Housekeepers have several methods to make homes smell good, depending on personal preference and the type of cleaning required. These methods range from using natural scents such as essential oils and herbs to more commercial options like air fresheners and cleaning products with added fragrances.
Add 2 cups of distilled water to your container. Add 1 cup of unscented liquid Castile soap. Add 50-80 drops of fragrance oil of your choice. Add about 2 tbsp to hot water and you are ready to start cleaning!
Mix a solution of a drop of dish soap, ¼ cup of baking soda, and 1/3 cup of white vinegar, and place it into a spray bottle. Spray the affected area and allow it to saturate for at least 20 minutes.
Use vinegar or baking soda to deodorize your mop. Vinegar is a natural deodorizer that can help eliminate unpleasant odours from your mop. Add one cup of white vinegar to a bucket of hot water, and use this mixture to clean your mop head. After cleaning, rinse the mop head with plain water and hang it up to dry.
For us this means the living room, dining room, and kitchen. I also use Fabuloso® to mop the floors with too, it works great and leaves them smelling wonderful and clean too.
Citrus helps sell houses. That's because people associate citrus smells with concepts like “fresh” and “clean,” and it means that even a subtle citrus scent can make a big difference with prospective buyers. Clean scents, like the scent of freshly washed laundry, are among buyers' favorites, too.
But as a rule of thumb, you should mop your floors at least once a week—especially in areas that are more likely to get stains from drips and spills, like the kitchen and bathroom. “Of course, you need to vacuum or sweep the floor before mopping,” explains Leiva.
The only vinegar that works for cleaning floors is distilled white vinegar. The simple kind. It has an acidity of 5 percent which is perfect for cutting through grease, grime, and dirt. It is also cheap enough that you can use tonnes of it in cleaning all your surfaces, and still not break the bank or your budget.
Dilute 1⁄2 cup of Fabuloso® Antibacterial in a gallon of sterile deionized water and apply to surfaces with a mop, cloth or sponge. Apply Fabuloso® Antibacterial directly to surfaces with a mop, cloth or sponge. Leave on surfaces for at least 5 minutes. No rinsing required.
Fabuloso is an all-purpose cleaner known for its fresh scents like lavender, citrus or ocean breeze. Some use it for more than just cleaning their bathroom or kitchen. They boil it on the stove to make their home smell nice and clean.
Fabuloso appears pretty simple to use. The website lists a few suggested uses: To clean floors, mix ¼ cup in a gallon of room temperature water. (Apparently, mixing Fabuloso with water helps it remove stains more effectively.)
Floor Mopping
Mild dish soap is a surprisingly good floor cleaner. All you need is 1 to 2 tablespoons of dish soap mixed in with a bucket of water. Floors will be clean and shiny in no time. Dish soap is very effective on resilient floorings, such as linoleum and vinyl, and also works well on ceramic tile.
Pine-Sol is a gentle cleaner and the best way to clean linoleum floors. Dilute ¼ cup Pine-Sol® to a gallon of water. Wipe those dirty floors down with the solution using a mop or sponge. Be sure not to allow the solution to pool; you should never let linoleum get too wet.
While vinegar is a magical cleaner that you can use on almost any surface, its strong odor can make cleaning a little bit of a challenge. Of course, over time, the smell will dissipate, but you shouldn't have to wait around for the smell to fade.
Less is more with any cleaning product, including vinegar. Use the least amount of vinegar you can get away with to minimize smells. If you use a light hand with the vinegar, the aroma will go away on its own in 30 to 60 minutes, particularly on solid surfaces. If it's on a soft surface, it may take a day or so.
Rinse out your bucket and fill it with hot water; the hotter the better. Tip: If you add a few ounces of white vinegar into the hot water it helps to release any grease or oil from your mop. Then soak your mop in the vinegar solution for a few minutes. After soaking, rinse the mop head until the water runs clear.