How to prevent household odours

No home is impervious to some of the less desirable aromas that emanate from kitchens, bathrooms, bedrooms and hallway closets. Impress your guests with an odour-free home.

The kitchen and bathroom are the main offenders in the war against odours. But don't forget that you can easily carry odours, including tobacco and a variety of pollutions, into your home from outside. Proper ventilation is your primary weapon against kitchen odours. But you can deal with stubborn smells with a few simple tricks that would have been familiar to your grandmother. In fact, most of them can be curbed during the cooking process.

• Mask odours by boiling water and a little cinnamon in a small pot while cooking.
• Stretch a dishcloth moistened with vinegar over the pot in which you're cooking fish and other strong-smelling foods.
• Cooking cabbage? Drop a bread crust into the cooking pot to absorb odours. For cauliflower, try half a lemon.
• Sprinkle boiled-over milk with salt to keep it from boiling over again.
• After cooking, combat food odours by briefly moistening the heating elements with a little vinegar, or boiling some vinegar in water. You might also try wrapping a few cloves and a cinnamon stick in aluminum foil and placing the package directly on the hot heating elements.

• Burn matches or light a candle to help curb musty smells in the bathroom. A potpourri of fragrant herbs and spices, such as cinnamon, rosemary, thyme, cloves or lavender also does an excellent job covering up nasty odours.
• Add a dash of toilet cleanser or vinegar and water to the bottom of the brush holder to keep the toilet brush from getting smelly. Hang towels and washcloths to dry and change them frequently so they don't smell musty.