Eliminating unpleasant odors in your home is crucial once you decide to sell your home. It’s actually one of the first things that prospective buyers notice when they arrive - how the home smells. If they smell something bad, it will put them off pretty fast. Regardless of how nicely staged the home is, unpleasant odors can make your home unappealing to most buyers. Opening your windows and turning on the exhaust fans can briefly remove the bad odors, but it won’t eliminate them all together. Follow these tips below if you want to keep your home smelling it’s best.
1. Don’t Use Perfumed Air Freshener
Many make the mistake of spraying a perfumed room freshener around the house, in hopes that it will remove the yucky smells. Unfortunately, room deodorizers will fade, and they often just mask the smell. Some fresheners have an overwhelming smell of their own, and it can seem like you’re trying to hide something. When a buyer comes by to view your home, the wrong air freshener can cause a bad reaction. Instead of trying to mask the smell, you should locate the source of the odor and remove it.
2. Pet Carpet Cleaners
Everybody loves their pets – We all know that dogs and cats are part of the family. Unfortunately, in many cases they can make your home smell pretty unpleasant. Whether the smell lands on the furniture or is in the carpet, it’s important to remove it. Most of these odors come from your pet’s accidents. When this happens, it’s important to always clean it up as soon as it happens. When the accident occurs, blot it with a paper towel, then use dishwashing soap to remove the odor. Once the mess is cleaned, blot it again with fresh paper towels to dry it. If you find an older accident, you should use an enzyme cleaner to remove the bad bacteria. Most pet stores will sell activated charcoal (a form of carbon that has been activated to make it extremely porous).
3. Using Green Cleaning Products
Using natural odor eliminators can be a fantastic alternative to using chemicals. A popular product that many people love using is baking soda. You can put an open box of baking soda in a room to help absorb unpleasant smells. It can also help to remove musty aromas in areas around the house, like basements and crawl spaces. In addition to being used to remove pet odors, baking soda can also help with the smell of cigarette smoke. If are opposed to baking soda, a pet supply store should have green cleaning products that help remove odors, while staying safe for the home. Hiring a cleaning service that uses green product is another great option also.
