Make bad home odors a memory by going to the source
Tidy a house until the cows come home, but if the air smells bad, making a good impression is impossible. Save a nose-wrinklingly stinky house from bad odors by eliminating stench and replacing it with signature scents.
Start by finding the source of bad odors, said Cynthia Hansen, manager of Kelly’s Gift Place in Hollister. Many people come into the store to buy candles in hopes of getting rid of bad smells, but candles will only mask the odor, Hansen said.
“A lot of people can’t figure out where bad smells in the kitchen come from; they just assume it’s coming from the trash can,” she said. “But a lot of times, it’s coming from the garbage disposal in the sink. The best way to get rid of that smell is to put lemon rinds down the garbage disposal.”
Hansen also recommends washing trash cans out with deodorizing sanitizers. Trash cans, though, are not the only culprits in stinking up a house. Smells generally associated with the kitchen can permeate the rest of the house, said Susan Jacobsen, a Realtor with Starritt Realtors. The result is a flavorful-smelling house, but that isn’t necessarily a good thing.
“Cooking can create overpowering smells, especially with certain ethnic foods that require strong-smelling spices,” she said. “When you cook with these same spices night after night, the smell is going to fill the whole house.”
Odors such as cooking smells can be hard to avoid, but Jacobsen also recommends fighting home odors by going to their source.
“You’ve got to get rid of what’s causing the smell,” Jacobsen explained. “If it’s dirty gym socks, don’t let them lie around a bedroom. Some cooking smells can be helped with a good degreaser, and remember that cigarette smoke gets into drapes, carpet, even the walls. Smoke can have the walls turning colors.”
Once an odor permeates a house, it can linger even after the source has been eliminated. Ken Penny, owner of G&T Carpet and Upholstery Cleaning in Gilroy, said there are several things people can do between professional cleanings to keep odors at bay.
“Take anything that can be removed easily to the dry cleaners. They are often cheaper than having a professional come to your house, and they do a thorough job,” Penny said.
“Vacuum the furniture, because dust and dirt on furniture can have an odor when it mixes with body oil and sweat.”
Spot cleaning a carpet can also keep bad smells at a minimum, he said.
“I kind of like Resolve (carpet cleaner) – I think it actually does a pretty good job,” he said.
One product Penny does not recommend is Woolite. Some people think it works well and smells nice, but when it’s time to have a professional clean the whole carpet, the product creates soap suds, Penny said. The suds make the job more difficult, thus raising the price of the cleaning, he said.
Pet odors are the reason for most of Penny’s jobs. He uses steam cleaning and chemical treatments to get rid of such powerful odors.
If pet urine soaks through carpeting and into the plywood below, the odor-eliminating process can become more complicated than a mere cleaning, Jacobsen said. When she was trying sell a home once, she had to pull carpeting up, put bleach on the wood, change the padding and have the carpet professionally cleaned in a home that had pet urine in the carpets.
Once the source of a bad smell has been removed, there are several ways to give a home a pleasant scent. Jacobsen said many real estate agents put a drop of vanilla oil on light bulbs or use plug-in deodorizers – but be careful when using a deodorizer, she said.
“Sometimes deodorizing smells are strong and just as annoying as a bad smell,” Jacobsen said. “Vanilla is nice because it’s not too sweet, and almost everybody likes it. It smells like sugar cookies baking.”
A few well-placed candles will also give a home a nice scent once the offensive-odor source is gone. Use the same scent of candle throughout the house to avoid bad combinations, Hansen said. There’s no need for several small candles; a large candle at either end of a house will do the trick, she said.
Another product good for combating odors is Febreze, a patented spray that works on most fabrics and claims to get rid of pet odors, cooking smells and musty odors.
“I’ve been in the business for 30 years and I’ve tested a lot of products, and I like Febreze,” Penny said. “I think it does help getting rid of odors. I’ve used it in my own house.”
