We have been living in our current flat, for a little over a year now. Almost everything about it is better than our last abode. Almost. Sadly there is a condensation problem. We need to buy a dehumidifier at some point, but they are bloody pricey. So for now, we have to put up with the condensation, and the problems that causes.
Aside from the obvious sweaty windows and walls (the wall thing only happens in the kitchen when cooking I have to point out), the other major annoyance is smells. Due to the fact that there is more moisture in the air, smells hang around for a lot longer. This is not too much of a problem in fair weather, as I can leave windows open when I am home. In nasty weather however, this is not practical.
We have been trying various deodorising methods to keep on top of things. All of them had to also pass the asthma wheeze test and the fussy nose test. On top of that, I won't buy the generic big company products, but the reasons for that, are for another blog.
We tried scented candles from many companys. Yankee candles smell lovely and seem to have a lot more scent than cheaper competitors. They burn most of the way down. You do have to leave it to burn until the whole top layer is liquidy, molten wax. If you don't then the candle will tunnel inwards leaving an outer core of unused wax. We found careful chipping of this outer layer, with a butter knife, meant it could be used. Do this before you light the candle, and only a little at a time or you can flood the wick, and it will go out. I don't like the amount of carbony soot that collects on the jars, and goes into the air, but this happens with all candles to some extent. Also once the wick has completely burned down, you can reuse the leftover wax. Use a cheap, glazed oil burner (once you use it to do this you can't use it for oil and water again) and carefully chip the wax into small pieces. I used a blunt dining knife and kept it aside for wax use only. Pop the chipped wax pieces into the top of the oil burner (be careful not to use too much or it will overflow once it melts!) and put tea light in bottom and light. Once this starts to melt you will have a scented room. Once smell goes from the wax, wait til solid and carefully chip out of top of burner with blunt knife. You could refresh the wax with essential oil instead. This does not work well with any other candle brand I have tried - only Yankee.
Reed diffusers. The generic shop bought ones smell rank and cloying as a rule. I did find of all the ones I tried that the ambi pur ones smelt more natural and less headachey. Once the supplied fragrance evaporated, I looked into various refill options. Now I got my ambi pur on special offer and was a bit taken aback at how expensive the refills were. I found a gift shop in my neighbourhood that sells various reed diffuser sets, spare reeds and refill oils. I bought a 250ml bottle of refill oil for £10. This is enough for me to refill both of the diffusers in my house, and refresh my pot pourri at least twice per bottle. It's best to choose the same or similar scents when changing the oil, as the reeds will hold onto a lot of scent. You can, of course, buy new reeds and change the over. I have found annoyingly that the more the windows are open in a room, the faster the diffuser oil evaporates. Grrr! All in all these don't really get rid of bad smells all that effectively, they do provide a pleasant ambient smell.
Incense. Boy have I tried loads of these over the years. Eventually I have found a brand I love. Nag Champa. Found only in the bestest of shops. I like most of the smells in the Nag Champa incense range except Jasmine. It smelt like cat pee to me. Blergh! The original Nag Champa, Satya Aastha and Sunrise (the one in yellow box) are my favs. Nag Champa incense smells like incense should. The only downsides are that incense is kinda messy, you need a safe and reliable holder, like candles you need to keep an eye on it whilst it's smouldering and sometimes the smoke can be annoying. Good at smell killing, but not takes a while to work and is smokey.
Air freshener. I normally hate these chemical laden asthma inducers and so rarely to never buy them. Years ago I used to be able to geta brand called Orange Mate. This stuff is pricey yet amazing. A little goes a looong way. All natural too. Super effective and instant. Downsides are that it's concentrated citrus so be very careful where vapours land as it can eat away at plastics and wood, it is expensive and nigh on impossible to now buy unless you are willing to shop online in some odd places! I found another, much easier to find air freshener, which smells good, is concentrated, works fast and does not set off my asthma. Yankee air fresheners. Teeny wee spray looks to be a rip off, but really you never need to use more than 2 small sprays, to kill smells. Mine has lasted over a year so far! Not cheap, but worth it.
Ionisers. Bought two of these to help keep dust, pollen, dog hair out of the air. These are also supposed to help with odors. They do this reasonably well. They do the removal of pollutants from the air thing very well. In pollen season, whilst windows were open, I felt this helped to take a lot of the pollen out of the air. Not worth putting on when burning incense at same time to make air smell nice, as it pulls the smoke out of the air and thusly the fragrance. Works well at removing most smells, it's a bit ugly and a little noisy, brilliant at removing smoke from the air.
Bicarbonate of soda. I use this on carpets instead of shop bought stinky chemical carpet refreshing powders. I used an empty bicarb tub and carefully poked holes in lid with a cork screw to make a shaker. I mix bicarb in a bowl with powdered cinnamon and powdered nutmeg. I use about 2/3 bicarb to 1/3 spice mix. Mix well and decant into shaker. Sprinkle on carpet and leave for at least 30 mins then hoover. Voila - cookie scented carpets! I also use a small bowl of bicarb in fridge to keep it stink free. If I have a few smoker friends over I also put some bicarb in the bottom of ashtrays. It puts out all ciggies and smouldering embers quickly and kills most ashtray stink.
Finally my fav new stink killer. The Fragrance Lamp.
We bought this a few days ago, on recommendation from the owner of the shop where we buy our reed refill oil. He told me that this was the ultimate in household deodorising and scenting. I looked up reviews online and decided that it sounded wonderful. Apparently these lamps were invented in the 1800's by a French mortician looking to keep the mortury smelling fresh. The way it works is quite unique. You fill up the base with the fragranced lamp oil. This is very flammable so I did this in the kitchen sink. You then add the burner top on and the snuffer, and let the oil soak up the wick for 30 mins (this step only needs to be done when you refill or use for 1st time). The burner top consists of a wick folded in half which soaks up the lamp oil, with a small stone on top. This stone is what you set fire to, and not the wick. This means no black carbony smoke! You remove the snuffer and decorative cap, light the stone and leave it on fire for a little over 2 minutes, then blow out the flame. You then replace the decorative cap over the stone. Then leave it to smoulder for as long as you need. You then carefully remove the cap (i put mine on old matchbox as it's little hot and I don't want sideboard all burn marked) and carefully put the snuffer cap on the stone, and the decorative cap back on. So far, I have found that about 10-15 minutes seems to kill all smells and the fresh smell lingers for a long time afterwards. The smell is a little paraffiny but not overpowerly so. That is the only downside so far. It is also very pretty. Mine is from a company called Ashleigh and Burwood. The lamp cost a little under £25 and the oil is £5. So far the oil seems to last as you don't need to use much for it to be effective.
Aside from the obvious sweaty windows and walls (the wall thing only happens in the kitchen when cooking I have to point out), the other major annoyance is smells. Due to the fact that there is more moisture in the air, smells hang around for a lot longer. This is not too much of a problem in fair weather, as I can leave windows open when I am home. In nasty weather however, this is not practical.
We have been trying various deodorising methods to keep on top of things. All of them had to also pass the asthma wheeze test and the fussy nose test. On top of that, I won't buy the generic big company products, but the reasons for that, are for another blog.
We tried scented candles from many companys. Yankee candles smell lovely and seem to have a lot more scent than cheaper competitors. They burn most of the way down. You do have to leave it to burn until the whole top layer is liquidy, molten wax. If you don't then the candle will tunnel inwards leaving an outer core of unused wax. We found careful chipping of this outer layer, with a butter knife, meant it could be used. Do this before you light the candle, and only a little at a time or you can flood the wick, and it will go out. I don't like the amount of carbony soot that collects on the jars, and goes into the air, but this happens with all candles to some extent. Also once the wick has completely burned down, you can reuse the leftover wax. Use a cheap, glazed oil burner (once you use it to do this you can't use it for oil and water again) and carefully chip the wax into small pieces. I used a blunt dining knife and kept it aside for wax use only. Pop the chipped wax pieces into the top of the oil burner (be careful not to use too much or it will overflow once it melts!) and put tea light in bottom and light. Once this starts to melt you will have a scented room. Once smell goes from the wax, wait til solid and carefully chip out of top of burner with blunt knife. You could refresh the wax with essential oil instead. This does not work well with any other candle brand I have tried - only Yankee.
Reed diffusers. The generic shop bought ones smell rank and cloying as a rule. I did find of all the ones I tried that the ambi pur ones smelt more natural and less headachey. Once the supplied fragrance evaporated, I looked into various refill options. Now I got my ambi pur on special offer and was a bit taken aback at how expensive the refills were. I found a gift shop in my neighbourhood that sells various reed diffuser sets, spare reeds and refill oils. I bought a 250ml bottle of refill oil for £10. This is enough for me to refill both of the diffusers in my house, and refresh my pot pourri at least twice per bottle. It's best to choose the same or similar scents when changing the oil, as the reeds will hold onto a lot of scent. You can, of course, buy new reeds and change the over. I have found annoyingly that the more the windows are open in a room, the faster the diffuser oil evaporates. Grrr! All in all these don't really get rid of bad smells all that effectively, they do provide a pleasant ambient smell.
Incense. Boy have I tried loads of these over the years. Eventually I have found a brand I love. Nag Champa. Found only in the bestest of shops. I like most of the smells in the Nag Champa incense range except Jasmine. It smelt like cat pee to me. Blergh! The original Nag Champa, Satya Aastha and Sunrise (the one in yellow box) are my favs. Nag Champa incense smells like incense should. The only downsides are that incense is kinda messy, you need a safe and reliable holder, like candles you need to keep an eye on it whilst it's smouldering and sometimes the smoke can be annoying. Good at smell killing, but not takes a while to work and is smokey.
Air freshener. I normally hate these chemical laden asthma inducers and so rarely to never buy them. Years ago I used to be able to geta brand called Orange Mate. This stuff is pricey yet amazing. A little goes a looong way. All natural too. Super effective and instant. Downsides are that it's concentrated citrus so be very careful where vapours land as it can eat away at plastics and wood, it is expensive and nigh on impossible to now buy unless you are willing to shop online in some odd places! I found another, much easier to find air freshener, which smells good, is concentrated, works fast and does not set off my asthma. Yankee air fresheners. Teeny wee spray looks to be a rip off, but really you never need to use more than 2 small sprays, to kill smells. Mine has lasted over a year so far! Not cheap, but worth it.
Ionisers. Bought two of these to help keep dust, pollen, dog hair out of the air. These are also supposed to help with odors. They do this reasonably well. They do the removal of pollutants from the air thing very well. In pollen season, whilst windows were open, I felt this helped to take a lot of the pollen out of the air. Not worth putting on when burning incense at same time to make air smell nice, as it pulls the smoke out of the air and thusly the fragrance. Works well at removing most smells, it's a bit ugly and a little noisy, brilliant at removing smoke from the air.
Bicarbonate of soda. I use this on carpets instead of shop bought stinky chemical carpet refreshing powders. I used an empty bicarb tub and carefully poked holes in lid with a cork screw to make a shaker. I mix bicarb in a bowl with powdered cinnamon and powdered nutmeg. I use about 2/3 bicarb to 1/3 spice mix. Mix well and decant into shaker. Sprinkle on carpet and leave for at least 30 mins then hoover. Voila - cookie scented carpets! I also use a small bowl of bicarb in fridge to keep it stink free. If I have a few smoker friends over I also put some bicarb in the bottom of ashtrays. It puts out all ciggies and smouldering embers quickly and kills most ashtray stink.
Finally my fav new stink killer. The Fragrance Lamp.
We bought this a few days ago, on recommendation from the owner of the shop where we buy our reed refill oil. He told me that this was the ultimate in household deodorising and scenting. I looked up reviews online and decided that it sounded wonderful. Apparently these lamps were invented in the 1800's by a French mortician looking to keep the mortury smelling fresh. The way it works is quite unique. You fill up the base with the fragranced lamp oil. This is very flammable so I did this in the kitchen sink. You then add the burner top on and the snuffer, and let the oil soak up the wick for 30 mins (this step only needs to be done when you refill or use for 1st time). The burner top consists of a wick folded in half which soaks up the lamp oil, with a small stone on top. This stone is what you set fire to, and not the wick. This means no black carbony smoke! You remove the snuffer and decorative cap, light the stone and leave it on fire for a little over 2 minutes, then blow out the flame. You then replace the decorative cap over the stone. Then leave it to smoulder for as long as you need. You then carefully remove the cap (i put mine on old matchbox as it's little hot and I don't want sideboard all burn marked) and carefully put the snuffer cap on the stone, and the decorative cap back on. So far, I have found that about 10-15 minutes seems to kill all smells and the fresh smell lingers for a long time afterwards. The smell is a little paraffiny but not overpowerly so. That is the only downside so far. It is also very pretty. Mine is from a company called Ashleigh and Burwood. The lamp cost a little under £25 and the oil is £5. So far the oil seems to last as you don't need to use much for it to be effective.
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