a peek inside the fishbowl

It’s Christmas! And Christmas means company. And company means that we have to get our homes in tip top shape, right? (Work with me here!)

I have a thing about chemical air fresheners, as in, I kind of hate them. In fact, we have very very few artificial-smelling products here at casa Fishbowl. “Clean” does not equal a chemical mashup of fakefresh-evergreen-and-apple smell. A clean home doesn’t need to have any smell at all. Yet at the same time I do understand how nice it is to have a nice-smelling house.

But you don’t need super odour-eliminating technology! And air freshener ads are using our fear of odour to sell us a goods we don’t really need. Heck, they might even be bad for us.

The post about my pinecones (actual craft TBA) and this one by Scattered Mom about the DIY Christmas smell reminded me there are other ways of making your house smell nice for company.

1) Start with a clean house. A clean house won’t be smelly. Deal with stinky boots and hockey bags (now THAT’S a bad smell). If they’re stinky there’s an issue with bacteria that needs to be addressed – dousing with Febreeze is not the answer. If you can’t deal with it right away, throw them in the garage while company’s visiting.

2) Baking! Bake a batch of cookies or a loaf of bread. Or if you’ve run out of time, mix a bit of vanilla extract with water and let it simmer on the stove.

3) Add essential oils into your cleaning routine. I love love love the smell of grapefruit. I bought some grapefruit oil at a local health food store and I use it all the time. I discovered that if I poured three or four drops into my vacuum bag my whole place smells like grapefruit while I vacuum.

4) Boil water and lemon in your microwave for 30-60 seconds. The lemony steam will make it easier to wipe up the interior of the microwave and your kitchen will smell lemony fresh.

There’s a lot of good tips over here too – natural and non – if you’re looking for more info. Or perhaps you have a good-smelling secret you’d like to share?