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Practical expert advice on tackling common household odours, improving ventilation, reducing volatile organic compounds from new furniture and materials, and creating a pleasant signature scent throughout your living space.
We all want our homes to make a good first impression, and while appearance matters greatly, a home that smells fresh and clean is instantly inviting.
The problem is that we quickly get used to the everyday smells in our own homes and often do not notice them. Our brains are good at filtering out familiar smells through what is known as nose blindness or olfactory adaptation, meaning that after being exposed to a smell for a while, we simply stop noticing it. You will frequently notice this when you come home after a few days away and suddenly become aware of how your house smells.
Pets are probably one of the biggest culprits behind unwanted smells, especially because their beds and other soft furnishings can hold on to odours for extended periods. Choose dog beds with removable, machine-washable covers and keep litter trays clean by scooping them daily and changing the litter regularly. If your cat is happy using an enclosed tray, these can help contain smells, and some come with replaceable carbon filters that trap odours effectively.
Wash throws and other soft furnishings your pets regularly sleep on, too. Cooking smells, bins and shoes are other common offenders that contribute to poor home fragrance. Clean kitchen extractor filters and ovens regularly, make sure bins have well-fitting lids and think about ventilation when designing shoe storage, rather than sealing everything inside a closed cupboard. The key is to deal with smells at their source rather than trying to cover them up with artificial fragrances.
Fresh air is probably the most effective home fragrance available, yet it is often overlooked. Our homes are increasingly well insulated and airtight, which is great for energy efficiency, but it makes good ventilation more important than ever before. Opening windows regularly is the simplest place to start, even for short periods during the colder months when we tend to keep everything closed up.
Pay particular attention to kitchens, utility rooms and bathrooms, where moisture, cooking fumes and odours can quickly build up to uncomfortable levels. Make sure extractor fans vent to the outside rather than simply recirculating air back into the room, which would defeat the purpose entirely. If you are renovating or extending, think about mechanical ventilation from the outset of the project.
An MVHR system replaces stale air with fresh, filtered air while recovering heat from the outgoing air, improving air quality without losing valuable heat that you have paid to generate. We have all opened the doors of a newly installed wardrobe or cabinet and been hit by that strong new smell that sometimes makes your eyes water. What you are smelling can be chemicals released from materials, adhesives and finishes through a process known as off-gassing.
Volatile organic compounds, or VOCs, can be released from all sorts of things we bring into our homes, including paint, flooring, furniture, composite timber, adhesives and some cleaning products. The smell is generally strongest when something is new, but off-gassing can continue long after the obvious smell has disappeared from perception. When renovating, look for low or zero-VOC paints and finishes and ask about the materials and adhesives used in flooring, furniture and joinery.
Think about this when having carpets or upholstery professionally cleaned too. Ask what products are being used and whether lower-emission or fragrance-free alternatives are available. Always ventilate well during and afterwards any work is completed.
It is also worth thinking about what you are using to clean and fragrance your home, as heavily fragranced cleaning products, plug-ins and synthetic air fresheners can all add unwanted substances to the air, so do not assume something is better simply because it makes a room smell clean. When choosing home fragrance, look for good-quality products with clearly listed ingredients and pay attention to what candles, diffusers and room sprays are made from.
Once the air is genuinely fresh, you can start thinking about fragrance and the atmosphere you want to create, perhaps choosing something fresh and citrusy in summer and warmer and woodier in winter, much as you might change your perfume with the seasons
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