Tis the season for friends and family to descend upon your home and enjoy some meaningful time together. But it’s also a time where there’s a lot going on. From cooking smells to a fast buildup of trash and scraps, it's easy for your home to stop smelling so fresh this time of year, especially as we rarely break open a window when it's cold out. Luckily, I’ve found a quick hack that will not only impress your guests with a lovely scent when they come to stay, but it’s also a super cheap fix.
While we’ve previously recommended avoiding dryer sheets in our top clothes dryer tips, when it comes to fragrancing your home, there’s a whole new reason to use them. Over on TikTok, I came across this simple solution for keeping your home freshly scented and here it is:
@anna_louisa_at_home ♬ original sound - riri :)
User @anna_louise_at_home shares cleaning hacks on a regular basis to her one million followers on TikTok and this one has over three million views alone. While revealing 3 ways to make your bedroom smell amazing, Anna begins by simply saying that you can place a single dryer sheet into a pillowcase on your bed to create a lovely scent in your bedroom.
As dryer sheets aren’t intended for this use, you will want to be careful especially if you have sensitive skin, allergies, or are prone to migraines as it could affect you in a negative way. Instead of your bed, I’d recommend using the dryer sheets inside the decorative cushions on your sofa in the sitting room as an alternative.
Then, the smell is going to dissipate more evenly around your home, you won’t have to lie your head directly where the dryer sheet has been, and they’ll also smell amazing. One of the best things about this hack is that it works instantly, and will release a fresh fragrance every time someone sits down on the couch.
5 other ways to use dryer sheets to make your home smell nice for less
1. Wipe on baseboards
When scrolling through TikTok, we found another hack that uses a dryer sheet and it works well here. By simply adding a single dryer sheet to the end of your vacuum hose, secured with a hairband, you can clean up the dust and grime a lot easier. Plus, if you’re using a fragranced sheet, it'll also leave behind a lovely smell.
2. Place at the bottom of trash cans
While the TikTok cotton ball trash can hack is an inexpensive fix for the bad odor that comes from your garbage, you can place a scented dryer sheet into the bottom of your trash can to tackle the smell, too. Make sure you place a fresh one at the bottom before you add in a liner - and not inside the liner - as the garbage will quickly eliminate the fresh smell.
3. Deodorize shoes
Learning how to clean and protect your shoes is a deodorizing mission in itself. But, for starters, if you’ve noticed your shoes are leaving a bad smell in your home, you can place a fragranced dryer sheet into each of the shoes to eliminate the odor. For smaller feet, you can be even more frugal and cut the dryer sheet in half to work across the pair. You can use a fresh sheet for this, or use one after it's come out of the dryer.
4. Reduce pet smells
While we've got 7 tips for staying on top of pet hair, there should be 8 and here's why. Dryer sheets are great at attracting pet hair and additionally eliminating any smell left behind. Simply rub the dryer sheet on a furniture surface or anywhere your pet likes to sit and it’ll remove the pet hair and leave a pleasant fragrance in its wake. Beware though, the chemicals in dryer sheets can be harmful to your pets given how concentrated they are. If you’re using dryer sheets near pets, make sure they don’t get near them. Chewing or ingesting a sheet, even a used one, can be incredibly dangerous for their health.
5. Freshen up drawers
Similarly to how you can use the dryer sheet in a pillowcase or cushion cover, you could also use the dryer sheet in the bottom of a drawer at home. Again though, if you suffer from allergies or have sensitivities, you shouldn’t use the dryer sheet near your clothes in its fresh state given how many chemicals are used in them.
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