Also, they can be a fire hazard.

How about a reed diffuser? My DH is sensitive to aromas and I can't even wear perfume, but he is actually likes the The Body Shop's reed diffuser in Cranberry Joy. It only comes out during Christmas, so I stock up. We even use it in the hallway of a muti family rental property. he tenants love it, and even remind us when it needs replaceing.

I use a reed diffuser in the powder room ... I get them from Pier 1.

Those plug-ins can melt. Ask me how I know. Ever since I've used reed diffusers. Current fave is Thymes Gingerbread.

Gingerbread

I know you're not asking for this opinion, but I thought I'd throw it out there anyways.

Please forget the air fresheners...they don't really freshen, the truth is, they pollute rooms with their very strong overly perfumed "oders". They have the potential to set off allergies with the slightest wiff and usually do. Compare it to the guy you pass in a hall wearing too much of a cologne you despise. It wacks you in the nose and takes hours to wear out leaving you with a pained headache instead. If you have any animals, they suffer the same as someone with allergies, the scents are too strong and just plain ugly. I'm not saying they are ALL like that, but a good majority are and they cause undo pain onto those who are forced to smell them.

Sorry...but I wish companies like Glade and Airwick would just go out of business!

Yipes I've never heard that plug in scents were bad for you. I did find in Snopes that the fire hazard claim was false.

@tibbrix, can you point me toward some date in this respect.

Reeds are nice but I've not found any that last any time. I like the Yankee Candle plug ins and try to buy them on sale as pricey.

When someone in the hallway passes me with a strong cologne smell, I think Nice! Or yucky, if it's a cologne I don't like.

Everyone is different..but scientific health data does interest me.

Lukk, it's true that some are very offensive. Others not so much. I've dealt with asthma, so I'm aware when a scent is over the top.

Vossner, that's been my experience too, but I've been happy with the ones from Thymes. You do have to flip the reeds once a week and replace them after 6 weeks.

This is the NRDC's website on air freshners.

Bowls of dried sage (not the cooking kind) hold their scent for a long time if you don't care for the lavender sachets someone suggested.

A couple times I've gotten a headache after only 10 minutes of being in someone's house because they have air fresheners in every room, even the kitchen. (in at one of those cases they were obviously trying to cover up a musty carpet and it didn't even work. The place reeked like a Yankee candle store and I could still smell the carpet.)

Kashka-kat,

I suffer from extreme migraines. Scents are the number one trigger. A few months ago, a new employee started at my job and he literally wore the whole Perfume counter from Saks to work. My migraine from one hour in the office lasted 5days. I stayed in a dark room for 5days. Not the worst migraine that I have had but it distrupts my life severely.

Perfumes have changed over the last ten years. I have had migraines since I was 5yrs old so I know what my triggers are but in the last ten years, scents have gotten stronger and harder to escape. I order every product on line because you can never find the unscented versions in the store. Not going to Target is actually a good thing! I shop at on Organic Market so I don't have to go down the detergent aisle at the grocery store (gain and bounce are not my friends).

As much as friends and family see me suffer with migraines, they don't understand that these heated air freshners and Febreze as also contributors. I work mainly from home in the winter for one reason - Purell!!! That is my kryptonite. Everyone uses it recklessly at the office during the winter and it is an instant migraine.

As an adult, I am extremely bothered by these scents but I can't imagine being a baby in a house with these chemicals in place on a daily basis. I don't have pets and had never thought of it from their perspective but I can see how this would affect dogs in particular too.

Sorry to take the thread off course but I wanted to add my piece that this is not a trivial or preference issue for many of us. It is really a health and lifestyle concern.

I use reeds in my home. I tend to like grapefruit or limes scents. I get a brand from the Organic market and it lasts for about 2months at a time. I also use fresh flowers from my garden to scent the house throughout the year. I have house plants and an air filter that keep the house smelling fresh.

Good luck!

I'll add that I currently am unable to breathe around the ubiquitous scent that is in laundry detergents and fabric softeners. I smell it EVERYWHERE, including my back yard (1/2 acre) when my neighbors do their laundry. I can't walk down the laundry isle in any grocery store. Costco is the worst and they don't offer much in unscented anything. I think so many people shopping there has made the scent so common. Ugh.

I love the smell of my house, with nothing added. Luckily the people I socialize with are not the types who would buy scents for their homes. I do keep a vanilla spray for use by guests, as needed, in the guest bathroom; most vanilla scents, if not too strong are not choking hazards for me.

I love Gain wax melts and use the scent diffusers in my closets and bathrooms. I usually keep the same scent throughout my home. I do use unscented detergents funny enough. I don't like the plug in kind for the energy usage. I use the Yankee candle tart warmer and generic tea lights.

homepro, I'd be interested to know if you have ever been around Scentsy brand scented wax and if so, did it bother you? The reason I'm asking is I'm a HUGE fan of Scensty fragrance wax (warmed in a ceramic warmer with a light blub). I've read countless accounts of people, that have sensitivities to fragrances, that it's the only thing that doesn't bother them. I don't know any of these people personally tho and I don't know anyone personally (that comes to my home) that has fragrance sensitivities.

Thanks

Monicakm-gw,

i have never tried scentsy. Do you know what the list of ingredients are? I am not sure what the wax warmers behave like.

vossner, I dont understand what you're asking me, re: pointing you toward dates???

I use the Elizabeth W Vetiver reed diffuser. I dislike fruity or floraly smells. The vetiver has a spicy aroma. The reed diffusers are more subtle, I think, than plug-ins, etc. You can control the amount of scent by adding or subtracting reeds.

If you are a DIY kind of person, a food blog I subscribe to has a"how to" for making your own reed diffusers. If you don't want to use skewers, you can purchase the reeds on Amazon.

FWIW, I had an acquaintance who moved out of town before her house sold. Periodically, I would go through her house for her just to make sure all was ok. She had a different flavor plug-in in every room, even the pantry. I sometimes wondered if all of the conflicting scents contributed to how long it took to sell her house (nearly a year). I found it most unpleasant and overwhelming.

If I was looking to buy a house and it had plug-ins anywhere, I'd wonder what they were trying to hide, and it would be a huge turnoff and, unless I absolutely loved the house and was willing to get to the bottom of what they're trying to hide, it would be a sale killer.

Well of course, some place won't smell if it's clean, so the first solution is to keep it clean. If odors and chemicals from cleaning products bother you, then use green cleaners or make your own.

It is very true that your own nose will stop smelling the scent after awhile. I had a vanilla reed diffuser in the PR and I didn't smell it any more, but my GFs came over and wanted to know what I was cooking as they said it smelled like I was baking something.

While we were away, we had the house locked up and the a/c on for over a week. When I came home, the smell from the reed diffuser had permeated much of the house and was very strong...not only because the house was closed, but because I hadn't been home and it gave my nose a chance to "reset". I now don't smell it as strongly...but then again, the windows are open too.

When we were selling our old home, the house was empty and closed up. While cleaning out, I did find a plug in scent thing ... a holiday one with cinnamon scent... so I used it and I did notice a nice cinnamon fragrance which was welcoming when we went in. I don't think I'd like it for always, but it may have worked for us as we were under contract in 2 weeks after receiving 4 bids, and this was during the real estate crash.

I would have thought the same thing, tib. However, in this case, there was nothing to hide. The homeowner, who I've known since she was born, is an meticulous housekeeper. I think she was more concerned about the stale smell of a closed up house. Whatever, it was, it was certainly off-putting. Although I've known her all her life, we are not close enough for me to tell her to un-plug some of those gizmos (although I consider doing it myself).

I'm not a huge scent person... i only occasionally wear perfume and use unscented laundry detergent/no fabric softener for at least half my loads . I do sometimes burn scented candles and I have a lovely reed diffuser which I have in a hallway.... i like a nightlight in our master bathroom and interchange an airwick nightlight with a regular one in the wc depending on the season and whether i have refills...I tend to buy the vanilla or lavender scents and neither of those bother me or my husb. I am so happy tho that I don't have asthma or suffer many migraines (I have had a few, but mine are light or stress triggered)

one chemical odor that I am so happy to not smell too often anymore is mothballs!! that was a real overpowering smell and it seemed that many of my friends mothers or grandmothers all used to use mothballs when I was growing up! ugh! I think even at least one of my own grandmothers used to have them in her sweaters! :(

bbstx, I'm just saying as a potential buyer who doesn't know her. The perception would be very negative for me.

monicakm_gw, I have quite a few Scentsy waxes. Our daughter bought me a table and plug in wax burners about five or so years ago. I had to very carefully take short sniffs of the scents before we knew which I could tolerate. Luckily she knows me well enough to know she couldn't guess which would work for me. I'd say it was a little more than half that I couldn't tolerate. I'm sure it's different from person to person. The best thing to do if you are worried about a friend/family member with sensitivities leave them turned off at least a day before they come.
Some scents are like a very hard slug in the face to me.

Tibbrix, I totally agree. Had I been a buyer, I would have been looking to see what was being covered up.

Yes, and even when the problem is found and corrected the plug-in smell still lingers and puts people off. A neighbor had their townhouse listed for two years without a single bid because the combined mold + we-never-met-an-air-freshener-we-didn't-love never let any potential buyer stay in there long enough to get interested.

Even after they found the source of the mold problem and remediated it, the air freshener odor put everyone off and they wound up renting it instead. The renter threw out all the fresheners, but even with new paint and carpet there's an overpowering air freshener stench even after she's lived there for a whole month. She's taken to lots of recipes with lots of garlic and long cooking times, but those smells dissipate and the air freshener smell comes back.

@tibbrix. Darned auto spell. I meant DATA. Anyway, I got alarmed as I am a huge fan of scented plugins, specifically Yankee Candles. I went googling and there was data all over the map, making my head spin. So I called YC and asked if they use phthalates in their plugins and the rep said NO. I will continue using that product. I have been known to spray febreeze in the doggie beds and it works well but I do notice my elder dog sneezing, so I may look up an alternative or wash bed more often. The NRDC link someone provided above said Febreeze Noticeable scent oil contained moderate phthalates. Is that their plugin? So it seems that if you look for non phthalate stuff you are a bit safer. I tried Scentsies and don't like those. Not a big candle user b/c I almost started a fire in the house. in the most innocent of ways. Without noticing, the candle was placed on a table which happened to be under a a/c ceiling register. The a/c cycled on, and apparently the gust of air caused the votive candle to falll on its side. luckily I was nearby to pick up the fallen candle and change its location. But I could have been outside or gone and t it could have happened, in the silliest of ways.

Vossner, if you like the scent of candles use a candle warmer. You'll get much more life out of a candle and not have to worry about an open flame.

candle warmers

Well, I am so glad to see so many that agree that air fresheners can be a disaster for someone who is sensitive to them. My apologies to the OP though, I'm sure this was not the feed back that was needed.

Homepro, I feel your pain, I have always been more susceptible to migraines too. Especially up until a few years ago when I stopped working in a single office environment. OMG, I was constantly in pain from migraines caused by scents and none of my co-workers could understand why it bothered me so. I worked with migraine pain the majority of the time and can remember going home many evenings in tears. Migraines are a hard thing for someone to undertstand if they haven't experienced one themselves. I'm fortunate that my DH has always been very supportive.

Now, the only air freshener or perfumes of any kind that we use in our house is lysol spray and even then it's only used when it's needed. Everything else is non-scented. Second hand smoke is another trigger. We have to shut our windows every time the neighbor decides to smoke and he's about 1/4 acre away from us!

Oh Vossner, please don't use perfumed smellie stuff around your dogs. Just because an animal doesn't sneeze from a smell, doesn't mean it's not bothersome for them. Their noses are so sensitive...

This thread has been VERY enlightening. I am an air freshener freak who has just about every kind from reef diffusers to motion detector sprays. I hope I haven't caused pain for my guests or my pets.

I recall reading that when Febreze was first introduced in the US it was a dud because it neutralized odors but didn't smell like anything. People didn't believe it was doing anything without it adding a scent. So they added scent. Only recently have I seen the original unscented version for sale.

mustangs81, since you are a scent freak, you might really want to look into Scentsy. Over 80 fragrances and warmers to go with any decor (and nearly any sports team). LOVE my Scentsy warmers and fragrances! They say each cube (8 to a pack) lasts 8-10 hours. All of mine last longer. Some lasts a couple of days. If you've bought the cheap knock offs at WM, please don't judge Scentsy by that. Night and day difference in quality materials and ingredients. The stuff from WM makes me sick and gives me headaches and I'm NOT a fragrance sensitive person. You can find a consultant in your area by going to the Scentsy website. And no, I'm not a consultant :)

Not plug in, but battery operated. Our entire department agrees it is essential supply in the lavatory at work. Prior to this, some people would bring cans of cheap spray air freshener and some would spray what seemed like 1/2 can and the scent would drift long distances.

http://www.glade.com/en/products/sprays/automatic-spray

Another non plug-in, but it seems to work a long time:

http://www.glade.com/en/products/oils-and-gels/decor-scents-glass-holder

Thanks Monicakm. I have a friend who is a Scentsy rep; I haven't used them for a while as she is/was very aggressive.

I have used Lampe Berger with La Tee Da oils for years and like it.

@mustang, I use LB but have troubles with wick when using LaTeeDa or Josephine or some other non LB oils. I use them at Christmas, it is a ritual. Love my LBs.

Wondering if Lysol would be a good product to use on petbeds . The thing that is tricky about pets is that one gets used to the smell and doesn't realize how strong/offensive it might be to visitors. It has happened to me with a friend that is a cat lover. Her house reeks of kitty litter and she seems completely unaware. Once she told me her kids complained about it and when she asked me I had to say "yes". She was mortified.

Does Lysol still stink like it used to? That's the last thing I'd want to use on pet beds or anything else.

This is cute...I have a motion sensor air freshener in the guest bath. I keep it in the corner of the tub so it sprays into the tub instead of on the floor or counter. My 6 year old came out of the bathroom looking concerned. She said Grammy every time I go potty, someone hisses at me.

SIL had one of the those motion activated things, but it made a small shutter noise. I asked why she was taking pictures of people in the potty.

I'm glad someone brought this up again as I could not find it earlier today after seeing this recommendation over on Hometalk.
http://www.freshwaveworks.com/store/pc/Why-Fresh-Wave-d1.htm

The Fresh Wave stuff is great!

Did anyone suggest baking soda? It's a good odor neutralizer :-) I'm interested in trying the homemade reed diffusers, thanks for that link!

I'll have to ck out fresh wave. you guys are always full of good info, thanks

Vossner, our dog loves her bed and I understand the issue with dog smell. What we started doing was putting an old beach towel down over the cushion for her to actually lay on, sort of like us with sheets. I can wash it as often as I want and it seems to keep the smell at bay. As you can see, she doesn't seem to mind. Ha!

she doesn't mind at all!

No, she loves it actually. So maybe it's an alternative for you instead of the sprays?

Try these dollar store moisture eliminators. dollar store moisture eliminator

They work by absorbing moisture into their calcium cloride crystals. They last a long time and when they are filled with water you just toss. It is much healthier than covering a smell with another smell.

I love fragrance, but I do understand there can be too much of a good thing.

I use the wax melters. I've tried tarts/melts you buy at the store, ones sold online from large companies, and ones sold by independent vendors. I've been given Scentsy, but refuse to buy it. Sorry, I'm not supporting any businesses set up that way. With all brands or vendors, I've found ones that worked and ones that didn't.

At work, we take turns in our suite burning. We all have our own offices, and never use one in reception, so the fragrance stays concentrated in one location mostly, with just a hint in the hallway. We get lots of compliments.

At home, I have a few burners, but only have one always in use. It's on a timer. It comes on about an hour before I get up and stays on around 2 hours. In the afternoon, it comes on about an hour before we get home and runs around 2 hours as well. This way I wake up to a nice fragrance and come home to one. At the same time, the pets get a break, I don't go nose blind, and I can get several uses out of one melt.

The Air Wick Plug in Scented Oil Starter Kit is one of the most long-lasting plug-in air fresheners on the market, with the included cartridges lasting for a total of 360 days.

Well this was an interesting re-read. I particularly enjoyed seeing the poster names on here. Many are still posting with the same names, and many regulars who I realized I haven't noticed in a long time. A veritable who's who.

I was curious to see what I had posted, and I would agree still that airwick and febreeze plug ins are what I prefer. I think I actually prefer the airwick to the febreze but I do use them sparingly.

Wow, blast from the past. I stopped using the wax melts years ago. I now use a scent machine at home and at work. My one at work is considered a travel one and is battery/USB powered. It has a home/office/car mode. My one at the house is larger and you program when it runs and at what strength. A lot of the scents are from resorts. I use ones from Aroma Retail, but there are several vendors out there. If I had full central heat and air in my house, I would use their larger machine that hooks into it.

IMO, the best smelling air is fresh, unpolluted, unadulterated air. Theres that fresh cold smell of snow, the earthier smell in spring of thawing earth and new green things, the smells of summer rain, phlox in bloom, mowed grass, the dusty smell of leaves in the fall. Those can never be captured with artificial chemicals or put into a machine!

I dunno, I would just suggest researching these products before deciding to breathe them 24/7. FYI due to a loophole in the law originally designed to protect perfume manufacturers in the 1800s, todays manufactures of all types of chemical fragrances are not required to disclose their ingredients or test them, and may not be a reliable source of info. Independent researchers however have tested some of these and found many toxic igredients, including some that are on the EPA list of carcinogens unsafe at any level. Buyer beware....