Selfsufficientish.com

Sorry folks, I hope I don't make you feel more uncomfortable but usually (not always), if someone keeps a dog in the house a non-dog owner can smell it. I used to have a dog, and like you could only smell it if it was wet, or if it had been shut in the kitchen (it was my parents' dog when I lived at there house. I would never shut an animal in a small room). However, I must say that if I am visiting a house that has a resident dog, I expect it to smell a little doggy. As Happy Chick says, if you visit a smoker's home you expect it to smell smokey. Also if you visit a house with a coal fire, if you don't have one yourself you can smell coal. In the house of someone who bakes a lot, you can usually smell baking. So long as you open your windows regularly and keep your dog healthy, it shouldn't get too bad.

Let's face it: our houses reflect who we are and that includes smells. I wouldn't be put off visiting someone with a dog just because I could smell it.

Well, that's a good excuse for me to bake more cakes ... actually I've been doing a bit of research and did you know you can buy unscented insence sticks and make your own insence from them using essential oils?!?!

The link is here for the sticks

http://www.wellingtonfragrance.com/Unsc ... ks_C42.cfm

Has anyone ever tried this?

I am a non-dog person and I can often smell dogs (or horses for that matter) off of people, not even just their houses - If I was visiting a doggy home I would expect a doggy smell and to cover it up with incense would smell worse (IMHO) but then I don't really like incense sticks either.
Opening the windows would be the best solution.

Having said all that, I recently came home after a day away and realised how disgusting my house smelled, of cat pee (Cat tells us she is annoyed by peeing in the hall) It made me feel so ill, and mortified that house guests never mentioned it - our house is a disaster/ building site so I am sure they were just ignoring the stink. But I am usually in the house and garden 24/7 so hadn't noticed the smell.... yuck

I thought this may be a good time to start a new thread called What does your home smell of?

An excellent incense company is The Mother's India Fragrances. They're Fair Trade and completely herbal, fairly priced (around £2 for a pack of 20 sticks) and come in a wide range of 'flavours' which are strong but not overpowering. I first bought some on holiday in Cornwall last year and took some to the beach with me on my last night. I had 2 sticks of their Nag Champa burning where I was sat, near the dunes. A couple on a late night beach walk strolled up from the shore (the tide was right out-not sure how far but they looked tiny when they were down there lol) and said how they could smell it from where they'd been! Yet, when burning it indoors its pleasant but hardly noticeable...to me at least :D

Oh, their website is www.mothersfragrances.com, and their British distributor is www.greatergoods.co.uk
I just get mine from the shop round the corner though :)

Of course, a much more Ish way would be to make your own incense. I'd be glad to provide instructions and recipes if anyone is interested :)

ocailleagh wrote:An excellent incense company is The Mother's India Fragrances. They're Fair Trade and completely herbal, fairly priced (around £2 for a pack of 20 sticks) and come in a wide range of 'flavours' which are strong but not overpowering. I first bought some on holiday in Cornwall last year and took some to the beach with me on my last night. I had 2 sticks of their Nag Champa burning where I was sat, near the dunes. A couple on a late night beach walk strolled up from the shore (the tide was right out-not sure how far but they looked tiny when they were down there lol) and said how they could smell it from where they'd been! Yet, when burning it indoors its pleasant but hardly noticeable...to me at least :D

Oh, their website is http://www.mothersfragrances.com, and their British distributor is http://www.greatergoods.co.uk
I just get mine from the shop round the corner though :)

Of course, a much more Ish way would be to make your own incense. I'd be glad to provide instructions and recipes if anyone is interested :)

Great, thanks for that. I love a nice smell in my home, but don't like adding more water to the air with an oil burner!

I'm trying to decide which fragrance to buy from the Mothers Fragrances Incense website, does anyone have any clue about the different smells?

Yippee! I ordered some of the Mother's Fragrance incense cones (vanilla) and have just used one. A thumbs up from me, they burn quite quickly so fill the room with fragrance pretty quick so are ideal for when you would normally want a quick spray of air freshener. Asthma sufferers beware though!

I know and love the Mother's fragrances since the early 90's.
One of those basics that's always in stock,like coffee and toilet rolls.
The Frankinsence is my current winter favorite.

I'm a trained aromatherapist and highly insensitive to chemical fragrances. I haven't found any incense that doesn't set me off.

I'm with Maggie on the home-made Shake'N'Vac. It works well for us - with 2 large dogs and 1 small.

I use a combination of citrus oils - lemon and lime are both inexpensive (try Baldwins) and anti-bacterial - with a 'room' fragrance. I use geranium in the living room, lavender and marjoram in the bedrooms.

I have to agree with you that dogs can get a bit whiffy, even when they are regularly groomed! I think the smell comes from their ears - spaniels are particularly noticeable for this. I do clean my dogs' ears (as much as they will let me) but I think a little extra care in the house is needed as well, we do need to be aware of non-dog-owning visitors!

Another thing I do is keep orange and satsuma peels. Dried out on top of the woodburner, they smell wonderful, then can be burnt along with logs, or added to home-made potpourri. I make up a small bottle of each blend and add 8-10 drops of that to a carton of bicarb to sprinkle on the carpets and the same to a spray bottle to use as air freshener.

Michelle

Rio have an ultrasonic essential oil diffuser.

Wax tarts are a good option if you don't want to have water in an oil burner. I had some beautiful ones from The Lincolnshire Candle Bakery, but they're not around anymore

Wax tarts are just sat in the top and a candle is lit underneath. The wax melts to release a lovely fragrance with no risk of extra water in the air, or the bowl burning dry.

When we moved into our house we found the best or rather worst of both worlds in that the former owners were both smokers and dog breeders.Indeed when we first visited the house to look the woman greeted us with a puppy in one hand and a cigarette in the other which added to the unkempt garden and pink painted outside walls did make us wonder why the place hadn't been snapped up sooner.
The carpets were the worse especially in the hallway where there were actually three layers. Left alone they weren't too bad but once disturbed the smell of dog urine was overpowering.
Luckily ,however ,underneath was a quarry tile floor which we were able to clean easily. We used decorators sugar soap on the floor and many other hard surfaces which also helped remove the nicotine stains. This was done several times and we also used lavender leaves to scent the place a bit and on most days doors and windows were left open for ventilation when possible.
Of course , the smell went after a while but now my sister in law says the house always smells of wood (I'm a wood worker by trade) which can't be that bad can it?


Pete