apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

I suggest leaving the windows open, and waiting.

You could also try the bowls-of-baking-soda trick. I believe vinegar works too.

Ugh. I sympathize. The only thing I can suggest is leaving the windows open as long as possible and perhaps using a fan or two on the windowsills to suck the perfumed air out.

As someone who is somewhat sensitive to fragrance, I don't understand why some insist on dousing themselves and/or their homes with powerful, usually synthetic, scents. 'Pleasant' odors can be just as offensive as unpleasant ones.

Boil cut lemons on the stove top and let linger for a couple hours. That might help.

I've also heard that, much like a bowl of vinegar or baking soda, a cut onion will help absorb the smell of fresh paint. I tried it once and I *think* it helped, but it actually smelled so bad (not at all like just an onion alone) that I had to remove it after an hour. Maybe it will be a better option when not paired with paint?

totally agree with slowdown. Bleck. Time and open windows is your best bet. I HATE HATE HATE any and all synthetic scents. I don't understand it. Once you remove it from your home, the moment it somehow makes it back it can almost make me gag. Sweet chemicals is all I smell.

Most likely the oils from all the fake scents that they used are in the walls and carpeting. Have you tried steam cleaning the floors and repainting the walls? Also a good air purifier wouldn't hurt.

ugh, I sympathize, when we moved into our new place it reeked of cat pee. I bought about 6 huge boxes of baking soda and covered the carpets with the stuff. We ended up leaving it sit for 24 hours before vacuuming. We also used a lot of Febreeze. It did do the trick, thank god..

Yuk, makes me wonder what smell they were trying to hide!

If you're willing to spend some money. Get a air purifier with activated carbon filter. Works great for me! Make sure all the windows and doors are shut to maximize the effect and speed things up. If you have a big house then it can get tricky ... Febreze has a small dump-down version carbon filter. You can try getting a bunch of them and plug into every outlet! Check out the customer reviews, looks like a good product to try.

I have heard that leaving banana peels around in a smelly space for 4-24 hours can help absorb unwanted scents, but be forewarned that after 24 hours the peels themselves will get pretty nasty.

I know wadded up newspapers absorb odors in confined spaces (suitcases, etc.). Since it sounds like the scents are pretty pervasive, you could try using them in closets and the like - or in a particular spot where the smell is really strong.

i'm with comicgeek and d4kk1tten. baking soda, carpet, time, and vacuuming!

Lampe Berger - neutral scent. Not cheap, but really works.

Activated charcoal is supposed to be much more effective at getting rid of odors than baking soda. You may want to try some of that.

We have two rabbit air purifiers and I swear by them:
http://www.rabbitair.com/?gclid=CP-F44jaqJsCFQ6jagode0AHCA

We had to get them when our downstairs neighbor moved in and immediately started chain smoking. The smoke came through every pore of our floor, and every crevasse that was not sealed shut. It was horrible. The air filters helped with that, and now that we have moved out, we keep them on in our new place that smells like a hotel.

Pour vinegar into a lot of saucers and place all over the place. A dab on a cotton ball won't do it. The air needs to move over the surface of the vinegar.

Then fry up a lot of bacon, boil some ketchup, and cook with curry.

I'm going to try all of these remedies. I've been in my new place (built 1941) for a couple of months now and it STILL smells like old house.

freshly ground coffee. french roast.

Open the windows?
Sprinkle Baking Soda on the carpet and vacuum it up?
Polish the furniture w/ orange oil?
Fry lots of fish?
Get a cat and ignore the litter box?

Either way, Yankee Candle smell will be gone shortly.

Thanks for all the suggestions everyone!

Here's a few more words on the space, to help you in your suggestions!

-It's all concrete, even the walls. There's only a few with drywall, the rest is all sealed concrete. No carpets... not yet. I'm waiting to bring our rugs into the space as long as possible!

- We do live across the street from a Folgers Coffee plant. The whole neighborhood smells divine and I'm assuming that's the smell they were trying to cover? Or they just really like fun smells... who knows.

- I forgot about charcoal and newspaper! I'll give them a try!

Thanks everyone, keep the ideas coming!

Sarahrae,
I make all natural candles so to cleanse my studio from all the different essential oil smells between pours I brew coffee. I also will place bowls of vinegar around when I am working on a new scent that didn't quite work out right.

You can try the same thing I do to cool off my apartment - place a fan pulling air in at one end of the apartment and a fan pushing air out at the other end.

Or a good air purifier would probably work really well.

When I first moved into my apartment, the manager left a plug-in air freshener. She had good intentions (she also left a really nice welcome basket), but I promptly pulled it out, mostly because those things can catch on fire. The scent was nice, but it gets really strong when it's plugged in.

I would try wiping walls and counters and sponging floors with Nature's Miracle, or a similar product. My theory is that anything that works for cat pee, will work for other odors. And it leaves behind a very neutral and benign scent.

I wouldn't try Febreze - that would just add in another sweet odor. But maybe I'm the only one who dislikes the scent.

Or I'd cook curries and lots of oniony and garlick-y things, or bake lots of bread or chocolate chip cookies for a nicer odor.

I'd wipe and wash the floors with vinegar/water solution. Also, I'd try burning plain candles. They kill farts, why not chemical odors?

Okay, please put this to rest for me: I know matches kill farts. Do candles function in the same way? Does any flame? Most important, if I serve beans at dinner, will a candle make my house explode?

Matches kill farts because the substance they create (at the head of the match when it's struck) mask other smells. I don't think the same applies to candles.

Matches kill farts because they burn the sulfur-tainted methane gas that makes farts smell. If the Yankee Candle smells are airborne, and combustible, then burning plain unscented tealights should help with the existing smells.

LOL @ "baby prostitutes"

The last house I bought was owned by a woman who died from cancer and for two months her family kept her dog and cat indoors until they found homes for them. You can imagine what the house smelled like, even though the carpet had been torn out. Most prospective buyers wouldn't even go inside and after months on the market the family finally reduced the house to a ridiculous price which I found irresistable. Long story short was that I bought 5 gallon bottles of white vinegar and just dumped them all over on the floors, of course leaving the windows open for two days. When I went back in to mop the pet odor was gone! This was with hardwood floors which I then sanded down and refinished immediately afterward. I'm not saying your apartment odor would rate a five gallon treatment, but if nothing else works vinegar is so cheap that you won't be out much. It's worth a try anyway. Good luck!

I forgot to say that I sanded down the hardwood to prevent warping - it had nothing to do with the pet odors.

Burn some sage.

TIME!

In the past I've also used the charcoal that has been previously suggested with great success.

I would imagine that if the scents were something they lived with themselves, taking a mop and cleaning the surface with a light grease cutting unscented dishsoap, provided the walls can handle it. It worked well to rid my apartment of the stale smoke smell the former tenants left behind. I used the Seventh Generation unscented stuff, and it worked really well.

A baking soda and water paste cleanser would also be a good way to clean off any surface oil that the candles/diffusers have left behind on things like cupboards or appliances. Avoid using any other scents if you can until you've had a chance to rinse off and air dry the place.

A big pot of freshly ground brewed coffee is a good way to rid the last lingering scents (in my experience).

Pop up some popcorn on a regular basis. It covers just about any smell and leaves a nice homey lingering scent. It will help out until time takes care of the smells left behind by previous owners.

(Painting a room is also an easy smell changer.)

I suggest the following that I've tried:


leave all windows open

Diffuse citrus essential oils (lemon, orange,grapefruit)

Diffuse Lavender and peppermint oil (peppermint really kills bad smells and lavender takes the harshness out of the peppermint)


When diffusing oils make sure they are essential oils, the synthetics ones will just make the house smells worse


makes coffee or leave open cans/bowls of coffee beans in the rooms with the offensive odor (you have to like the smell of coffee though)


One I haven't tried but friends swear by it:


Rabbit Air filter


I live in between neighbors who are heavy smokers with "untrained dogs" on one side. And who like to cook with onions, garlic, and fish on the other.

I feel your pain, but the above methods worked for me and friends say my house always smells like it has just been cleaned.

One more idea for the "fill the apartment with better smells" page is detergent smells. I love the smell that emanates from my washer when I bleach my linens. Ammonia smells awful, but its astringent smell might work well to counterbalance some of the awfulness that's currently there.

Also, I'd hose down as many surfaces as possible with Charlies soap. And I agree with other posters opening the windows for a week, assuming that's at all possible or practical, will make a massive difference.

I hope our culture shifts away from excessive artificial fragrance use soon. I have to keep my door shut at work because nearly every person who breezes by makes me sneeze and cough, and some of my friends' houses give me splitting headaches.

Mine was like that when we moved in. I kept finding more hidden in the weirdest places! Make sure there isn't anything lurking in the toilet/bathroom. There was one behind a cupboard in ours, and the toilet duck thing smelled revolting. It probably took about two weeks for it to disappear completely.

I'm sorry to say it, spinsLPs, but I think your old house smell is dampness. Check your roof space (attic) and basement and/or underfloor for leaks. Water could be getting in through the roof or up from underneath if the damp-proof course is cracked. Also, dampness could be caused by condensation, not from outside the building at all.

Vinegar and baking soda have worked for me. I put the vinegar into a garden spray and sprayed it on carpet when I had a cat who thought that if his feet were in the litter tray everything else was.

The guy who owned my house for fifty years before I bought it was a chain smoker. I rented an industrial-strength ozone generator from Home Depot and let it run for a weekend, and it took care of the smoking smell. (The walls still were discolored, but at least they didn't smell.)

WARNING: Ozone is bad for your health. Very very bad.

You can't live there while the ozone generator is running or while it's airing out afterward. Neither can your pets. If there's a likelihood that your air would get into neighboring apartments, don't run an ozone generator.

However, if you can seal the house and keep living things out of it for the duration, it really works well.

I think once you start cooking the fake stinks will go away. It will probably take a week or so.

LOL at the coffee aroma from across the street! One morning when I got off the bus downtown, the entire city smelled like coffee AND doughnuts (from a nearby Kroger bakery). Now that was a great smell!

Thank you Battling Betty! I'll check around for those problems.

I usually just boil a pot of water and vinegar, that's how I usually freshen my kitchen up.