by Janette Peel

Created on: February 19, 2008

Add an appealing freshness to your home by following these handy home scenting techniques on how to combat problem odors.

No matter how attractive your home may look, the whole effect is ruined if there are unpleasant lingering smells. Luckily, most normal household odors including pets, cooking, babies and mold are easy to detect and simple to deal with. Keeping rooms well aired helps to create a fresh smelling home and you can also add extra fragrance in the form of pot pourri, incense and scented candles or by using essential oils or fragrance oils or simply purchasing commercially made air fresheners.

Offensive or persistent odors associated with the preparation, cooking and storage of food occurs regularly in the kitchen, this can be easily overcome:

Use cypress's antibacterial action and clean, sharp scent in the kitchen. Add several drops of cypress oil to a bowl of water to rinse down surfaces.

Cleansing lemon is often included as an ingredient, and its scent, used to fragrance rooms and cleanse the atmosphere in your home. Lemon adds sparkle and brightness to your home, bringing in the scent of the sunny Mediterranean.

If you're have difficulties getting rid of a bad odor in your refrigerator, even after thoroughly cleaning it. Try wiping down the inside with vanilla extract. To make the vanilla scent last longer, soak a cotton ball or a piece of sponge with vanilla extract and leave it on one of the back shelves.

Use the following blends in a vaporizer or scented candle or mix with 50ml of water for a homemade room freshener:

o 2 drops lemon
o 2 drops lavender
o 2 drops bergamot
o 2 drops geranium.

Use this mixture to keep your home or apartment smelling fresh by using a vaporizer spray bottle to help banish any unpleasant smells. Blend together:

10 drops eucalyptus
10 drops grapefruit
100ml of water.

Use pine oil as a natural stench-buster to remove lingering odors.

Neutralize shoe odors by adding these oils to cotton wool balls and placing one in the toe of each shoe:
3 drops pine
3 drops lemon

Freshen a room and rid your living space of stale cigarette smoke by adding to warm water:
5 drops pine
5 drops mandarin
5 drops grapefruit.
Use to dampen a cloth and wash down tables and other surfaces.

If you are having a spring clean of your home, cleanse the air with a room spray of basil oil. Simply add a few drops to a water spray and squirt into the center of the room a couple of times.

The scent of clove oil brings a pleasant, spicy aroma into your home, while

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