Keeping House Smelling Fresh

[ssmjlm]

Friday I ran home at lunch to let the dog out since we had some appointments that afternoon.  When I walked in the house the air just smelled stale, with some dog mixed in.

I have 2 BBW plug-ins, one downstairs in our powder room and one upstairs in the hall.  I try and febreeze regularly and we vacuum once a week.  We just started added some orange oil on a cotton ball in the vacuum to help with the dog smell.

Anything else I can try?  It's still a bit cold to open the windows and air things out.  DH says part of the problem was probably because the air was off since it was during the "away" time.

[pitterwoo]

• Boil vinegar on the stove, or just set a couple dishes of vinegar out and as it evaporates it will neutralize odor.
• Sprinkle baking soda on the carpet and rugs before vacuuming.
• Add borax to the laundry when washing dog stuff, it helps to really get the stink out.

[tarheels]

Those are all great ideas above. For innocuous fragrance, pour a little baking vanilla on a cotton ball and rub it on your light bulbs.

[Deleted]

I'm with the pp.

I vacuum with baking soda all of the time. Borax also works well in that dept.

Also, I've really noticed my house smells better if I change out all the handtowels/kitchen rags etc. more than once a week.

[TBM]

Dog smell is a tough one. It helps to wash bedding frequently (I have covers for the beds that can easily be changed) or even just to vacuum the dog bed often. Baking soda helps as does borax, and the advantage to borax is that whatever is left behind after vacuuming actually keeps the bedding flea free. Sometimes what you feed can make a difference in how the dog smells, like some people sort of sweat garlic after they eat it, some foods make some dogs smell more doggy than others.

I am super sensitive to fragrances, but I always think that fragrances just make it smell like whatever flavored dog. lol Misting bedding and even furniture with a diluted enzymatic cleaner can really refresh it. It works by taking care of the odor causing bacteria, not masking it. I use the same cleaner that we use to clean up after the pups, Eliminator. It is super concentrated, so a little goes a very long way.

We have air cleaners that we run sometimes, and that helps. Particularly when the house is all closed up.

[panicked]

Change your furnace filter and clean your vents!

[kristilynnmy]

My dogs S.T.I.N.K. too! Part of my problem is they need a bath. It's so cold out I'm afraid they'll have to go outside after I wash them. I'm loving all of these suggestions so far.

[sjh722]

Our dog is a shedder, but I definitely have to vacuum more than once a week. I also dust mop the hardwoods 3-4 x/week.

[peach]

I love my scented candles and scentsy, but if your air smells "bad" the best thing you can do is air it out and clean. Masking a smell is not fixing it.

[ssmjlm]

Thanks ladies. She doesn't really have a dog bed. I mean there's one upstairs, but she's much happier on the hard floor or tile since it's cooler. She gets bathed regularly. It's not so much that "she" stinks, it was just the air felt so dead when I walked in.

We change our filter regularly and DH is looking into having the vents cleaned before the baby comes.

I'll add some baking soda to the list, I think the main culprit is our very old, very crappy berber. Despite multiple shampoos, it's just past it's day. We were hoping to do the floors this year, but with me facing sequestration, nothing is happening until we know what's going on with that.

[tottenham]

Our apartment had a pretty heavy dog smell when we first moved in. I bought some tea tree oil at a natural food store, diluted it with water, and sprayed the walls and floors with it. It worked really well. Unfortunately, it's really expensive per ounce.

[mrs.jacinthe]

Do you have a ceiling fan? We've found that having air moving around, even in the dead of winter, helps prevent that dead, stale house smell by quite a bit.

[niknik]

I like scented candles too. There is one from Pier 1 called Island Orchard and it leaves a really nice light scent in my house. I will also get that scent in oil diffusers and satchets.
I like to burn a couple of candles and open the windows and everything gets fresher.