how do i keep my home smelling fresh?

2 boys, 2 dogs, 2 cats, a husband who's a builder + we're both smokers!

Only smoke outside, take the dogs to be washed, shower every day and shove the kids in the bin.

I have a home daycare pus five kids of my own. Two of which are stinky teenage boys! Anyway, people always tell me my house smells good and i think it's because of several reasons. I do burn candles in the evening times (when there are no daycare kids) and I mop my floors three times a week or more with the strongest smelling Mr. Clean or Lysol I can find. I also use spray air freshener every time I change a diapers (all day long!) and I clean with bleach which kills every smell imaginable. The biggest reason I thin my house smells good is because I use those Plug-In's. I can leave them plugged in behind the entertainment stand and behind the couch and the kids can't get to them. I have one plugged into an outlet that is above my kitchen counters and the kids can't reach that either. Having said all that, maybe the 'funk' smell is coming from somewhere specific. One time I found rotten potatoes in the bottom of my pantry after wondering why my house had a 'funk' smell. Try the garbage disposable. Sometimes rotten food gets stuck in there. Hope I helped!

Opem windows whenever possible to allow the odors to escape. As for the dogs, keep them bathed often, because pets have an odor all their own. Bathe your cats with a foam cleaner or a powdered cleaner, if they don't like water. Glade makes a nice room spray that eliminates pet odors. It's in a white & light green pump bottle. Nice scent!!! Spray it where the pets sleep. The number one contributor to a household odor is cigarettes, as you well know. The smoke is not good for your sons as well. Maybe it's time to smoke outside. Odors within the home will come from many sources. Keep all carpeted areas, shampooed often. If any of the pets have had accidents on the carpeting, that's a big source of odor also. Once the urine goes through the padding, the smell is yours until you replace the carpeting & treat the flooring where the stains/odors linger. I personally like to burn candles in my home. I love the Apple-Cinnamon scents, as well as the Apple Pie scents. They make the house smell so good. In some of my rooms, I use the Glade Air Plug In Fresheners, that take the little bottle of oil. Again, I buy the Apple Cinnamon scented oil. There are of course, some scents that you may like for the bedrooms. (Lilac, Vanilla, Fresh Linen, etc.) Make sure your wastebasket is washed out with a cleaner on a weekly basis. I like the Lemon Scented Pine Sol myself. Launder throw pillows often that all family members may use while watching tv. When frying foods, open windows & use an exhaust fan. Those nasty odors can longer for days & permiate everything, especially when frying fish. When doing spring/fall cleaning, wash your walls/woodwork, with a gentle cleaner, such as Murphy's Oil Soap. It's got a veggie base & won't harm your walls/woodwork. It's great for all wooden surfaces. If you own a garbage disposal, put half a lemon in it & turn the disposal on for a few seconds. The lemon will neutralize the odors. You can also buy a box of packets that fit into the disposal & foam out the odors. They sell it where dishwasher detergent is sold.

If candles aren't doing the trick, or any other air freshener. I would first try fabrize. But if that doesn't work you may want to try this type of paint. It is a fragrance releasing paint. If you go to Lowe's, or home depot, and you tell them that you want the type of paint that releases sent/fragrance. they should be able to direct you to it, (it is not cheep though). If you have more carpet, than tile, or hard wood, it is possible that the smell is, or has worked its way into the padding, or even the floor boards. In which case there is not much that you can do except to hire a carpet cleaner that gets all the way into the padding. And if in the future you decide to replace the carpet and padding( if you have carpet instead of tile or something else) then you can paint the floor boards, and that will seal in any smell, and keep it from absorbing any other scents. Hope this helps.

You could bring in a 'lounge only' rule with the door shut for your smoking habits, although as you both smoke i imagine it would be difficult for you to do this.

Hoover your house often (every2-3 days) and invest in some febreeze!

Also, you know those oil burners you can get? Well, get some lemongrass oil and burn this, a few drops in some water, and it will eliminate the odours which are in your house really well, and make it smell fresh at the same time! This is the least time consuming option and probably the cheapest! It works so well too, When i cook fish and find it difficult to get the smell to shift, i simply put my oil burner on and it goes quick enough!

Also, this might sound stupid, but empty your bins really regularly, cause with the cat food/dog food and smoke ashes which go in it, they get smelly really easy! I know this cause of my two cats,and the food can geta bit smelly!

Good luck!

If you begin with No smoking in the house you will notice a huge difference , next clean cat litter box twice a day, remove all garbage to the outside , keep the laundry clean, no dirty dishes allowed to stay overnight , remove all water from sinks when done washing them, keep the windows open as much as you can , wash all the walls and curtains down , put a pot of white vinegar on the stove on simmer, but keep the timer on in case you should forget that the stove is on just to be safe.

You ca buy a candle warmer anywhere for about $5 dollars and put any candle on it. A candle warmer is safe, fresh, and wont run out of wax. Also, Burn candles and use diffusers that are all the same scent. If you want a fresh scent, check out 'clean linen' or 'fresh cotton' smells. Also, you can buy a SCENTSY. Or, you can put a pan on your stove and fill it with water and keep it on high and add fresh scents like lavender plant, mint, or cinnamon into it. Hope this helped!

i put in a corner of each room a fresh orange with a few small slits in it behind an object like a photo frame or radio etc and then every day i just squeeze the orange a little this keeps odor at bay and does not create a "up your nose" to strong to bear smell :P just a lovley smell all day one orange can last for up to 9 days but every 3 days i put one more small slit in to it ...

also on rainy days or winter when you can not open the door for fresh air i put a fan on both on the landing upstairs and the hall downstairs and before i turn them on i spray some air freshner on the fan wings and then turn it on :)

We smoke outside to keep that smell out. I have 2 dogs and a cat and I bathe them monthly. And I used those Wallflowers from Bath and Body Works and my house smells good.

Impossible task I would say. Why worry? Dogs and cats smell. I imagine Hubby pongs from time to time. Cigarette smoke smell is virtually permanent, especially to a non smoker. You could both stop smoking. Other that that you will have to pong on.