Everyone knows how to make a house fragrant on demand, but what happens when an odor lingers long after the candle has stopped burning? The following tips suggest focusing on places you might have overlooked. They could be the reason your house doesn’t smell like roses all the time.

Clean Your Disposal

Image via Flickr by Dean Hochman

Potato, carrot, or onion peels can cause clogs in your disposal, and decaying food quickly overpowers any odor-reducing trick up your sleeve. Try these ideas to clean your sink’s intestines weekly to keep away any funk. Grind some ice with Borax sprinkled on it, then run warm water and let the mixture clean the disposal. For a more natural remedy, place a stopper in the sink, and combine three inches of water and a handful of baking soda. Switch on the disposal, remove the stopper, and a watch a tornado whisk away all traces of leftovers.

Disinfect Your Teenager’s Room

Essential oils do not cover up smells but instead disinfect the area to eradicate stench. Also, they are eco- and kid-friendly and are a great alternative to traditional odor eliminators, which simply conceal the problem. There are medical benefits to using essential oils as well, from curing insomnia to boosting healthy cell production. They could even boost your child’s mood! Diffuse these oils into the air using only a couple drops at a time — or mix them with water, then spray to freshen up an area.

Call Professionals to Clean Your Air Ducts

If you live in a humid climate, your heating, ventilating, and air conditioning (HVAC) system could be vulnerable to collecting mold, mildew, or fungus. When you change the air filter, look for indications of those things, and call the professionals at Ocean State right away if you notice them. Also, if you have to dust your vents more than once a week, that could reflect an excess of dust in your ventilation system. To purge your ducts of the problem, seek the help of an expert cleaning service.

Refresh Your Laundry Hamper

Workout clothes and day-old dirty underwear do not spice up any household aroma. The Queen of Clean concocted an air freshener recipe in which vodka is a required ingredient. Combine three parts water, one part inexpensive vodka, and 10–20 drops of essential oils such as eucalyptus, lavender, or citrus. Fill up a cutesy spray bottle with this mixture and place it close to the laundry basket so it’s on hand often. Spray it daily to deodorize.

Revamp Your Kitchen and Bathroom

Many people freshen up their homes with the smell of fresh-baked bread, but you don’t have to bake something to add a sweet smell to the atmosphere. Try boiling two cinnamon sticks or a teaspoon of granulated cinnamon until the fragrance permeates your house. Clean your toilets with lemon juice and baking soda. Let your fan freshen up the whole house with a citrus aroma instead of clearing away toxic vapors. Use pure lemon juice to remove lime scale or soap scum and benefit from a fruity scent.

Fixating your cleaning regimen on the parts of the house that cause underlying problems could be the solution to that lingering can’t-put-your-finger-on-it smell you keep trying to cover up.