Ooh, i bought a big Alen air cleaner during the pandemic, and got the one with the activated carbon in the filter, and it’s great! It really removes a lot of crap and odors from the air
I also have a house cleaner who comes in every other week, and heartily endorse that, especially if you don’t like to clean the place yourself.
Um, whoosh. I use neither scents nor Nilodor, and don’t care for colognes or perfumes either
There are many, many articles that say baking soda can perform all sorts of amazing things, including remove odours from fridges, but there are few actual experiments. The cited article is more of a theoretical article, along the lines of “many odors are caused by acids, baking soda is a base, and bases neutralize acids, so…” Fridges circulate air, so once the offending article is removed, many smells will be sent on their way, baking soda or not. I’d like to see some basic, empirical evidence on this, and other claims for baking soda. Too many are along the lines of, “make a paste of baking soda, apply, scrub the heck out of the stain, soak, repeat, then launder, and your stain will be minimized.”
My wife and I have collected several of these over the years and she likes to rotate through them, pulling out a different one for each season. They’re very kitschy but kind of neat in the same way those Felix the Cat wall clocks were. However, we don’t use the scented wax in them, we only use them as night lights. I do, however, use one in my classroom and use the wax in it. The different scent options are legion and I usually have half a dozen mild scent choices on hand and let the students choose which one to use. The fake spice or pine needles or whatever smells better than a room full of reeking teenagers.
And to the OP, agreed that a clean house is the best way to keep odors at bay. Wash bedding frequently, don’t let towels and dirty laundry accumulate, keep windows cracked as close to 24/7/365 as possible, and use a good cleaner for everything. Trader Joe’s has a cedar oil-based multi-purpose cleaner that I love. Unfortunately my wife thinks cedar oil smells like old cigar smoke so I only use it for greasy stuff like the stovetop. Dr. Bronner’s is good too.
I don’t think anyone is suggesting a “rigid schedule of sterility,” as you put it :). Just doing laundry and vacuuming on a weekly basis, keeping dirty dishes out of the sink and taking the kitchen trash out goes a long way. Gran-Ma clean isn’t necessary. You really do want an absence of any funky smells before you add a scent you’d like, because nothing really covers funk, it just adds to it.
(NOT a criticism)
First four posts in digest are:
…followed by this one. “One of these things is not like the other.” And it’s a relief.
Pretty sure that post wasn’t meant for this thread.
Regarding textiles (towels, socks, etc.), if something is damp or wet, make sure that it dries out before adding to the dirty clothes basket.
My parents keep a dishcloth next to the sink and used to only wash it once a week. After a few days, it was vile. We use a new dishcloth almost every other day, and we let the dirty one dry out before adding it to the pile, or just place it directly in the washing machine.
We also use a clean washcloth for each shower. And we make sure to use the bathroom fan for removing odors and humidity.
Once a day, go around and open all the windows to really air out the space. Only need 5 minutes or so, but it’ll help.
You might want to repost this in whatever topic you meant to post it in. 
Doesn’t it fit? @phs3 is saying it’s fun to see this topic come up as a contrast to the others mentioned.
? No, read what I wrote.
Oops, i misread it. Sorry.
OP, I read your rant in the BBQ thread and now I am convinced that you need a housekeeper. You are so overworked and stressed that paying someone to remove something that stresses you every time you walk in the door could actually save your job.
Our housekeeper will do anything we ask. (Within reason, we wouldn’t consider asking her to wash our cats or anything like that.) She would change our bed and do our laundry if we wanted, she gets paid by the hour.
I’ve worked in hugely stressful jobs and walking into my home and being able to relax and not look at all the stuff that needs to be done was wonderful.
I do need something to relax me. The new place has a bath, so a long soapy soak is one plan.
Getting a housekeeper in is on my list for sure. Also someone to mow my lawn.
I’ll second the recommendation to get a housekeeper to come in every week or two and vacuum, sweep, mop and clean the bathrooms. Change your sheets pretty often as well, and keep the garbage, sink and other funky stuff in control.
Baking stuff often makes your house smell nice, if you know you have people coming over. Go get some of those par-baked biscuits, or one of those tubes of cookie dough, and bake them.
Unless you’re completely cursed in the field of houseplants, get yourself a pot of thyme. It’s pleasantly aromatic. It is also sturdy, prolific, hard to kill, and perennial. You can snip off a sprig or two to put in each of your wastebaskets to bring a nice smell to the whole place.
I have some growing outside the back door. Every year, the winter tries to kill it, to no avail. It also lends itself to silly jokes about making gifts of spare thyme, thyme in a bottle, and so on.
Good lord, take out the trash, do the dishes, clean the bathroom and kitchen. Open the windows, (yes, even in the winter for five minutes). Plug ins and sprays are awful, and toxic. I visited a trailer full of plug in Glades and a spray can of Hawaiian Tropics that went off every 15 minutes! All closed up hot, full of dogs and smokers, too, OMG. Putting one bad smell on top of another bad smell = one great big stink…my daughter burns a little incense - just a little, for 5 minutes, and her place smells very nice, even with a cat and litter box, you’d never know…If you use essential oils or candles, spring for the good, expensive ones. (I don’t do candles, they are dangerous and bad for your lungs, but you do you.). but yeah, air the place out, most of the time the outdoor smells are better than the inside smells.
These last two posts sound like the advice I was really after. Thanks everyone, moving day tomorrow!
I vote for cleaning, also.
The bathroom is critical. It’s a whole lot more than swishing bowl cleaner with a brush. Toilets have those evil little nooks and crannies that collect stinky things. As a man, you need to clean up all those drips that don’t hit the bowl. Those drips run down the front of the bowl, and there are even drips on the floor.
Clean the shower, get the mold and soap scum. Mold stinks. Scrub the floor and take out the bathroom trash!
In fact, before guests come over, empty every single trash/garbage can in the house!
Wash the dishes, scrub the kitchen sinks. If you have a disposer, run it, then add some citrus peels and run again. Check out products that clean the disposer. It can breed stinky smells.
Go through the refrigerator and dump out all the science projects and any produce that is past the point of no return. Check all dairy products. Is there any raw meat loitering inside? Give it a sniff…
Wash all the dirty laundry, and make sure it is totally dry before putting away. Damp clothes can funk up a closet in no time!
Give each room the sniff test. If you don’t smell “clean,” look for the culprit. All the sweet-smelling foofoo won’t help you if there is a rotten apple or a cat turd under the couch.
In the kitchen, if something smells BAD, sort of rotten, you have a nasty potato. Get rid of it. If something smells medicinal, almost chemical, that’s a bad orange. Get rid of it. If there are gnats dive bombing you, there is rotten fruit or vegetables lurking someplace. Find it, get rid of it.
“Clean” is the very best smell of all!
~VOW
Well, that’s not going to happen. That list reads like an obsession.