Home smells of the good variety

Mark M

Mark M

Mark M

Soldato
Joined
6 Jan 2006
Posts
3,413
Location
Newcastle upon Tyne
What do you all do to get your homes smelling nice? Ive been using some reed diffusers from Next and they smell great to start with and then die off after a week or so.

Candles arent ideal with a 3 year old and Id like the place smelling good all of the time rather than just when the candle is lit.

Are those plug in ones any good?

Anything else to consider? I was considering one of them auto squirting ones but they look a bit crap to be honest so dont want that on show in the hall way and living room.

Anything else Ive not thought of?
 
I quite like the ambipur 3 scent jobbies, they seem to make things smell alright.
I do also use the electric wax burner things that have come in recently, all the supermarkets do 1/2 price deals on the wax constantly and putting on one a week will do wonders :)
 
You've got a diffuser already so I'd try some other oils. We've used some from John Lewis, White Company, Selfridges, and others and they've mostly lasted well.

I wouldn't ever use the plug kind, seems like a lot of plastic waste, but that's me.
 
How about getting a load of those pine tree air fresheners?
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The diffusers you're supposed to turn the sticks upside down every couple of weeks, that'll boost the fragrance, but ultimately half the issue is that your getting used to the smell.

Biggest thing you can do is keep it clean, let the air in and get plants around the place - pot plants 'clean' the air :)

Another neat trick is to boil water on the stove with herbs (mint, lavender) or lemon peel in it.
 
Am I the only one who hates reed diffusers with a passion? I secretly throw them away when my partner buys them.
 
I'm not really in to releasing loads of artificial chemicals into the air (i.e. supermarket air fresheners) as I've heard lots of bad things about the effects they can have on health, so we tend to end up buying (very overpriced- inner London, y0!) organic scented candles, but you need to be constantly burning them if you want to keep the house smelling nice all the time (so we don't bother often)... That gets expensive and you will probably end up needing to spend £20 a week or something stupid.

The other thing I use a lot are these thrift box incense sticks. You can find them pretty cheaply in most upmarket markets or homeware shops (Tons of places in London at least stock them - about £6 a box) - they smell great (and a box lasts aaaaages) and at least in my house, the smell lasts a good 24 hours (Don't know if the fact all my floors are wooden, etc. makes a difference as the smell didn't seem to last that long after burning in my old carpeted place)

http://www.incensewarehouse.com/Paines-Red-Cedar-Incense-Cones--32-wholder_p_1541.html
 
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I've used everything from incense sticks to £20 candles from yankee, etc.

You guys do realise all of them contain chemicals including candles? Candles are wax with fragrance added to them. The stronger smelling the more chemicals percentage I think yankee is around 7% fragrance 93% wax.

I now use oil burners. You can get an oil burner for around £5-£10 I got one on holiday in morocco for a few quid. You can use fragrance oils or essential aromatherapy oils neither is better than the other however fragrance are substantially cheaper. People think aromatherapy essential oils are better but they aren't just a lot of myths and they charge a lot more for them. Smell is smell basically, essential oils are natural so basically organic.

You can then get 100 tealights out ikea for like £2. Fragrances oils - 5 year supply is like £20 if you don't buy essential oils.

So 3-4 burners, 300 tealights a year and oils will set you back around <£50 so works out to around £10 per year. Smell better than yankee candles that are £20 and last 1 week.

Oil burners, tealights and oils is the best way to go. You mix the oil with water. Usually 90% water 10% oil for the strongest smell. Any more and you are wasting the oil. A lot of people use only 5% oil to water too. Anywhere between 5-10% is best.
 
As an aside, what about in the bathroom? One of ours just smells of nothing...absolutely nothing, and I find it really weird. I'm glad it doesn't smell bad, but it's like a dead sort of room.

I can't stand the reed diffusers, they're way too potent, so is there anything else anyone could suggest that's sort of passive, and that you can leave in a room with the door closed 24/7?

I really like incense, but my fiancé sneezes heavily if I light any. The vapouriser thing is really cool, a friend has one, but again - it's not passive...
 
dirtychinchilla said:
As an aside, what about in the bathroom? One of ours just smells of nothing...absolutely nothing, and I find it really weird. I'm glad it doesn't smell bad, but it's like a dead sort of room.

I can't stand the reed diffusers, they're way too potent, so is there anything else anyone could suggest that's sort of passive, and that you can leave in a room with the door closed 24/7?

I really like incense, but my fiancé sneezes heavily if I light any. The vapouriser thing is really cool, a friend has one, but again - it's not passive...
Click to expand...

If the reed diffusers are too potent just dilute with water
 
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