Your Home's Signature Scent

Good morning, darlings. I've been in a cozy bubble of literature as of late, reading books on housekeeping and hygge and sourdough bread. It is exquisitely lovely to draw the hottest of baths, light a candle and set up my diffuser so that the atmosphere is soft and calm as I slip into stories of others who also cherish being the keepers and mistresses of their homes, or lists of ways to make our holiday celebrations that much more meaningful and cherished.

In reading one of these books I came across a suggestion to give your home a signature scent. A scent that is always layered in everything household related from the diffuser blends we so lovingly tend to the house cleaners we blend and spray about. I latched on to this nugget of wisdom immediately and spent more time than I care to admit on thinking which scent I would like to use as the basis for our home life. The author suggested scents such as lemon, lavender, or vanilla and while those are all scents I adore, I couldn't quite see using any one of them year round.

A signature scent should special to you and to your home. It will be what kindles memories in our children of cozy evenings spent curled up watching movies and holiday dinners bursting with food. It will accompany each season and need to pair well with those seasonal scents as well. It will be the scent we bake to, dance in our kitchens with, draw warms baths surrounded in and inhale as we drift off into dreams so sweet.

It came to me all at once and, my dears, I laughed to myself at how silly I had been to miss it. Once it came to me, it seemed so very obvious. In each and every house I have lived in, the first thing I do is plant a rosemary bush by my front door. You see, rosemary is symbolic of protection, love and healing. It's the first herb I reach for when I bundle together a smudge stick, when I make a big pot of soup, and when I need fresh herbs to top homemade foccacia bread. In the spring I bring in bouquets of her blossoms and in the winter I twine her into tiny wreaths to hang from doorknobs and tie to packages. I dry her stems to add to my drawers and freshen my linens and several go into each and every batch of vegetable stock that simmers weekly upon my stove. I even tuck rosemary into my chicken's nesting boxes to keep their coop smelling sweet and fresh.

How could my home's signature scent be anything else, really?

In choosing your scent, think on the feelings you want to invoke with it. Think about the herbs or spices you reach for most frequently, not just in one season but through them all. How will it blend with your other seasonal scents? For surely it must pair well with cinnamon and cloves in the fall, the fresh scent of pine in winter, lemon and citrus in the spring as we throw ourselves into that beautiful deep clean, and the sweet scents of honeysuckle and jasmine that mark the arrival of a lazy, warm summer.

Once you have this scent in mind and know that truly, this is scent meant for your own unique and beautiful home, now you get to have fun with it! And truly, what is this simple, slow life about but having fun and turning the most mundane into absolute magic? When our routines become ritual, we have crossed over from mere housekeepers to magical mistresses of our homes. We are present and enraptured in the sights and senses of the simple abundance all around us.

Your home's signature scent, much as your own signature scent, should always be present. Stock up on a few bottles of your scents essential oil to make sure it's pure and not a cheap chemical imposter. Everything we add to our homes should bless our lives, and that includes our health and the health of the precious ones we love. We must always choose natural over artificial. 

Armed with your bottles of essential oil, dream up all the places you can include your scent so that permeates every corner and ritual. I have added rosemary to my hair masks and shampoos, into my diffuser blends, into my air freshening sprays, my vinegar cleansers and my baking soda scrubs. Opt for candles that include your scent and beauty products that will blend with it. When you create a floor wash, add a few drops of your signature scent and add it to baking soda and dust your carpets before you vacuum. If you have a vacuum that uses a bag, add a few drops to the bag itself when you change it out. Mix it up with some water and witch hazel and give your garbage cans a spritz each time you change the bag and after every scrub with boiling water. Put a few drops down the drain before you do dishes and add it to your dryer balls so linens and clothes carry the scent with them. Of course your sachets that get tucked into drawers should include this signature scent and it should get sprayed on couches and chairs and curtains to freshen the scent of the room.

There are certainly a thousand different ways to include this new signature scent and I trust there will be some quite unique to you and your own rituals. Please let me know in the comments how you choose to use your scent and indeed which scent you've chosen and why! I love a good story as much as the next lady and I look forward to sharing in yours.

Until next time, darlings.