Remove Smells From Your Home

by Nancy Davies

A house can smell nasty for various reasons. It doesn't necessarily mean that it's unclean. It might mean that the trash needs to be taken out, that the pets need to be washed and scrubbed, that the floor needs extra attention. There can be many reasons why a home has random bad smells that might just hit when a guest is around, making everyone feel very uncomfortable.

One of the first things you could look at is your flooring. As the floors are porous in nature, they can absorb many odors from various sources, just like your carpets. What you could do is to use a mix of vinegar and water and mop the floor to scrub away any dirt. Also the vinegar will leave a fresh smell lingering behind. If you can stand the smell, you can also use bleach or chlorine instead of vinegar.

Next you need to vacuum well all your carpets. Go through every inch of each carpet slowly with the vacuum cleaner. Once it is done, put an odor absorbing powder on the carpet and leave it overnight. The next day do another vacuuming spree. When the vacuuming is fully done, you should use a steam cleaner to clean your carpet. The hot steam cleans dirt and also removes any odors from the carpet.

Once the flooring is in order, work your steam cleaner over the upholstery. Then go on with the curtains and draperies. They can all be cleaned easily with a good steamer. Next you should go through the kitchen and bathroom. Once they are clean, particularly in the bathroom you can use one of the many air fresheners that pump the fresh smelling air every few minutes. You can regulate it to pump it up to every half an hour.

The main idea here is to go through every inch of your home and clean everything and the lingering odor should leave. Many times it is quite difficult to pinpoint where the smell is actually coming from, so by doing a whole house cleaning, we eliminate as many possibilities as we can.