HM room / air freshener / deodoriser

Ben84

I can't see anything positive about air fresheners. They mostly contain, and emit in to the air substances that are widely considered air pollutants. Formaldehyde, solvents, styrene, and generally the type of stuff you'd expect to find in glues and paints.

larmy16

Some cinammon and cloves boiled up and simmered for a while make the house smell nice. Some people may find it a little pungent. That's just reminded me how much I love the smell of patchouli oil - gonna have to get some now!

Pitlanepiglet

We try to open windows and doors as much as possible especially now we have a puppy dog!

We also use oil burners in the living room with lavender or tea tree oil.

I wondered the other day when someone said they couldn't open a window because they had a new baby with a cold, I didn't like to ask but I couldn't see why that would be....my sister had a very snuffly baby and was told to make sure she had the windows open to give the babe some air. In my view fresh air has to be better than being in stuffy air.

soba

I've got a little bowl of orange peel, cloves and cinnamon sticks by the front door. I give it a stir every day to release the smells or put it in a sunny window or on a radiator for a boost of Christmassy scent.

Kiwisaver_2

An old style thing I can think of would be lavender bags. People would keep them in among their linen and lingerie. Easy to make in summer if you gave access to some lavender. I usually keep a bowl of pot-pourri in the bedroom and top up every now and again with a few drops of essential oil . Can do home made too with cinnamon sticks, cloves, pine cones and anything else you can think off. Can do lots of seasonal things, with shells etc Have a look around some of the expensive stores for some ideas and try to re-create it yourself.

I have a reed diffuser in the bathroom which lasts ages and I top it up with some concoctions of my own, a few drops of essential oils in some cheapo baby oil. Obviously can't mix oil and water, ask me how I know?

Fruball

You can make your own room sprays with water and essential oils IF you add about 1/4 cheap vodka

The vodka acts as a carrier for the oils

I cannot bear those artificial plug in things - they give me headaches and make me sick!!!

I always use essential oils either in a burner, on tissue behind radiators, a few drops in the sink or, in the bedroom, on todays sock and pop it in the wash in the morning! I do that every night with chamomile oil and a dash of orange oil - I now sleep like a baby!!!

Fruball

I also wipe down my stainless steel kettle with either lemon oil, or lemongrass essential oil so when the kettle goes on it smells lovely and gets rid of any cooking odours.

When I cook eggs, once cooked and removed, I put a bit of water back in the pan along with a few drops of essential oil and pop it back on the still warm hob to get rid of the odour.

Dazi

I am testing a plug in freshner at the moment for a survey site I belong to.

I will not be giving it a very good review, the first time it was switched on I sneezed all evening. Since then it just gives me a headache. Have now decided not to use it again and just reivew on the times I did!

I too, am a fan of just fresh air, bedroom windows are on vent setting all winter, DSD shuts hers when she is here but it soon goes back when she isn't! My OH is a great one for saying it isn't hot in here, but when hes not here I throw the doors open and let in air, cold or not.

As most things seem to make me sneeze or give me a headache, even essential oils, I prefer to either open windows or just let the cooking smells linger.....fish is a problem though will try the match thing and see what happens.

lindadykes

DH and I visited some friends about 18 months ago in their new high rise apartment. The place looked immaculate, but they had plug in air fresheners everywhere as well as some freestanding ones. My DH woke up during the night and couldn't get his breath, it was really scary. He only recovered a bit when we opened a window really wide so he could get some real fresh air. The experience was really frightening for us both. I don't use air fresheners personally as I have never believed that they "freshen" air. As others have posted we use a combination of open windows/doors and essential oils. I really believe that these chemicals posing as air fresheners are actually dangerous.

[Deleted User]

Our house had plenty of air circulating when I was a little girl,(1940s-50s) as my Mum believed in opening the windows every morning and evening to get fresh air in. Our house smelt of lavender in the hall as she had a huge polisher/mophead that she got from the Kleene-ezee man who used to call at the door. After the lino floors were washed with hot water and usually Dettol disinfectant she would swish the polisher around to get rid of the Dettol smell as she said it was to much like a hospital small.The windows were cleaned with newspaper and methalayted spirits, and the kitchen range was black-leaded with I think it was called Zebra in a stripey tin. The bathroom smelt of disinfectant or Gibbs dentifrice which came in a tin and was pink.
our bedclothes always smelt of Robin starch, as she starched everything in sight for some reason.The kitchen smelt of coal in the winter as the cellar door was just off the kitchen and when we had a delivery it seemed to linger a bit, but in the summer smelt of jam as my Mum was always bottling jams as we had quite a big garden. The sitting room always smelt of lavender polish as she polished her beloved radio every day.It was a huge big gleaming brown monstosity that sat on the sideboard and God help the child who laid a finger on it.She also polished her piano every day. She was great one for elbow grease was my mum .I had the chore of 'doing the brasses' every Saturday afternoon and hated it,and to this day I have never had a piece of brass in my house.just the smell of Brasso sends chills up my spine