5 things people with nice-smelling homes always do – and there's not a candle in sight

This is how to make a home smell nice in creative ways

Electronic diffuser
(Image credit: Future PLC/Simon Whitmore)

Everybody wants a nice smelling home. There’s nothing worse than coming home or into someone else’s house as a guest and being hit with an unpleasant odour. So knowing how to make a home smell nice is very important.

There is, of course, the traditional way of using the best scented candles or some of the other best home fragrance most of us are familiar with, such as reed diffusers. But there are many alternative ways you can bring a breath of fresh (or scented rather) air into your home.

We rounded up five of our favourite ones - some are available to buy right now with the best Cyber Monday deals, while others you can DIY.

5 ways how to make a home smell nice

These 5 tips and tricks are tried and tested. And incredibly easy to use. Goodbye bad smells!

1. Upgrade to an electric diffuser

Electronic diffuser

(Image credit: The White Company)

Even some of the best reed diffusers are not strong enough to fill a whole room with an intoxicating scent like you might want it to. But do you know what can? An electric diffuser. 

But we understand if you’re conscious of your electricity usage at the moment given the current energy crisis. However, electric diffusers don’t use up a lot of it as most of them can last for several hours once they’re charged. Using an essential oil, which you drop in or insert the whole bottle inside, it then diffuses a light mist of fragrance for as long as you set it for (also depending on the model you choose).

2. Spritz with room and linen sprays

Neutral bedroom with white sheets on bed and vase on table

(Image credit: Future PLC/Douglas Gibb)

Much like you would put perfume on your skin to make yourself smell nice, you can scent your home, bed linen or the upholstery of your best sofa with scented sprays.

And if you’re getting into the festive spirit by putting up your best artificial Christmas tree, then you can also use one of these sprays to make it smell much like a real one - The White Company’s Fir Tree Home Spray is perfect for that.

3. Choose the right cleaning products

A sink with a shelf of cleaning products and an ironing board

(Image credit: Future PLC)

Cleaning your house doesn’t have to be just about removing dirt. You can also inject some lovely fragrance into your home while doing so. If you choose the right products that is, of course.

4. Use a simmer pot

Pot on hob with mulled wine, orange slices, and cinnamon sticks

(Image credit: Getty Images)

The autumnal and wintry trend of simmer pots is a lovely homemade way of making your home smell lovely. All you need is a pot filled with water and an assortment of your favourite essential oil, spices, dried flowers and herbs. Then let it all boil for a while. And voila! The beautiful and all-natural fragrance is sure to be filling your home for a long time after you take it off the heat.

There is a downside to it though. Similarly to the electric diffuser, it does use up energy as you need to turn the hob on for a while to boil the perfumed concoction. 

5. Make the most of flowers and houseplants

A vase of fresh flowers on a tray on a coffee table in a living room with a sofa in the background

(Image credit: Future PLC/David Brittain)

There is something to be said about choosing natural scents over synthetic ones to fill your home with. It just seems more…natural. And having the right plants that bear a lovely fragrance, such as eucalyptus or orchid, is the perfect start.

Similarly, fresh flowers are another way to naturally fragrance your home, whether they come from the florist or the supermarket reduced section like Stacey Dooley’s tulips. And that includes dried flowers like potpourri. 

FAQs

How can I make my house smell nice all the time?

To make you home smell beautifully day in, day out, you should use the full combination of tops we've advised above.

However, the baseline is cleanliness - keep your house clean and fresh and you have the perfect background for creating the scentscape of your dreams with diffusers, flowers and anything else that fits the bill. 

But without a good clean first, you're just going to have an unpleasant layer of smells to deal with.

When in doubt, think fresh. Fresh fruit, fresh flowers, fresh laundry.

How do hotels smell so good?

One trick hotels use to ensure they smell nice all the time is by using the aforementioned room and linen sprays. These provide the most gentle of scent layers that imbue into the very fabric of the rooms, creating a fragrance that will last and last.

And just like how perfumers advice using a body wash or lotion in the same scent as your perfume to make it last longer, if you use the room spray in the same scent as you have candles or diffusers, the smell with be delightfully ever present in the space.

Whichever fragrances you fancy, use these tips and you're going to become 'that person', the one whose home smells like a five star hotel. Bliss.

News Writer

Sara Hesikova has been Ideal Home’s News Writer since July 2023, bringing the Ideal Home’s readership breaking news stories from the world of home decor and interiors, as well as trend-led pieces, shopping round-ups and more. Graduating from London College of Fashion with a bachelor’s degree in fashion journalism in 2016, she got her start in niche fashion and lifestyle magazines like Glass and Alvar as a writer and editor before making the leap into interiors, working with the likes of 91 Magazine and copywriting for luxury bed linen brand Yves Delorme among others. She feels that fashion and interiors are intrinsically connected – if someone puts an effort into what they wear, they most likely also care about what they surround themselves with.