How do I (discreetly) make my living space smell decently? - Page 2

Bake cookies.

How about incense?

A real man's home should smell of dirty sex

That's easily acchived by leaving out a fillet of Cod for a few days...

On a more serious note, living in a flat can be very irritating when it comes to odour. It seems like I am the only one who likes to keep my apartment smelling fresh (aired out at least 4 hours a day, during which I put the heating up), with a hint of cigars, scotch, dried lavender, and coffee...
Other people's flats seem to smell of stale roast meat, dirty toilets, sweat, and humid bathrooms. This is noticeable when I leave my flat into the comunial areas.
If people would practice a higer level of cleaning, and cook less often (after all this is London, you can walk to about 100 restaurants, and order any take away imaginable) it would not be such an issue, I'm sure i would spend less time airing my flat, and burning dried lavender, soaked in scotch.

Or cinnamon rolls.

I used to heat essential oils in a makeshift aluminum foil cup set on top of a lamp (yeah, pretty high tech there, but it worked)... cedarwood and orange oil were good. I never got many of them to try but pretty much any natural scent you like could be done that way. Some can be quite expensive though.

Anyway, I got positive comments on the smell of my room. I think you can get an oil heater thing that fits around a lightbulb so it would even be difficult to tell where the scent is coming from.

Airing-out is essential. I know what you mean about smell though. I've been to some peoples' homes that have a distinct smell. I don't use anything to make my place smell good, but then my place doesn't smell bad either. It smells of nothing. If I smell anything when I walk in the door I know it's time to clean, although it never really gets to that point because I'm quite the neat freak.

Oils, candles and incense.

Sure, candles can be regarded as "girly" but you can find candles that have a more masculine smell.. look for woody / leathery scents.

An an interesting question would be whether or not the average woman would care if you favored having a "girly" smell in your apartment. Personally, I love the smell of vanilla...

Agreed on the more masculine candles. Good scents are ones like indonesian teak or sandalwood, easy enough to find at Cost Plus/World Market.

If you feel like paying too much for a candle, Archipelago has a scent called "Stonehenge" which I really like.

Funny you should ask. Lifehacker just put this beaut up.

Clean, air it out, get some fresh flowers and bake bread.

Burning rubber candle FTW!

I just usually spray some neutral unscented febreeze around the room and air it out. Makes my living space not smell like anything at all.

An old lady I know sprinkles a few coffee grounds on her (electric) stove, and burns them. Roasted coffee...mmm.

Cook a large batch of Indian food.