Tips on how to freshen your home, naturally
Sometimes, the house just doesn’t smell nice. It could be pets, sports equipment or odours from cooking fish for dinner.
What is the best way to get rid of these smells?
As one reader wrote, “I don’t like using air fresheners or plug-ins. They don’t smell natural and my cat seems determined to get after candles. What are ways to make my house smell great that are more natural?”
Meegan Lovett, who operates Meegan Lovett Holistic Health in Coldbrook, N.S., is all about everything natural. Her aim is to help people be more conscious consumers with their environmental footprint, household cleaners, creams, rubs, serums, sustainable products, toxic loads and education on synthetic chemicals.
Lovett says more and more, people are becoming sick because of storing toxins in the body, also known as a toxic load. This, she says, refers to harmful chemicals that accumulate in the body through exposure to things such as air and water pollutants, food additives, chemicals in personal products and household cleaners, medications, plastics and other environmental exposures.
Symptoms of toxic overload may include chronic headaches, irritability, brain fog, bloating, sugar cravings, trouble losing weight, sinus congestion or skin issues.
Many of these chemical freshening sprays or products may contribute to this toxic overload. So, Lovett says it’s best to look for natural odour defying solutions.
She offers the following suggestions for getting rid of household smells.
• 1. Open the windows no matter what time of year it is. Fresh air is best.
• 2. Throw back the sheets to air out mattresses.
• 3. If you are cleaning with a chemical, Lovett recommends bleach. It kills all bacteria, good and bad, and when it dries the bleach completely evaporates, leaving no chemical trace, she says.
• 4. Tea tree essential oil is also a great odour eater. Add a couple drops of tea tree oil to baking soda in a jar or right in the garbage itself on a piece of paper towel. You can also add a few drops to your water when you are cleaning. Lovett says to purchase essential oils from any health food store.
• 5. House plants can be used to filter the air; the more the merrier.
• 6. Natural beeswax candles purify the air in our homes, which can carry a lot of impurities such as pollen, dirt, dust and other pollutants. These substances carry positive ions, which explains why they are suspended freely in the air. Unlike paraffin candles, beeswax naturally purifies the air by producing negative ions when burned. This attracts pollutants and neutralizes them. Since they can no longer suspend in the air, the pollutants fall to the ground or get sucked into the burning candle, cleaning the air, explains Lovett.
• 7. Combat bathroom smells by using incense or lighting a match. A natural made Poo Pourri spray is my second go to, says Lovett.
Overall, to get rid of any immediate smells, like from dinner, Lovett says to do a combination of things. Start by burning a beeswax candle or incense and then open the windows. This is your best odour eater defense, she says.