Even if you don’t have pets (or teenagers!), your home can easily become stale and stuffy smelling, with an uninviting aroma that hits you when you walk inside. If you do have pets or teenagers, well then, you’ll need to be extra vigilant about preventing your home from smelling musty.
Below are some classic causes of household pongs:
- Dirty laundry – especially socks!
- Damp laundry
- Empty laundry baskets
- Mold or mildew in bathrooms
- Leaking washing machine
- Dirty garbage disposal
- Dishwasher filter
- Pet bedding
- Furniture
- Dirty plates
Once you’ve located the source of the smell, try any one of the following tips – or a combination of all of them – to combat any nasty aromas in your home:
Buy a dehumidifier
If there is excess moisture in your home, you can bet your bottom dollar there’s mold or mildew and even bacteria, causing a stink somewhere. A dehumidifier will help to combat this.
Have an air purifier installed
This could help reduce the smell from bacteria and fungi caused by poor air quality inside your home.
Clean your home from top to bottom
This is always a good idea if your home is smelling unpleasant, or to prevent it from smelling in the first instance. Clean up any visible mold and mildew first, then try and tackle all areas of your home (you don’t have to do it all in one day) to get the whole place clean and smelling fresh.
Hire a cleaning service
This is by far the easiest way to prevent your home from ever smelling anything but fresh and hygienically clean, and by having a cleaner come in on a regular basis, you won’t ever have to worry about a stinky home, ever again!
Practice good laundry habits
Wet towels left lying around is one of the quickest ways to make your home smell, so stop doing this and never let damp clothes sit around waiting to be dried.
Use natural odor fighters
While using an oil burner or scented candles is a great way to dissipate cooking smells and the like, it isn’t a long term solution if your home frequently smells musty; you should always try to tackle the root cause of the problem for a long term solution.
Groom your pets and wash their bedding
Regularly brushing your pets will help to minimize odor-causing hair and dander in your home, and whenever their bedding or toys are beginning to smell less than fragrant, pop them in the machine and give them a good wash.
Regular house cleaning is by and large the most effective way to ensure that your home smells fresh, most of the time, and while there might be nothing you can do to prevent cooking smells from permeating the rooms (and this will usually dissipate in a short time), you can certainly prevent pet odors and mold or mildew from kicking up a stink, by cleaning.
