How do you keep your vintage-filled house smelling fresh?
July 22, 2017 4:34 AM   Subscribe

How do you keep your vintage-filled house smelling fresh?

Our house is filled with vintage furniture, oriental throw rugs, pillows, and bric-a-brac that we love. But it sometimes smells a bit like an antique store. Plus we have a dog and parrot, to add to the mix of scents. Do you have any tips for deodorizing and making the house smell fresh? If you have a similar house, what is your routine? I have read that vinegar and vodka sprays are good. Do you do that? If so, how often? Does rubbing alcohol work just as well as vodka? Limitation: I cannot use Ozium or other sprays that have nasty fumes, as birds have more sensitive respiratory systems than humans. Any tips would be most appreciated.
posted by mortaddams to Home & Garden (15 answers total) 17 users marked this as a favorite
 
I've never understood those deodorizing tips. Spraying vinegar just means your house smells like vinegar. I don't see what spraying alcohols on your things could do except potentially ruin them.

I'm of the opinion you have to air out the house on a regular basis. In the summer, very early morning is the best time for it. Back in the day, people would take the rugs outside and beat them to remove dust and debris, but also let them hang for a bit and air out. Sun is a pretty good odor remover too.

The other thing is just straightforward cleaning or having things cleaned. Wipe down the walls and baseboards, give the pillow and cushion covers a soak with a very mild soap, etc.
posted by zennie at 5:21 AM on July 22, 2017 [5 favorites]


Best answer: I have a tiny apartment, but I will boil a small pot of water with a few splashes of vinegar for 10 minutes or so. Yes, it smells like vinegar for a few minutes but it dissipates quickly. I also add vinegar to the laundry and it's always fresh smelling without using any scented products. (Bonus: if you use a stainless steel pot it will make it super shiny and clean.)

But. Unless it's raining hard (so, like, almost never) my windows are open 24/7 and I have a fan running when I'm home, and that's probably the biggest thing, but obviously not practical in many situations.
posted by Room 641-A at 5:31 AM on July 22, 2017 [2 favorites]


Best answer: Furniture polish regularly used inside and out is best for long-term odour reduction, in my experience. And air your soft furnishings, preferably in direct sunlight.
posted by howfar at 5:42 AM on July 22, 2017


Best answer: We're more minimalist with our furnishings, but we have two cats and the house can smell stale sometimes. Vacuuming regularly (at least once a week) helps a lot - more than you might think. If you can vacuum any upholstery, bonus.

Also, if you aren't already, stay on top of your laundry, especially sheets and towels.
posted by Metroid Baby at 5:43 AM on July 22, 2017


Best answer: Washing the dog's things really helps - e.g. chucking leads and collars in the washing machine regularly if they're not leather and hanging them out to dry. Ditto blankets and baskets.

I use baking soda a lot in my home to neutralise smells.
posted by teststrip at 6:44 AM on July 22, 2017 [1 favorite]


Best answer: Your enemies are mustiness and dustiness and mouldiness. You have furnished your house like a Victorian house, so you need to use the same kind of cleaning routines that the Victorians used. Alas, in the Victorian era labour was cheap and they could designate a servant to be the parlour maid just to keep up with this kind of a thing.

Wooden furniture needs to be treated frequently with a nice furniture polish that does not contain fumes that would disturb your birds. This means, depending on the finish that it already has, it needs to be treated with beeswax or (non-volatile hydro-carbon) oil. And to do that it needs to have the bric a brac cleared off it.

In order to do that you need to have a system such as a tea cart so that you can rapidly and safely transfer all the bric a brac from your over mantle or your escritoire from the surface you need to polish to the temporary surface, polish and then replace. If a tea cart is not available, then a sturdy card table would work - you need something that can travel from room to room, be placed close to what you are cleaning and will not need to be placed on the floor, and that you will not be tempted to place on unstable surfaces in order to bring it conveniently close to your work area for loading and un-loading. If you can't get a tea cart or a card table, a tray would work that can be placed on a nearby clear surface.

In a dry summer or a centrally heated winter I would think you might want to do each item of furniture once a month - however, I hope perhaps you love your furniture and can enjoy the process of polishing it. It can add up to a lot of work! Luckily I enjoy my furniture and enjoy polishing it because it is an aesthetic experience to rub smooth finished wood and see the grain of it. Beeswax will make your house smell like the antique store that fills you with a hungry compulsion to buy something - anything! when you go into it, as opposed to the antique store where your first thought is a vague prediction that the sole proprietor has chronic bad teeth.

Between times you have to be hyper vigilant about the dust, which is where you use feather dusters - or better yet their modern equivalent the poofy ultra light fluffy dusters that have been treated to attract dust. All that bric a brac has to be dusted. But for the long term start looking for beautiful dust-proof display cases. There are lots of lovely cases or repro cases around that can be found which were meant to protect delicate collections such as butterflies. A teak wood case would fit in with your decorating style quite seamlessly, I expect.

As mentioned by earlier posters, anything textile needs to be cleaned very thoroughly. Throw rugs can be taken out on the porch and shaken vigorously. If you don't have a vacuum cleaner that is designed and rated well for cleaning upholstery and textiles look into it - you might be able to get a cheaper, hand held rather than having to invest in a huge does everything model. This vacuum is also exceedingly helpful for vacuuming the top of books.

It is important that your home is dry so that no mildew develops. Mustiness can be caused by damp. Consider a de-humidifier as a possible solution to musty smells. Consider too if the musty smell could be coming up from your basement or foundation, or laundry room.

Air circulation is important, so a couple of strategically placed fans, and a good cross draught, or moving a couple of pieces of furniture so that there is an inch between them and the wall, or even placing them in a corner diagonally can do a lot to prevent mustyness.

Consider looking into safe scents to muffle the scent of mustiness. For example if the scent is old, clean fabric, which is not a strong smell, you could add a couple of safe, good scents to your home, such as some bowls of homemade potpourri - emphasis on homemade as store bought will contain chemicals that might be bad for the birds and you - which would combine well with the old fabrique smell and make it smell like dear old grandmother's house rather than Airwick. Lavender, cinnamon sticks, rose petals, cedar etc. are all the kind of things that you can use. Cedar is especially good as it will help prevent moths and if there is wool or silk you would love to prevent moths.

Do not use scented candles as they often have components that may be bad for birds.

I don't know anything about keeping a house clean smelling when you have birds, but specifically research keeping a house smelling clean when you have dogs and when you have birds. You might find something useful there. You might consider moving the birds location if you think that they are a source of the scent. They may be transferring bird dander and bird dropping scent to fabric items that are near them such as carpet or curtains.

If you can afford it, investing in an air filtration system with a HEPA filter wouldn't hurt.

When your house next smells musty go around and see if you can track down which area is more musty to narrow down where the musty smell is strongest. You might, for example find out that the musty smell is strongest in the hall where you have the bookcase and there are no windows, or strongest in the back bedroom where there is no cross draft and the bedding is never used and never changed and has gotten ever so slightly damp while waiting for a guest. It's counter intuitive, but to make this easier, close doors and inhibit the air circulation in your home for a week or two to make it easier to do this. This will enable you to consider changing things around, such as taking the bookcase out of the hall and putting them somewhere that there is better air circulation to keep the books bone dry.

If you have a washer and dryer you could try and get into a routine of washing and drying a load every day, washing items that you change regularly that protect your furniture and home- cushion covers, throws that you have on the furniture that protect them from dog fur, stuff like this.

All this is assuming you have a lot of time and energy and some money to throw into looking after your home which may not be the case! But your house sounds so lovely that I am hoping you can find some use from my ideas and will even enjoy the implementation.
posted by Jane the Brown at 7:14 AM on July 22, 2017 [24 favorites]


Best answer: Wool rugs get washed when I get them, and as needed after that. I clean rugs in my driveway, up to 8 x 10 wool rugs. It needs a week of hot sunny days, but use well-diluted laundry deterg and the hose. I go barefoot and skate on the rug to loosen dirt. The neighbors are amused. The antique Persian rug goes to the rug specialists if needed.

Wood furniture gets an occasional wipedown with 1:1 boiled linseed oil and turpentine. The turp gets any dirt and crud and the boiled linseed oil dries with a nice finish. Learned this from an antique dealer. It will have a distinctive smell, but pleasant. I used Liquid Gold when I had old pine woodwork; I love that smell. You might also like lemon oil. And I just got some orange oil spray at walmart because my son smoked, a lot, in my car and it's bad. The orange spray helps some. Not sure how birds fare with any of these.

If stuff smells old, it's usually because it's oxidizing as it ages, and regular cleaning will resolve that. Mildew or mold requires more serious
posted by theora55 at 7:27 AM on July 22, 2017 [2 favorites]


Best answer: Wipe things down with methylated spirits. Contrary to the post above alcohol won't ruin anything. I am an art technician and methylated spirit is what is used in the industry to clean almost everything that is non-porous, and even some things that are. Many types of wooden picture frame for example will be fine with meths. The oil painted surfaces of antique canvasses worth many tens of millions of pounds are routinely wiped down with meths.
posted by mani at 7:32 AM on July 22, 2017


Best answer: Summer early morning, or mild winter afternoons, any time in the spring when there isn't too much pollen: open all the windows. Set up a box fan or two to move air across the whole house, in from one set of windows and out the opposite side; if you're lucky, there will be a breeze.

If there's a room-sited smell, clean everything, and actually wipe down the walls with a damp cloth (this alone will make a huge difference).

If you can't open windows, use a HEPA room filter.

If you have an issue with mildew or dampness, use dessicant.
posted by amtho at 8:13 AM on July 22, 2017


Run a HEPA air filter while you are out; there's a tangible difference in air quality that you will notice when you return.
posted by effluvia at 9:23 AM on July 22, 2017


-- Nth suggestions to obtain a quality HEPA air filter. It DOES make the air smell clean, like a glass of crisp cool water but for your olfactory senses. The Sweethome has suggestions for the best ones.

-- A dehumidifier to keep your humidity levels at about 40-55%, which discourages mold and helps to mitigate that "heavy" sensation and weightiness that humid air lends. This in tandem with the air purifier is a big help.

-- Either ceiling fans or some attractive tower fans to keep the air circulating when you can't open the windows for a cross breeze.

-- When drying your textiles (after a good cleaning), dry them in the sunlight. This does wonders for killing odors. I once couldn't get the smell of fish oil out of a shirt, no matter how many cleansing methods I tried, until I left it outside to dry and... gone. The fishy odor vanished. If sunlight can kill eau de fish, it can kill or at least significantly reduce moldy / musty odors.

-- For natural fibers that have been long subjected to mothballs and still need protection against damage from moths, use lavender essential oil on cotton balls / freshly sanded cedar wood blocks.
posted by nightrecordings at 10:11 AM on July 22, 2017 [1 favorite]


I like to vacuum up cinnamon from time to time.
posted by salvia at 10:17 AM on July 22, 2017


I use cedar oil spray and cedar blocks to protect wool. The spray smells wonderful.
posted by theora55 at 11:27 AM on July 22, 2017


Hey, your house sounds exactly like mine, but with a cat instead of a dog. Right down to the bird! We should be shopping buddies.

Anyway, I wanted to echo everyone else saying that sunning and airing your antique textiles, rugs, pillows, etc tends to work better than washing or professional cleaning. So does a good baking soda hang session- dump a box in a trash bag, toss in a not too delicate pillow or tapestry or whatever, shake it up, let it hang out for a week, take it out, beat the baking soda out of it. Another friend does this with activated charcoal, but it costs a lot more. I'm able to get any lingering powder off but sometimes stuff is a little dusty for a few days. Everyone has different standards for clean so your mileage may very here. Clean to me means "no huge visible stains/crust and it doesn't stink". If you want "just came out of the washer and safe to rub my face all over it", you are going to be spending a lot of money at the specialist rug/upholstery cleaners. We had one especially gnarly Persian rug cleaned by a Stanley Steemer type crew who came to the house and did it on the spot for about $60 (in Philly).

As for potpourri, candles, etc, I'm sure that you know that your bird friend will either breathe it or eat it, which would be awful. Febreeze claims to be bird safe but is not.

We have loads of books and records and give "the archive" a vacuum or wipe with a lambswool duster about twice a year. Keeping your records in plastic sleeves will cut down on a lot of dust and that sort of decaying book smell that the jackets can get. Someone above mentioned glass front cabinets and bookshelves and yeah, the books behind glass are cleaner. You can put baking soda in these to keep them fresher, too- ever see those corny hollow stash boxes that look old books? You can rig them to be a baking soda box hider by cutting some holes in what would be the "top" of the book.

Method makes a wood polish that smells like almonds that we love.

Finally, houseplants help to freshen the air. Fans keep air moving, even in winter.

Generally, though- we have old stuff. Old stuff smells like old stuff, fibers decay when you don't have museum-quality air and humidity control, and pets come with smells. I think you kinda have to be cool with this, to some degree.
posted by ElectricGoat at 3:59 PM on July 22, 2017


Oh! One last thing that changed my life- look into a rubber broom/brush for pet hair. It works better than a vacuum on my most threadbare antique rugs. Happy cleaning!
posted by ElectricGoat at 4:02 PM on July 22, 2017 [2 favorites]


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