Imagine walking into a sunny, spacious well-designed residence that has a beautiful view: stylish, comfortable furnishings and fabulous art filling every room. Might this be a place you’d be happy to call home? Probably so, with one caveat: If it smelled good, too. With all of those wonderful features, you probably would not want to live there or anywhere if it smelled badly.

There’s more to creating an inviting home than simply focusing on the things you can see. Every one of your senses needs to be satisfied, especially your strongest faculty: your sense of smell.

Yes, you want textiles and flooring to feel good when you sit or walk on them; you want your rooms to be as quiet and as free from street noise as possible. And, although you want your spaces to smell fresh and clean, sometimes you may not give enough thought to how invisible odors could offend others who are not accustomed to your home’s scent.

Personally, I prefer to use natural things like dry lavender, fresh lemon, pine tree oil – which smells like Christmas trees! – and fragrant flowers instead of chemical sprays to keep my rooms smelling their best. I also try to keep my windows open to fresh breezes as much as possible, all year long. (For a home that is subject to pet odors, strong cooking fumes, messy teenagers, or if someone is unwell, this is especially important. And let’s not even think about having to deal with the smell of cigarettes, mildew or mold…) Baking bread and burning cinnamon sticks are lovely options for making your place smell yummy, too. And, needless to say, giving your house or apartment a good weekly cleaning with natural products and vacuuming under everything can work wonders in improving the way it smells also.

Several companies that offer home fragrances are: BathandBodyWorks.com, myClaireBurke.com, Freshbet.com, sensia.com, crabtree-evelyn.com and usa.loccitane.com.

What do you do to make your home smell fresh and clean?