How to make your home smell good: six things that work

I think a home smells good when nothing is left smelling bad and, on top of that, something smells good. The order matters, because adding scent over a background smell just makes an odd mixture. Here are six ways to make your home smell good, with what you need for each one, how often to do it and when to leave it alone.

There's no fixed recipe here. These are ideas to mix and match to suit your home, your routine and what you'd like to smell when you walk through the door.

Air the house daily, even in winter

It's the dullest thing on the list and the one you notice most. Changing the air is the only thing that really removes the molecules behind a smell rather than covering them, and it also clears the moisture that builds up from cooking, showering and simply breathing. My advice is to start here before you buy anything.

• Open windows on two opposite sides of the house so the air can flow through.
• Five or ten minutes is enough, in the morning and again after cooking.
• If you have an extractor fan in the kitchen or bathroom, switch it on before you start and leave it running a while after you finish.

You don't have to freeze in winter. Ten minutes with the windows wide open changes the air without the walls losing their warmth, and it's the walls that really keep a house warm.

When not to: if you live on a busy road, avoid rush hour and air the house mid-morning or in the evening instead.

Clean what smells, not the air

Almost every lingering smell comes from three or four specific places, so it's worth checking them one by one.

• The bin. Wash it with hot water and washing-up liquid every week, dry it properly and put two tablespoons of bicarbonate of soda in the bottom, under the bag.
• The drains. A couple of tablespoons of bicarbonate down the plughole, half a glass of vinegar on top and, once it stops fizzing, very hot water.
• The fridge. An open jar of bicarbonate inside, replaced monthly. Bicarbonate neutralises both acidic and alkaline smells, which is exactly the mixture you get in there.
• The washing machine. It's the most common reason towels smell odd straight out of the wash.

If you only do one thing on this list, I'd start with the washing machine. Water, detergent residue and fluff sit in the folds of the rubber door seal, and a film builds up there that smells sour and passes onto your laundry.

• Wipe the seal and the glass dry after each load.
• Leave the door ajar between washes.
• Don't leave wet laundry sitting in the drum longer than you need to.
• Once a month, run an empty hot wash with a glass of white vinegar.

Never mix vinegar and bleach. And if the smell is back two days after you've cleaned, don't keep throwing products at it: find where it's coming from.

Wash the textiles, which hold smells far longer than walls

So why does the house smell stuffy when you've just cleaned? Nearly always, it's the textiles. Curtains, cushions, rugs and the sofa soak up cooking smells, pet smells and damp, then let them out slowly for weeks.

Wash whatever can be washed. For what can't:

• Sprinkle bicarbonate of soda over the rug or sofa.
• Leave it for anywhere from fifteen minutes to a couple of hours.
• Vacuum it up thoroughly, going over it twice.
• Hang blankets and cushions that won't fit in the machine outside for a morning.

When not to: on delicate, antique or wool rugs, test a hidden corner first, and only use it if your vacuum is strong enough to lift it all out again.

Herb sachets for the wardrobe

It's a habit that goes back a long way, for keeping stored clothes from going stale, and it's still the cheapest. In wardrobes it's long been used to keep moths off wool as well.

What you need:

• A small cotton bag or a handkerchief you can tie.
• Dried lavender.
• A few bay leaves and a sprig of rosemary.
• Dried orange peel.

How to use it:

• Tuck it in among folded clothes, into a drawer or onto a hanger.
• Squeeze it in your hand every two or three weeks to bring the scent back.
• Replace it when the scent has gone, roughly every two or three months.

When not to: don't let it sit directly against silk or pale fabrics, since the herbs can mark them, and keep it away from animals that chew everything.

If it smells damp, the smell is the symptom

A musty, earthy or mouldy smell isn't fixed with air freshener. It's telling you there's water where there shouldn't be: condensation on the windows, a leak, laundry drying in the sitting room. Mould releases spores that make asthma and allergies worse, and children living in damp homes are considerably more prone to breathing problems, so it's worth dealing with early.

• Air the damp rooms every day.
• Keep the bathroom door shut while you shower and the kitchen door shut while you cook.
• Dry washing outside whenever you can. If you have to dry it indoors, do it in a room with the door closed and the window open.
• A dehumidifier helps keep humidity below 60%.
• Clean small patches with an anti-mould product, without scrubbing them dry.

When not to: if the patch covers more than a square metre, if it keeps coming back or if you suspect a leak, this isn't cleaning any more. Talk to a professional or, if you rent, to your landlord.

A simmer pot for the kitchen

This is the old method and it's still the best one for a kitchen, because the scented steam fills the room while you cook or just afterwards. It's always been made with whatever was to hand, the peel from breakfast fruit and the herbs from the windowsill, which is why each season has its own. Here water is genuinely needed, and quite a lot of it.

What you need:

• A small pan.
• About 500 ml of water.
• The peel of one lemon or orange.
• Two sprigs of rosemary.
• A cinnamon stick.

How to do it:

• Put everything in the pan and bring it to the boil.
• Turn it straight down to the lowest setting. You want a very gentle simmer, not a rolling boil.
• Leave it for one to two hours.
• Add a splash of water every half hour or so, so it never runs dry.

Mixes for the season:

• Autumn and winter: sliced apple, cinnamon, cloves and a strip of orange peel.
• Spring and summer: lemon, rosemary and a few mint or bay leaves.

Rosemary and citrus have long been used to freshen a kitchen after cooking, and plenty of people find cinnamon makes a house feel welcoming the moment they walk in.

Never leave it alone on the hob.

Don't start one if you're going out, going to bed or getting in the shower. If the water evaporates completely the pan burns and the house ends up smelling far worse than when you started. With small children around the hob, choose another method.

Add scent safely

Once the rest is done, scent makes sense. There are three simple ways and none of them needs a flame. If you'd like more detail on dilution and diffusers, it's in how to use essential oils well at home.

A diffuser:

• Two or three drops of essential oil per session.
• Short sessions, about half an hour.
• The room aired, or the door left open.

More drops don't smell better, they just put more into the air.

A room spray:

• A spray bottle.
• 100 ml of water.
• A tablespoon of alcohol or witch hazel, so the oil disperses in the water.
• Ten to fifteen drops of essential oil.

Shake it before each use and spray into the air, never onto wood or fabric.

A jar of bicarbonate:

• Four tablespoons of bicarbonate of soda in an open jar.
• Eight to ten drops of essential oil on top.
• A cloth held on with an elastic band, if there are pets or children about.
• Stir it once a week and replace it every three or four weeks.

It goes in dry, because water does nothing here and spoils the bicarbonate. Leave it in a corner of the sitting room or bathroom.

Essential oils are never burned.

Don't put them into a lit candle, an open-flame burner or onto a light bulb. They're used in a diffuser or diluted, always in a room you can air.

Which scent suits which room

Smell pulls on memory more than almost any other sense; one whiff of cinnamon and you're back in your grandmother's kitchen. That's why the scent of a home ends up being so personal. Even so, some combinations come up again and again because they suit almost everyone.

• The bedroom. Lavender has always gone with rest and is still the obvious choice for the end of the day. Chamomile and orange blossom sit in the same family.
• The kitchen. Lemon, orange and rosemary. Plenty of people find citrus reads as clean and wakes them up in the morning, and it's what sits best alongside cooking smells.
• The bathroom. Eucalyptus, mint or pine, which leave the air feeling fresh. Air the room first, scent it afterwards.
• The sitting room. Here it's whatever you like. In winter, cinnamon, vanilla or incense; in summer, spearmint, geranium or citrus. A soft scent is far less tiring than a strong one, especially if you often have people round.

If you live with animals or there's a baby in the house, choose with what follows in mind.

Before you use essential oils at home

With pets. Several essential oils are toxic to dogs and cats: tea tree, pennyroyal, wintergreen, sweet birch, pine, cinnamon, citrus, peppermint, eucalyptus and ylang ylang, among others. Cats are especially sensitive, because they metabolise these compounds poorly and they groom themselves, so whatever lands on their coat ends up inside them. If you have animals, keep the diffuser out of their reach, run short sessions and always leave the door open so they can walk out. If your dog or cat has a respiratory problem, don't use one at all. If you see anything odd, unsteadiness, weakness, drooling or vomiting, ring your vet.

In pregnancy, while breastfeeding and around babies. Check with your midwife or doctor before using essential oils at home, even only in a diffuser. With babies under two, the general advice is not to expose them to the aromas at all.

Scented candles also add scent, but in a closed room they raise fine particles in the air quite noticeably, scented ones more than plain. If you love them, burn them for a short stretch, an hour or two at most, air the room afterwards and never leave them unattended or near the curtains.

What won't fix it

Houseplants don't clean the air in a real home. The idea comes from laboratory tests in sealed chambers, and when the numbers were worked out for an ordinary ventilated house, you'd need somewhere between ten and a thousand plants per square metre to match what simply opening a window already does. Keep them because you like them and the house looks better with them, not as a purifier.

Spraying air freshener over a smell that's still there doesn't work either. It shows, and the result is worse than the smell you started with. Aerosols and plug-ins mask just as badly and leave you buying refills on top. A spray bottle you refill yourself does the same job, and vinegar and bicarbonate replace half a shelf of products.

Take away first, then add. The rest is a matter of taste, and that's your call.

If you'd like to try a ready-made spray, Ëlabba Essence Interior is made for this: a few sprays into the air of the sitting room once you've finished airing and tidying, away from candles and flames.