Home Showing Mistakes: Item Three, Bad Smells

I read an article in REALTOR Mag last month about the top 10 "worst home-showing offenses" - in other words, major mistakes people make when showing their homes. I'd like to share them with you, along with tips for avoiding them.

The third mistake is bad smells in the home. They could be from pets, or from something you use often when cooking, like garlic, or cigarette smoke. You may not notice the smell since you're around it all the time. Consider asking a friend or relative to come have a sniff and alert you to any strong odors.

Simmer pot picture from Yahoo! Shine

What can you do about them? REALTOR magazine suggests painting walls and cleaning your carpet to deal with long-term, established smells. You may even need to replace the carpet to deal with pet odors or cigarette smoke. Furniture can also harbor odors, so consider moving upholstered furniture that's particularly smelly out of the way, even to a storage unit. And don't forget the power of opening windows and getting some air circulation working for you, weather permitting.

Using scents and air fresheners to cover up bad smells rarely works, but once you've dealt with the source of the smell by cleaning carpets, moving furniture, and circulating air, you can add pleasant odors to the air. You can do this by baking bread or making applesauce, or you can use a simmer pot intended just to create a nice scent. Here are five suggestions for simmer pot combinations from Yahoo! Shine: http://shine.yahoo.com/haven/5-awesomely-autumnal-simmer-pot-recipes-to-get-you-in-the-mood-for-fall-2402046.html