. It helps me know whether that space is truly clean or not. So in this video, we're going to cover two different aspects of household smell. The first one is eliminating the source of those odors. And the second one is bringing nice smells into the home so that you can actually walk in and enjoy a pleasant scent upon your arrival. And just a quick reminder, if you haven't done so already, to subscribe to the Clean My Space channel and give this video a thumbs up if a nice smell is something that you look for in a home or in a retail space. When there's an unsavory smell in the home, the first thing that I do is I kind of morph into this bloodhound dog and I'm sniffing around the house trying to figure out where that smell is coming from because to truly eliminate an odor is to find the cause of the odor and deal with it at the source. Now, we have tons of videos on how to do this. I will link some of them for you down below. But if you notice an odor and it's not going away, rather than trying to mask it, the number one thing you can do, just like a doctor who tries to diagnose what's going on by telling what the symptoms are, you've got to find where the source of that odor is to get rid of the symptoms. Once you know the source of that odor, it's really important to know the right product to deal with that particular cleaning conundrum. So we always talk about using the right product or tool for the job at hand. Once you've figured that out, then do a little bit of further research to determine what course of action you're going to take in terms of the product that you're going to use. Now, in my experience, when there's something that's smelly, it's usually in one of two categories. It's something that's moldy, musty, mildewy, or it's something that is like a urine-type odor or garbage-type odor. And that you can deal with with an enzyme cleaner. But again, do your research. Use the right products so that you only have to do the job once. Now, as you're going about your cleaning, and you've done, let's say, your base-level cleaning to deal with the odor, and then you want to do a little bit of ancillary cleaning, you can always make your own cleaning products. We've got tons of videos and recipes teaching you all about how to do that. I've got some links for you down below. And when you're mixing up your recipes, you can involve some essential oils. That's a great way to, you know, add some extra scent into the mix. You can mix and match whatever scents you like. I'm holding peppermint. I happen to think it's lovely. But there are so many options. And the recipe or the ratio that you want to keep in mind is for every cup of liquid that you're mixing up, you want to use between 5 and 10 drops of essential oil per cup. And that should get you the scent you're looking for. This is a pretty easy one, and it kind of peps you up while you're vacuuming. As you know, vacuuming is my least favorite cleaning task. And that is simply taking some essential oils and dashing it onto the filter of your vacuum cleaner. Now, if you use a bag model vacuum cleaner, you can actually put a few drops of essential oil onto or into the bag. Just dash it in. And as the vacuum is working, you'll notice it lets off a mild scent, which is kind of pleasant. And by the way, this is one of the tips that we got from a Clean My Space community member on a video that we did a while back. So thank you for that great tip. I recently started using something called zeolite, which is a naturally occurring stone that helps to absorb odors and moisture. So it's similar to something like charcoal, but the way that it's explained is it's like a microscopic sieve. So it absorbs. Now, the cool thing about this, it looks like little stones. You can place them in a sachet, or you can put them even in a little vase. And you can just stick them in areas. They look like stones. It can almost be decorative. And you can stick it in areas wherever you notice odors. This is safe around kids, plants, and pets. Of course, just make sure it doesn't get eaten. And the coolest thing about zeolite is that to recharge them, you just lay the stones out in the sunshine for about six to eight hours, and then they're right back to working like they did when you first got them. I'll put a link for you down below if you want to learn a little bit more about zeolite or you want to pick some up. An easy, inexpensive, well, free thing that you can do to make your house smell great is to open the windows. It's something that Chad and I do as frequently as we feel reasonable, given that we pay to use HVAC in this house. But I think that airing out your house on a very regular basis helps to keep it smelling fresh and clean. On the topic of using natural powers, you can bring some plants into your home that are great for purifying the air. There are a variety of different plants. And, of course, if you have pets, you'll want to make sure that the ones you bring home are safe for them. You can also go online and research which plants do well, given your light situation. Some of you might know if you follow me on Instagram. I like me a good plant, but I also know my windows set up, so I'm not going to buy a plant that requires a certain type of lighting if I can't make it work. Some of the plants that are really great for keeping your indoor air quality high would be a snake plant or a spider plant. I know they sound creepy, but they're actually beautiful. And there are tons more, so go online and check it out and bring some greenery into your home. Cars are like little microcosms of our homes. And if you do any amount of driving, you're obviously aware of what your car smells like. Now, if you think about it, we're eating in the car, we're drinking in the car. Just like our home, we're shedding dead skin cells, but our shoes are often bringing a lot of dirt into our cars. That dirt settles, and it just leads to odors. So over time, your car can get kind of stinky, and there's a great way to counteract that. You can simply take some essential oil and drop it onto the carpets or the rubber mats of your vehicle. Now, this is great because it not only helps to make your car smell a little bit better, and of course, you can lower the windows, but if you use something that's invigorating like peppermint, it'll actually help keep you more alert while you're driving. So on that note, don't use something like lavender, which really chills you out. This is a really obvious masking of smells, but it's a good one, especially around holiday season. And that is doing the stovetop simmer. Now, it might feel inconceivable to do this in the summer, but as we move into cooler temperatures, and I'm crying inside saying that because I am a forever summer person, but I'm also a realist. I know what's coming. So in the colder months, people are sort of cozying up, spending more time indoors, because we haven't been doing enough of that this year. But you kind of want to flag your mind that the holidays are coming. So you can get some water boiling on the stovetop. Now, if you have a slow cooker or a crock pot, you can do this in there as well. Basically, you add water, and then you can throw in a combination of any fruits, herbs, citrus that you like, and you can kind of let them just simmer and go to town. So what I like to do is I like to bring the water up to a boil, throw everything in there, and then bring it down to a simmer. Now, if it's stovetop, you've got to keep an eye on it. So my trick is I set a timer for, say, every 30 minutes, and I just make sure the water level is good. I'll add more water as needed, and that way you never have to worry about a problem. But if you're using a crock pot, you don't have to worry about this. You kind of put the water in, you put your stuff to simmer or cook, and you walk away, and you do what you got to do. Everything falls to the floor. Dead skin cells, dander, pet hair, you name it, it's on the floor, which is why you've got to stay on top of your floors if you want to stay on top of odors. Now, carpets, obviously, you just have to vacuum, but for hard floor surfaces, you really want to make sure that you're not only sweeping or vacuuming, but you're also mopping fairly regularly. Now, for me, I like to balance out how much mopping I do because I have a lot of hardwood in the house. I don't want to over mop, but I stay on top by vacuuming regularly. Now, when I do mop, I do that because I want to, you know, obviously, I will spot clean any spills, but I want to get rid of any oils that come off of our feet or our cat's feet or anything that has fallen that I'm not able to see because over time, that adds to odors. Now, the recipe that I like to use is 1 3 quarters cup water to a quarter cup rubbing alcohol and 10 drops of essential oil. I really like using grapefruit on the floor. Again, just check in with yourself and see what you love. Then you'll shake that solution up, and in this case, I'm using a microfiber pad mop. So what I'll do is I'll spray a certain area, and then I'm using the W pattern or the S pattern depending on how I feel that day. I'm going to clean the area, let it dry, and move on to the next area by spraying and then mopping, spraying, and then mopping, and so on. For a sweet smelling surprise in perhaps an unlikely place, you can take some essential oil and drop it onto the inner part of a cardboard tube. So whether that's your paper towel roll or your toilet paper roll, you can get a little extra fresh scent in a place that might otherwise smell so good. Air purification is becoming something that is increasingly more talked about and more popular. I've seen a huge uptick in the amount of products that have come out over the past few years that are air purifiers, and it's important because the quality of the air in your home really does affect the way that you breathe and function and live. And if you're somebody who has allergies or asthma or a host of other health issues that are affected by indoor air quality, an air purifier can make all the difference. But even on the most basic level, an air purifier helps your home smell better because essentially what it's doing is it's bringing air in through one side, it's filtering it on the inside, and then it's shooting out fresh, clean air that has been purified. There are no contaminants in there. So that is going to mean that your house smells a lot better because things like dander and odors and dead skin cells and dirt, like all those little micro things that you don't see but are floating around in your air are now being cleaned in this filter. So if you feel that your house is clean but you just can't get rid of that stale, musty odor, you might really want to think about an air purifier. And if all else fails, simply refer to this tip that was rated the most popular comment on a previous video we did on a similar topic, and that is, and I'm going to be gender neutral here, to remove your spouse, your children, and your pets and just live alone. Just let them park in a camper on your driveway and you take the house and enjoy the clean. And that brings me to this week's comment question, which is, what is your favorite thing to smell when you walk into a home? Now I've walked into certain stores before and I swear they must have machines that like spritz you with odor the second you walk in because you just get this blast of scent and I actually don't love that. But when I walk into a home, I love the smell of fresh baking and clearly that never happens in my house because I don't bake. But when I walk into someone else's house and I can smell something baking, it just feels so good. For my house, I really like it to smell like nothing or if it's got to smell like something, I would say I really love the combination of lemon, vanilla, and rosemary. So let me know in the comments down below what you love smelling when you walk into a home. Make sure that you're following us on Instagram at CleanMySpace and our microfiber products company at MAKERS.CLEAN. Here are a couple of other videos I think you might love. If you want to learn more about MAKERS clean microfiber products, you can click this button right over here. There is a button down there that lets me know you care, so click it if you liked this video and click this button right here to subscribe and begin your journey to a cleaner life. Thanks so much for watching and we'll see you next time.