5 Natural Ways to Deodorize and Freshen Your Home

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5 Natural Ways to Deodorize and Freshen Your Home
by Christina Spence – the Happy Slob Housecleaner

Description: Easy hints for deodorizing your home naturally.

We all want a home that smells fresh and inviting when we walk in the door, but all too often the exact opposite is true. Pet odors, lingering cigarette smoke, or just everyday stinkiness (can you say teenagers?) can leave us wanting to walk back out the door instead of enjoying the haven that is home.

Here are my five favorite ways to naturally fight odors in your home and add some beautiful, natural scents. As always, I prefer natural products and simple ways of doing things – they are not only the cheapest, but they work the best too!

Lampe Berger – the ONLY odor neutralizing product that I highly recommend is the Lampe Berger from France. What IS a lampe berger? If you were to come across this in a shop, you’d likely think it was just a decorative, collectible oil burning lamp. The beautiful part is true – the lamps range from simple, clear glass lamps to highly sought-after one of a kind art pieces. But, no matter what style you choose, all of the Lampe Bergers (pronounced Lamp Bur-jhay) work exactly the same – a catalytic wick is the burner, and you use their alcohol-based formula in the lamp itself. You can choose a neutral, unscented oil or else a variety of gorgeous scents – two of my favorites are the Grapefruit scent and the Crème Brulee scent (although right now I’m also using the Peach…it is wonderful too!) Prices range from about $30 all the way up to thousands for those art pieces…but I can’t recommend these highly enough, and I use mine pretty much everyday when I change the cat litter. It obliterates the stinkiness of THAT particular chore and is also great to light and use when cooking fish, or anything else that has a smell that lingers, even if you don’t want it to!

Vinegar – You KNOW I love my white vinegar, and it’s also a handy dandy odor destroyer too. Whether it’s cigarette smoke or pet odors, a bowlful of white vinegar left out in any offensive smelling area will eventually absorb a whole lot of that odor. One reader also suggested that it worked great at getting rid of burnt popcorn smells from out of the microwave – she simply left it in the opened microwave door (and didn’t turn the microwave on at all.)

Simmer some Citrus – Citrus peels are PACKED with delicious smelling essential oils, so I like taking long strips of fresh citrus peels – lime and orange are my particular favorites – and simmer them in a little bit of water on top of the stove. It smells so delicious and so fresh, no matter what time of year it is, like injecting summertime into any room. And citrus fruits just smell so wonderfully CLEAN, if you ask me.

Clean with Baking Soda – If the smell is coming from something because it needs a good cleaning, then baking soda is your best friend. A simple paste of baking soda and water is a great all purpose scrubbing cleaner – add a scrubby sponge, and you’ll be amazed by how effective it scrubs up messes! And that baking soda is one of the best odor neutralizers you’ll ever find. Leaving out a bowl of this can also work as a natural odor sponge, just like the vinegar already mentioned.

Cut an Apple and Soak Up the Smells – I know, this sounds bizarre, but a cut up apple is also a great odor absorber. A Happy Slob reader sent this tip in a while ago, and absolutely swears by it – she also has a cat litter box, so KNOWS what offensive odor is like!

Voila! Five simple, earth friendly (and wallet-friendly) ways to destroy stinky odors in your home. Try one or try a few, and your home will thank you.

Christina loves teaching people fast and simple ways to keep their homes clean at http://www.happyslob.com – visit today and learn how to make your own cleaners for pennies!