How to keep your new home “naturally” fresh?

When you buy a new home, the entire family gets super excited about various things, such as what furniture to buy, where to place the wall hangings, what color to choose for the bedroom walls, and the list goes on. However, none of us would appreciate the strong smell of paint, varnish and toxic floor polishes that usually accompany new homes. Though moving in to a freshly done up house is quite exciting, such annoying smells can ruin the entire experience, especially since it takes a couple of days for the odor to completely abandon the house. Using chemical room fresheners like aerosol sprays to get rid of the smell can actually go on to worsen it. Our sense of smell is very sensitive and it plays a major role in our physical and mental well being. Also, if you have pets, they can be equally irritated by such heady smells.

The first, and the most obvious thing to do would be to air the house. This means you should open all the windows and allow the air to circulate. Do this on a daily basis for a couple of days early in the morning, allowing the sunlight to enter the rooms can help the situation by leaps and bounds. Once you get rid of the chemical smell, you can use a natural room freshener. You can actually make your very own chemical-free room freshener by mixing equal parts of lemon juice and water, and pour it into a spray bottle. You can spray this around your new home every once in a while.

You can also spice up your new home using cloves, fresh ginger, cinnamon and herbs such as mint. Just heat up some water and throw in these spices and herbs. Bring this mixture to a boil and later turn down to simmer. Take this mixture around in every room and bathroom to spread the scent. You can also use fragrant essential oils of your choice for this. If you have a particular room that emits strong odor, then soak a few balls of cotton in vanilla extracts. Keep these soaked cotton balls in a dish, and place them inside the cupboards or in a corner of the room.

You could also try lighting some aroma candles made of vegetable wax, which help emit a mild aroma that maintains a soothing ambience. Keeping some indoor plants can greatly help you get rid of unwanted odors and toxins in the air. There exist various house plants suited to the Chennai climate such as the popular money plant, mother-in-law's tongue, the snake plant, or the arrowhead plant. Maintaining such plants is quite easy, and they definitely help keep the air fresh and your mood blissful!