The Fragrant Home

My favorite place in the world is my home. I love to return home whenever I go out: often I can't wait to be back home. My home is orderly and cozy, but it also smells wonderful. It gives me great pleasure when a guest comments on the lovely scent of my home. It is not always the same, but it is always fragrant and pleasant.

What are some wonderful scents for a home? I have always loved cinammon, or the smells of baking, florals, and my husband loves to come home to the smell of chicken dinner. Usually, if you cook at home, your home always smells delicious (especially if you use fresh ingredients and fragrant spices). What if you do not cook that much? What if your home never really smells like anything (or worse, smells stale or unpleasant?)



To start, make sure your home is clean. Find out what may be causing unpleasant odors. It is not enough to mask an unpleasant smell...you should try to prevent it. If you have a problem with mold somewhere, for example, masking it does not fix the fact that you are breathing in this dirty air (not to mention it is a difficult smell to mask). If you do not have any such problems, get into the habit of opening your windows and letting fresh air come in on a regular basis...sometimes all that is needed is some fresh air.




Make sure you don't have old food or dirty laundry sitting around. Keep a clean home. Use non-chemical air fresheners when necessary (keep one in the guest bathroom at all times, so as never to have an embarassed guest). Make sure you dust and change the bedsheets regularly, and purchase wonderfully fragrant hand and dish soaps.

I love to make tea, and one of my favorite teas is a cinammon tea that makes the kitchen and nearby rooms smell divine as it starts to steep. I love the smell of baked goods...baking bread is one of my favorite scents, one that I find most comforting. I love the smell of baked apple pie, of pumpkin pie, and even grilling makes the home smell lovely.



Clothes can smell terrific if you use a detergent that has a wonderful scent. Victoria Secret made a laundry version of their Very Sexy scent (in dryer sheets, detergent, and fine linens wash). Other companies make detergents with the smell of jasmine, lavendar, or vanilla. Putting on clothes that have been washed in a perfumed detergant such as these is heavenly. If you do not enjoy washing clothes in perfumed soaps, you can add sachets to your drawers. These can be made or purchased, and they infuse your clothes with the delicate and delightful scent of your choosing. You can even spray a tissue with your favorite perfume and leave it in your lingerie drawer...every time you open it, the fragrance will burst forth. When you put on your clothes, the flowery or musky scent will linger. You can add sachets to your closets as well.



Potpourri in the living room or dining room is both decorative and enticingly delicious to smell. A vase with fragrant roses on the dining room table is another beautiful idea. Candles come in a large variety of options...citrus (lemon, orange, grapefruit are all incredibly fresh and yummy!), berries, candies, pastries or cakes, chocolates, mint, the smell of the beach, coconut, flowers, sweets, fresh linen or cotton, cookies, honey and milk, spices, nuts, fruit, herbs, pine, popular drinks (eggnog, hot cocoa, pina colada!), musks, the woods, foods, and much, much more. Candles are long lasting, can be put in any room, and really help to add both atmosphere and a divine aroma. Higher quality candles are strong enough to permeate the air in multiple rooms, and do not let off as much chemicals (there are soy candles, for example). Your family returning home to the welcoming smells of a cinammon pumpkin candle, or a mulberry scent gently wafting throught the air of the family bathroom, or a lavendar scent delicately calming you as you drift off to sleep on your bed sheets and pillow case...these are enjoyable images.



Other ways to add fragrance to your home...dusting powders (may dust onto carpet before vacuuming), linen sprays, essential oil fragrances (I like to soak a cotton ball in lemon oil and leave it in a corner of my refrigerator, so that the lively smell of lemon greets me everytime I open the door), adding fragrant bubble bath or almond castille soap to your bath water (castille soap is also very moisturizing, and more scents become available as its popularity increases), soaking a fabric ribbon in a favorite perfume and hanging it in a closet or putting it on a shelf, or allowing the delicious woodsy scents of a crackling fire to emanate throughout the house.



Your home is your oasis, your place of peace and joy. It will be all the more inviting and pleasurable if all of your senses are satisfied here, including your sense of smell!