How to Deal with Odorous House Guests This Holiday Season

Admit it you know you have one in your family. The family member or friend that never showers properly. They will be coming soon to your house for Thanksgiving dinner. The dinner prep is the easy part and you have everything planned out flawlessly. But did you take into consideration how you will be warding off certain pesky odors so other guests don't notice or become repulsed? Dont let the odor from a guest throw a curve into your dinner party, use these tips to make your life a little easier.

The odors could be caused from anything from cigarette smoke, body odor, and bad breath to the worst being Stinky feet. Maybe Grandpa Joe is bringing his Rottweiler Butch to Thanksgiving this year, well lets just say Butch only gets a bath about once a year. So be prepared for his wondrous canine aroma.

Having a burning candle in each room will somewhat mask the overall odor and provide a pleasant backdrop scent as guests enter your home.

If your odorous guest has stinky feet, it may not be a wise decision to have them take their shoes off and come in, you may want them to leave their shoes on, this may eliminate the problem all together. If they do end up taking their shoes off, make sure they do so in the mudroom or as far away from guests as possible. As soon as they leave the room, get your scented spray out, preferably fabreze and start masking the odor. By the time the guest returns to put their shoes on the scent should be somewhat exhausted, so no need to worry about the embarrassment between you and the guest.

If cigarette smoke lingers on their jackets, make sure to hang the jackets up in a coat closet that has a closed door. This will keep the smell from wandering thought your house and causing others to wonder where the smell is coming from. A stick up air freshener works best for a coat closet. They even offer clean scented air fresheners that smell like fresh linens, so your smelly guests won't notice the difference.

Take a box of Downy or Bounce dryer sheets and stick them in between cushions of your furniture, this will create a clean inconspicuous scent that will mask out unwanted odors.

An oil burner is also a good tool to ward off human smells. The Body Shop store sells some very strong pure scented all natural oils, that you can use to fill up an area with a fresh clean scent. I recommend Satsuma and Exotic blended together, about 6 drops of each equal parts to water creates a spellbinding smell that masks most unwanted odors.

Another place where people forget to leave a scented freshener is the bathroom. Surely after dinner the toilet will get hit pretty hard, make sure there is a lighted candle in the room with a pleasant scent burning.

Lastly, try finding a designated section for where you want the smelly guest to sit. Preferably in a corner, but do not exclude them from the group and try hard not to make it noticeable.

We love our relatives and we look forward to their visits every year, but with a little technique anyone can ward off the unwanted smells and pesky pet odors they bring to us as gifts and get to the point of having a very Happy Thanksgiving!