Fragrances for Your Home

Everybody loves a nice fresh fragrance in their home whether it comes from the air outside on a sunny spring day or it's the middle of winter and there's 3 feet of snow on the ground and everyone's stuck in. Guests love a nice fragrance even though it is subtle and really not tangible. What is horrible is to have a musty, mildew, or stuck in smell about your house that you don't even notice.

The best way to take care of that I've found is to make sure you have some sort of fragrances 'wafting' through the air all the time, and you can even have different fragrances in different areas, like the bedroom, living room, or kitchen. Just be sure you have something going on. A subtle wisp of a certain smell just enhances the atmosphere. There have even been studies done with certain smells like a fresh baked pie or bread in a retail store and they found that customers actually lingered longer when these smells where there. Your olfactory sense (what you smell with your nose) is actually a very strong sense. It has a great emphasis on the brain, but most people aren't as aware of it as you would be of a red tablecloth accenting the room.

There are many different products on the market today that are very easily accessible to match every type of personality. You aren't restricted to sprays such as Glade Air Freshener or Febreeze Air Fresheners, but these are a staple in most homes. Today there are so many other ways to get a hint of fragrance flowing throughout the house that are also very easily found wherever you live.

If you want to keep it Traditional, in addition to the sprays, you can use Plug-ins which comes with replaceable cartridges that you need to replace monthly. These plug in to any electrical outlet. Fragrance companies have gotten creative in the past 10 years and added products like 'fake candles' and hot oil or spice kettles. Keep in mind that these can be knocked over by children or pets, but all of these can be found in Walmart, Kmart, Target or just about any Dollar store. What you can also find in discount retail are fragranced candles, both the small votive and the larger sizes. These range in price and are nice to set about your home maybe in the bedroom or the living room, to burn slowly while you are in that room. The flames sort of eat any odor in the air and then the candle omits nice fragrances like vanilla, spice, apple pie or ocean breeze to name a few. There is a quality difference in candles, so if you go to a candle store or another store that specializes in gifts and candles or the candle parties that go around the women's circles, you will notice a difference in the depth of the scent and the candle will burn slower. Don't purchase candles that are very big but only have one wick in the center. These will just burn down through the middle and you waste the entire outer rim.

During the holiday time it is fun to experiment with some different ways to make your home more special. Cinnamon brooms are available in high-end grocery and gift stores and they can also do double duty as a decorative piece too. Another way to bring in a scent throughout the house is to have a fragrance pot on the stove. All this takes is one of your big pots, filled ½ way with water. Put it on the stove and set on the lowest temperature. Then add your choice of some potpourri or cut fruit, cinnamon, nutmeg and spices, and it will smell like Grandma's even if you're a hamburg and pizza family. It just smells rich and homey.

Potpourri is also put in decorative glass bowls or baskets and placed in several places throughout the house. Then you have a nice constant arrangement offering fragrance.

These are some great ways to take your home life to the next level. I just need to mention that live fresh plants in the house naturally deodorize the air, eliminating odors and producing more Oxygen. Some have even turned a bathroom into a natural greenery feeling up the bath tub and hanging plants while some have a few palm trees or banana trees will be very efficient room accents. If you have a green thumb this is the "green" way to go. Hope you found some inspiration to enhance your home's environment at a relatively low cost.