Kelly's Healthy Home

As a full time Realtor, I’ve walked through a lot of homes. And I know first hand that smell is an essential aspect to help a prospective buyers feel at home. People often think pet smells will turn off buyer, which is absolutely true. But so will scents from air fresheners and candles!  Not only are these scents often overwhelming, but they can be very harmful.  This week I’m honored to have my friend and non toxic expert, Sharon Mahan offer some information about fragrances and tips to keep your home smelling fresh- safely and naturally!

Ditch the Air Fresheners

In staging your home for sale, you might be thinking about doing something to make sure it smells nice for showings.  If using an air freshener has crossed your mind, you might want to think twice and opt for something more natural instead.

While fragrances have been used to mask unpleasant odors since the dawn of time, it wasn’t until the middle of the 20^th century that modern air fresheners were born. The spray technology came from the military, where it was used to dispense insecticides. This technology was adapted into a pressurized aerosol spray using propellant chemicals to disperse a fine mist into the air. In the 1980s, concern about ozone destruction prompted yet another shift to delivery methods that would be less harmful to the Earth’s protective atmospheric layers. While aerosol sprays continue to exist, there are now many delivery methods to choose from, including heat released air fresheners, solid gel products, wax melts, and the ever-popular scented candles.

These products do a great job on their intended task of masking odor, but unfortunately come with great risk. Most notably, manufacturers are not required to disclose ingredients in their products’ fragrance component because it’s considered a trade secret.  However, an analysis of the chemical composition of “fragrance” in air fresheners and candles revealed that products often contain ingredients linked to negative health effects. (source)

A prime example is a category of chemicals called phthalates (pronounced ‘thal-ates’), which are used to make fragrances linger longer.  If you’ve ever pulled a clothing out of a drawer that’s been closed for a length of time and noticed that the items still smell of your scented fabric softener, it’s phthalates that have made this possible.

Phthalates are known endocrine disruptors, which means they mimic hormones in the body. These chemicals are linked to infertility, miscarriage, and cancer. Phthalates are further known to accumulate in human tissue, and have even been found in breast milk! While banned from personal care products in the European Union, use of phthalates remains prevalent here in U.S. (source) (source)

Even if a label boasts ‘Phthalate Free’, there’s no telling what else the fragrance component contains. There could be known carcinogens, or allergenic substances likely to trigger asthma attacks and even anaphylaxis. (Source)  Many people find synthetic fragrances to be problematic, leading to symptoms such as headaches and irritability.

Of course you want your home to smell nice, regardless of whether it’s currently for sale or not. There are many safe options that are much less likely to turn off potential buyers. And knowing that it can take months for the smell to dissipate, you might want to stop using these harmful products sooner rather than later, as sometimes the need to sell your home arises with little notice.

A wonderful alternative to conventional air fresheners is to use natural and organic essential oils, which you can disperse into the air using an inexpensive diffuser like this one, which seems to be eternally on sale at Amazon.  Lemon essential oil is a great choice to cleanse the air, and it might even uplift your mood. Now that’s a side effect we can all live with! If convenience is important to you, see out ready to use non-aerosol sprays powered by essential oils, requiring nothing more than a few spritzes before your open house.  Monster spray in the Pure Haven Essentials kids line is also a nice option, using lavender for it’s soothing properties that will scare the powder room and children’s bedroom monsters away!

The scent of good old fashioned chocolate chip cookies create a wonderful warmth in your home as well!

If you’ve been an avid user of conventional air fresheners, it might take some time for your sense of smell to notice the finer nuances of natural scents.  But I assure you, it’s worth it … for your sake, for your buyer’s sake, and for the planet.

Sharon Mahan is a non toxic educator who has been passionately working to create a safer world for our children and our children’s children. You can follow her on Facebook at Non Toxic News from Sharon, or join her Facebook group for ongoing discussion about non toxic living. Have a question? Reach Sharon by email at sharon@nontoxicnews.com