After a long winter, everyone’s home starts to smell a little stale. Even if you’re a meticulous cleaner, food and garbage scents can linger in the air long after they’ve been removed. During the cold months, those smells don’t have anywhere to go, so your HVAC ends up circulating them through your house again and again.
Maybe you want to do something about your home’s smell, but you’re wary about chemicals or burning. We don’t blame you; home air fresheners and candle burning can both have some negative consequences if they’re not used carefully. Instead, try one of these creative, all-natural means of creating lovely scents and pushing out stale air without having to worry about pollutants or smoke.
Lilac scent
If you’re clambering for a little early taste of Spring to get you through this March? Try out this recipe for an all-natural way to make your home smell like lilacs, even when snow’s on the ground! There are only three ingredients: water, lilac fragrance oil, and vodka. The only thing you’ll probably have to leave the house for is lilac oil!
Fill up a spray bottle with half water and half vodka (we know it’s hard, but it’ll be worth it!). Then, add about 12 drops of the lilac oil. Shake up the bottle and spray the scents anywhere where you need a nice smell. This spray will make your home smell like blooming lilacs wherever your spray it! If you need a stronger scent, just add more oil to the water/vodka mix.
Lemon and Rosemary
All you need to make this DIY home scent is a jar, some lemons, a few sprigs of rosemary, some vanilla extract, and water. First, cut the lemons up into slices. Make sure the slices are thin enough to fit into the jar easily. Put your sliced lemons, rosemary sprigs, and one teaspoon (or more or less depending on the size of your jar) of vanilla into the jar.
When you want to use the scent, just pour the contents of the jar into a pan, and add some more water. Boil the water on the stove. After the water starts boiling, reduce the heat to a simmer and let it sit on your stove. As the water evaporates, your home will fill up with the smell of lemon, rosemary, and vanilla. Add water as necessary and do not leave the pan unattended.
Potted Plants
Maybe you don’t even want a scent, you just want your home’s air to feel a little cleaner. It’s surprisingly easy to forget, but plants are nature’s air purifiers. They breathe in carbon dioxide in the air and breathe out filtered oxygen, just like we do the opposite.
Even little potted plants can help make your home’s air purer–as long as they’re real! Do a little research to figure out which plant would be right for each room you want one one for, taking watering, sunlight, sizing, and trimming requirements into account. Not only do potted plants improve your air quality, they look great too!
Scented Pine Cones
There are a couple things Minnesota never wants for: snow, mosquitoes, and pine cones. Some of these things are more pleasant than others. Not only are pinecones aesthetically pleasing , they smell good too! On top of all that, the natural ridges and grooves in pine cones make them perfect for holding onto scents.
To make your own scented pine cones, take a little glue (or, if you’re careful, a spray adhesive) and apply it to the cones. Then, mix up some home spices like cinnamon and cloves up with a mixture of essential oils like lavender or sandalwood. Put this mixture in a bag along with the cones. Shake up the bag to apply the spices to the cones. Shake off any unapplied spice, and lay the cones out in a bowl or bag.
All of these homemade recipes are totally natural, easy to make, and great smelling. A few nice, natural smells will really help you and your family tolerate these last few weeks of winter before spring finally arrives.
Natural scents aren’t just good for smelling; they’re good for all kinds of other things too! If you’re more worried about air quality than air scent, however, we have some natural solutions for that as well. If you think you have a problem, with air quality or any other HVAC concern, give us a call anytime.
