Home decorator Jennifer Schweikert, of Just My Style By JMS in Burke, Va., has worked with real estate agents and clients to stage or prepare homes for sale.
“People don’t realize that they become accustomed to their home’s odor,” she says. “It smells differently, though, to potential buyers entering the house for the first time.”
Here are her tips to keep your house smelling fresh, including what not to cook:
• Try to avoid cooking fatty, fried foods. The smells linger.
• Ban broccoli and cabbage. Cruciferous vegetables, which include Brussel sprouts and cauliflower, impart strong odors. Schweikert compares them to “really stinky athletic shoes.”
• Bake (or warm up) cookies in the oven an hour before an open house.
• Grind up some lemon quarters in your garbage disposal. It gets rid of any disposal odor and imparts a clean citrus scent.
• Take out the trash every day.
Candy Sagon, Special to The Washington Post
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.