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I'll admit to sometimes placing a few drops of lemon or orange essential oil on a basket in my guest bath. It leaves a nice, subtle scent that lasts for an hour or so. Scented candles? Yes. I have one in the great room in a glass hurricane on a side table, and there are usually fresh flowers on the dining room table. My sweet husband brings me a bouquet every Friday. But no plug-ins or cans of air freshener. The closest I come is a bottle of lavender spray that I sometimes spritz on my pillow before bed. Very relaxing.
It's not about being fragile. My guess is that you haven't been in the overly scented homes very often. I don't know anyone that walks into one of those and says, "Oh lovely smell."
uh uh im in trouble then because my best friend walks in my front door and says each and every time your house always smells good.
I showed her what I use and now her house smells good too. hehe
true story I have one in the same sent in my upstairs bathroom, when I leave the door open it makes the whole upstairs smell delishish. so to each to their own right?
Here are some good ideas for making a house smell good:
1) Open windows as often as possible to let fresh air in (that's assuming that you have fresh air outside your house - this won't work if you live near a paper mill or chicken farm).
2) Use fresh lemons for various reasons and then drop the lemon slices down the disposal regularly. Speaking of disposals, be sure that when you clean your sink (which hopefully is often) you also scrub the underside of the black rubber opening of the disposal. The potential funk build up there is disgusting and this is often overlooked.
3) Grow herbs in your garden or in a sunny spot in your kitchen. Pick herbs like rosemary or mint or lavender and put them in a bowl in the kitchen and in the bathrooms.
4) Speaking of bathrooms, maybe this drives people crazy, but I don't care - I pour a bit of cleaner such as Pine Sol (lavender scented in my house) in the toilet brush canister. My toilet brush canisters have tops on them so they're not just sitting there filling the room with scent, but there's a very subtle "clean" smell. Of course, that's also because I regularly scrub out my toilets with said brushes. Do that, too.
5) I am a big believer in the clean smell of outdoor air. So as often as possible, at least once a week, I take pillows, throws, dog beds, small rugs, comforters, etc. outside to let them air in the sun. (I also wash the dog beds every time I wash the sheets - separately of course.) Meanwhile, I open windows and/or leave the back door open as well.
6) I like incense. I would never light incense right before a showing or right before people come over though. Instead, I light it late at night. I like to light a cone or stick of incense and place it on the landing of the upstairs - that way it wafts down throughout the house. In the morning, there's just a very subtle scent of sandalwood or an herby scent (I like herb scented incense like basil, rosemary, lavender, etc.)
Apparently our house smells good because people nearly always remark, "Wow, your house always smells so clean and fresh!" when they come over. Invariably when my grown kids come visit, the first thing they do when they walk in is take a deep breath, grin widely and say, "Ahhhhhh, it smells like home!"
I remember whenever we'd visit my grandmother, who was also another big "fresh air" fanatic (that's where I got it!). Her home always smelled fabulous and I've tried to replicate that scent.
I really like the idea of getting a lemon or orange and studding it with cloves and leaving it out for a few days. I am going to try that.
Here are some good ideas for making a house smell good:
1) Open windows as often as possible to let fresh air in (that's assuming that you have fresh air outside your house - this won't work if you live near a paper mill or chicken farm).
2) Use fresh lemons for various reasons and then drop the lemon slices down the disposal regularly. Speaking of disposals, be sure that when you clean your sink (which hopefully is often) you also scrub the underside of the black rubber opening of the disposal. The potential funk build up there is disgusting and this is often overlooked.
3) Grow herbs in your garden or in a sunny spot in your kitchen. Pick herbs like rosemary or mint or lavender and put them in a bowl in the kitchen and in the bathrooms.
4) Speaking of bathrooms, maybe this drives people crazy, but I don't care - I pour a bit of cleaner such as Pine Sol (lavender scented in my house) in the toilet brush canister. My toilet brush canisters have tops on them so they're not just sitting there filling the room with scent, but there's a very subtle "clean" smell. Of course, that's also because I regularly scrub out my toilets with said brushes. Do that, too.
5) I am a big believer in the clean smell of outdoor air. So as often as possible, at least once a week, I take pillows, throws, dog beds, small rugs, comforters, etc. outside to let them air in the sun. (I also wash the dog beds every time I wash the sheets - separately of course.) Meanwhile, I open windows and/or leave the back door open as well.
6) I like incense. I would never light incense right before a showing or right before people come over though. Instead, I light it late at night. I like to light a cone or stick of incense and place it on the landing of the upstairs - that way it wafts down throughout the house. In the morning, there's just a very subtle scent of sandalwood or an herby scent (I like herb scented incense like basil, rosemary, lavender, etc.)
Apparently our house smells good because people nearly always remark, "Wow, your house always smells so clean and fresh!" when they come over. Invariably when my grown kids come visit, the first thing they do when they walk in is take a deep breath, grin widely and say, "Ahhhhhh, it smells like home!"
I remember whenever we'd visit my grandmother, who was also another big "fresh air" fanatic (that's where I got it!). Her home always smelled fabulous and I've tried to replicate that scent.
I really like the idea of getting a lemon or orange and studding it with cloves and leaving it out for a few days. I am going to try that.
Unfortunately too many think fragrances are not harmful as long as they smell good. They will turn a deaf ear when they're told they're ingesting harmful chemicals by just breathing them.
Same as what we put on our bodies: chemical-based fragrances in shampoo, conditioner, bath soap, deodorant, body lotion, perfume/cologne. Other products: detergent, fabric softener, dish soap.
Yet you'll have these same naysayers on their soapbox demanding that food manufacturers start removing items that 'could' be harmful, while at the same time their homes are a hotbed of dangerous chemicals.
There are many scientific-proven websites about those harmful chemicals, but many will choose to ignore them because they don't see any evidence it's dangerous to them or their family.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Zippyman
If you're so "fragile" that a glade plug-in will send you into a spin, you should only be looking at new builds. My costco store has 2 pallets of plug-ins on the floor, because lots of normal (non delicate) people enjoy them.
This is wrong. There are a great many people who have lived in old houses but also can't stand plug in air "fresheners".
It's not normal to use that garbage in the world I travel in.
I agree with those who read their presence as a feeble attempt to hide some other funky odor. When they've been in a house I am looking at, they have been a negative distraction from the property.
I remember reading that about 20% or more of people are bothered physically by air fresheners and other chemical fragrances. That doesn't even include the people who despise them.
That seems about right based on my experience at work with employees complaining and also among people I know.
Seems kind of silly to be turning off 1 out of 4 or 5 potential buyers....maybe more.
It's been interesting to watch the increase in the number of people who have "allergies" to this, that, or the other thing as each allergy becomes a bandwagon or they figure out they can use the claim of allergy to make others cater to them or to feel somehow "special". Scent, which used to be everywhere and lauded and enjoyed, is just one of those, and I see it as part of the homogenization of life into something bland and plain and boring.,
Not to mention, as someone who carries an epipen but no one who doesn't know me really well knows that I have the specific allergy I do because I consider it my problem, not anyone else's, I resent the fact that people doing that make it harder for those who have true allergies to be taken seriously because of the "the boy who cried wolf" problem.
It's been interesting to watch the increase in the number of people who have "allergies" to this, that, or the other thing as each allergy becomes a bandwagon or they figure out they can use the claim of allergy to make others cater to them or to feel somehow "special". Scent, which used to be everywhere and lauded and enjoyed, is just one of those, and I see it as part of the homogenization of life into something bland and plain and boring.,
Not to mention, as someone who carries an epipen but no one who doesn't know me really well knows that I have the specific allergy I do because I consider it my problem, not anyone else's, I resent the fact that people doing that make it harder for those who have true allergies to be taken seriously because of the "the boy who cried wolf" problem.
Just because a substance doesn't send me into anaphylactic shock, does not mean I'm faking it when I say it has a negative affect on me.
Due to the charity events I've been involved in organized, I have been in the homes of several wealthy people. None have plug-ins. Ditto the homes of our upper middle class acquaintances.
They don't use contact paper for the kitchen backsplash, their counters aren't crowded with toasters, coffee makers, blenders, boxes of cereal, loaves of bread.... don't have dusty plastic flower arrangements sitting around, don't have pictures of dogs playing poker on the walls, don't leave their toilet plungers in plain view or their BMWs sitting on blocks in the front yard.
There are scented candles, vases of flowers, and instructions to the housekeeping staff (overheard) to wipe down the bathrooms with citrus scented cleaning wipes, but Glade plugs-in? Oh, but no.
They have housekeepers that keep things spiffy, so perhaps that's why they've no need for artificial air fresheners.
Those who want to get the highest price possible for their homes try to make it appear as if it is a bargain, i.e. buyers are getting a much classier home than they are paying for.
Aside from the carcinogenic business and the suspicion that the plug-ins are covering up something besides poor housekeeping, plug-ins create an impression of a lower-class home.
Not that this is a bad thing. If that's your target audience and you want them to feel at home, go for it.
That's positively silly to assume class based on the presence of a plug in. I don't have a housekeeper because I don't want one. I do a darn good job cleaning myself. We aren't wealthy but we are far from poor thankfully and I don't need certain things to make it clear that we've arrived. I have a toaster on the counter because it's convenient. I frankly don't care about what people think especially regarding status. I plug in wallflowers because I like the scents and I like them present all of the time. How much simpler can that be? I will remove most of them for resale but I've always sold my homes for top dollar regardless because I've always sold in sellers markets and technically I don't have to knock myself out. We breathe in fresheners every day and are exposed to chemical fragrances daily too.
Just because a substance doesn't send me into anaphylactic shock, does not mean I'm faking it when I say it has a negative affect on me.
No, but just because you don't like the scent doesn't mean you are allergic to it, either. There's a lot of people who use the current fad of allergies for that reason, which was my point. Like I said, those who have actual diagnosed allergies to things are the ones who are hurt by those self-diagnosing for a variety of invalid reasons.
Like I used to tell the kids from my daughter's Waldorf School, fully half of which had food allergies that the allergy doctors stated did not exist and whose list of food allergies grew when offered various foods not on the list their parents provided when visiting my house (yes, I conscientiously asked for a list when inviting them over and adhered to it even though I was trained in the modality the parents turned to to prove their kids had food allergies when the medical doctors denied it and thus I knew enough about it to know that you might as well be diagnosed by a ouija board), at my house you could say you didn't care for something, you didn't have to be allergic to it. Amazing how the list of things they were allergic to shrunk when they realized I meant it.
Which is to say, don't like scents? Fine. Just don't pretend to be allergic in order to justify yourself/get your way.
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