What Do You Use to Make Your Home Smell Nice - W/o Candles?????

I don't like fake smells. i don't use candles, scents anything like that but i use plenty of lysol with lemon when cleaning so my home always smells fresh. my friends comment on that all the time. on top of that i cook every day so even better :)

Get a mini dip style crock pot. Put some water in it and add some whole cloves and whole cinnamon sticks. Smells like the holidays.

i use plug ins and also have one of the little crocks that you heat oil tarts up in, I love that thing!
I read in Snopes that the plug ins are not the fire hazard that some rumor started years ago.
I usually put a plug in into my empty apartments if they still have an "aroma" about them after they've been cleaned. My favorite scent is Hawaiian Breeze. But this time of year you have the option of getting some of the spicy, special holiday scents that are out there for the season.

You don't need to actually bake an apple pie to get that scent going through your house. In a medium saucepan toss in a few apples just roughly chopped (no need to take the seeds our or peel or anything) with about 2 cups of water, a few cinnamon sticks & whole cloves if you have them. Simmer it on a back burner & you'll be amazed how delightfully wonderful your whole home will smell for hours & hours!

I keep it clean, that usually works.

I personally don't like homes with unnatural smells, makes me think they are hiding something.

I'd rather smell a CLEAN house than a "scented" O..

I would think food fragrances would be next best choice--bread, cookies, apples, vanilla....

I do burn candles sometimes and I like the oil rod diffusers, too. Just make sure to pick a light scent.

Be careful not to use too many chemical-based scents. It might trigger a headache or asthma--and be a turn off for some people. Personally, I'd bake cookies. :) Good luck selling your house!

keep in mind not to go overboard. I hate home odor products like plug ins or air fresheners. They seem artificial and remind me of being in a public bathroom. Also, as a home buyer, I would assume you are trying to cover something up.

My advice is to open your windows for a while everyday and let the fresh air in. Change your bedding and towels frequently. If you have a pet, wash it every week and change litter twice a day.

If you really want to go for a scent, I find natural vanilla and lemon scents the least offensive. Put some lemons on a bowl on your counter (the eye can trick the nose too) or simmer some vanilla on the stove occasionally.

The most you should do is some vanilla in the oven. Purfumed air freshers would make me leave the house asap. yuck

I would avoid fake smells as well, especially as soooo many people are sensitive to them (headaches, nausea), and many people are out and out allergic. Cooking smells usually work on most people (the apple pie trick mentioned below is a good one), and few people are sensitive or allergic to them.

My favorite bought scent, however, is a super pricey oil difuser (haven't found any less expensive options, though I've smelled hundreds of diffusers) and found below (pomegrante citrus & bamboo teak) from archipelago botanicals. Rather ironically, I fell in love with the scent when househunting our house. Took me an age to source it, though I had the bottle, it didn't have a NAME on it, just the AB symbol.

http://shop.nordstrom.com/s/archipelago-botanicals-fragra...

I buy those huge bottles of Mexican vanilla and simmer a little of it in a pot on the stove for a while. When it heats down, I just add a bit more and splash in some water. Just make sure to turn it off and wash out the pot before you leave. The aroma lingers for hours!

I also put vinegar in a bottle and use diffuser reeds, instead of the scented oils. Not exactly yummy and inviting but it eliminates odors.

Or, you could actually bake cookies and leave them out on the counter.

Scentsy is great and a trick our realtor told us when we were selling our last house was to turn the oven on low and spritz a little vanilla in and it would smell like you baking. We would do this as soon as we would get the call that they were going to do a showing and turn it off just as we were walking out the door.

When we were house hunting I hated the fake food smells. I much preferred having the house smell clean, like someone had recently washed wood floors with Murhpy's Oil Soap and bathrooms with lemon Lysol disinfectant cleaner. If a house looked dingy with dust collecting in corners but smelled like apple pie... ick. I wanted a house that looked and smelled clean.

This time of the year we love to have the cinimon scented pine cones in our house...other times of the year we don't usually have anything...just fresh air from outside. Now for us the scent of cinimon is about the only one we can handle.

I agree with Hannah...cinnamon scented pinecones! I do home daycare so candles just don't work, besides I just don't like them...as the daughter and now sister of a firefighters....and victim of a house fire as a child, fire in general scares the bee-jee-bers outta me. Plus, alot of candles can ruin paint and create gunk on walls, ceilings and fabrics over time. Ish.

But if you ahve some simple glass or other type bowls on an entry table or side tables here and there, or in planter pots where things are growing...stick some of these scented pinecones. I just bought some at a Michaels arts and crafts store for $3 a bag! I filled a large bowl on a tall cubby set of shelves in my entry way (where kids boots and shoes are stored all day). Greets my daycare clients with a great smell, is up high enough that kids can't reach them, and masks smelly boot and wet mitten odor that is coming! Its my winter entry way anecdote!

Good luck with your home sale!

If you know they are coming, I'd put a roast in the crockpot and let it cook. It smells so inviting and like home. I cannot stand the chemical scents in homes. I might diffuse some essential oils, but you have to be so careful with what you choose. I would pick a cinnamon-y one at most. I love the idea of the vanilla in the oven, as long as your oven is clean without any burnt cheese on the bottom. :) If you can bake some bread or rolls/chocolate chip cookies in the morning/afternoon before the showing, that would be perfect also. Of course, you need to kitchen to be clean, so that might be tricky. Perhaps if you had some dough already made, you can just toss a dozen cookies in the oven easily enough without the mess. Hope it sells quickly!

Apple juice warmed on the stove with a ball of mulling spices makes the house smell wonderful for hours afterwards, cooking apples with cinnamon on the stove also works well. I just hauled out my bread maker and have been "baking" loaves for everyone. That makes the house smell homey and wonderful too without much work at all!

Be careful what you use. If it is too strong people will think you are hiding something. Also try not to clean with strong chemicals right before a showing as well. I used those oil things with the sticks or the fabreeze stand alone with the oils. I found that they smell very nice and are not over powering. As for the cookie smell, cut an apple in half and put a little cinnamon on it. Set the oven to keep it warm and leave it in there. You don’t want to burn candles and things like that, if someone gets burnt or hurt they could probably sue you.

I like to use those plug ins as well. Bath and Body works have some really great ones. If you know a Partylite consultant in your area, they have a lot of nice fragrances used with reed diffusers that smell delicious as well. Scentsy is very popular too.
When we sold our house last spring, I actually made cookies before the house was shown (if time allowed). Just purchase some ready bake cookies and stick a dozen in the oven for ten minutes. Realtors always commented on what a nice gesture it was for the prospective buyers. Good luck!
A.

I love the Sentsy creme brulee. A girl in my building has it in her office and when she plugs it in - YUMMM!
in terms of house smelling nice - I found a good base helps. Instead of using cleaning products with scent - try wiping down all hard surfaces with Vinegar water. It smells a little "off" until it dries, but then is very fresh and won't interfere with the yummy smells you are trying to create.

side note - I really like the glade oil refills over the other two plug in items you mentioned and I also like boiling rosemary or cinnamon sticks to help with nice smells, but may have same reaction from realtor as being a hazard..

My bathrrooms have the Bath & Body Works plug-ins Spiced Apple. I really enjoy the food smells. Year round I get French toast/Buttercream smells. In Fall i usually always have Pumpkin Spice Febreze. I spray furniture and curtains instead of just the middle of the room. It tends to linger more and not be overpowering! Ill start getting Apple Cinnamon plug-ins after Thanksgiving!

Some people love scent diffuser sticks. But sometimes scents -- artificial or real, "mild" or "food-like" -- are overpowering and cause headaches. One apartment building cranked up lemongrass in their lobby. It was too much. We left before we could finish checking out the apartment thoroughly.

I also love scentsy! I have their mochadoodle melting right now & love it...my hubby comes home from work in the evening & when he walks thru the door he says that makes me hungry also says it smells nice.

Have you tried Scentsy? It melts a fragrance wax and it works real well. I know of Realtors that really like them in their houses for sell. Check it out on my website, http://www.scentsy.com/kapka. You can order them and it will come in fast. This is something that you can use in the future in your new house. It really works well.

I use Wallflowers from Bath and Body Works.

I always have a couple of well-placed bouquets of eucalyptus in vases around the house. It's very subtle, but smells nice. Since it's the holidays, I have a cinnamon broom out that makes the house smell wonderful.

I have a wax warmer (like Scentsy makes, but WAY cheaper) from Walmart. I buy the Scentsy wax cubes because the aroma lasts a lot longer and they have so many great scents! I love my cinnamon/cloves scent because it smells like the holidays.