Scenting Airing cupboards

How about fabric softener sheets? I stick them in drawers and they smell like...my laundry! LOL!

That's a good idea Jenny but it wouldn't work for me - I don't think my trusty bottle of Ecover laundry liquid would have the same effect. I should have mentioned that I don't use artificial scents or chemicals around the house if I can avoid it - I'm looking for something natural to do the same thing. I'm sort of hoping that someone will have a favourite 'scenting the airing cupboard' recipe or something... I'm not even sure that such a thing exists but there's no harm in hoping is there?

Chamomile, mints, roses, orris root, eucalyptus, orange rind...whatever you'd like.

Lynn Siprelle, Editor

Mmmm chamomile - I hadn't even thought of things like that, I got too caught up in the idea of typical 'florals'. Is eucalyptus something that you get dried or in some other form? I suppose I could vary the scents according to the time of year. Oh dear, I think I need to get out more!

How about using a couple of drops of essential oil on a bit of cloth and pin it up in your airing cupboard? We had very nice lemongrass sachets from Laura Ashley from Father Christmas last year, you could try there. Or do you have a Cologne and Cotton near you? They have lovely linen things, but I'm not sure how remote your bit of Wales is!

Zillah

Or Becky. What is an airing cupboard?

Jenny - I don't know what you would call them but an airing cupboard is a built in cupboard that contains a hot water tank where you store all the household linens to keep them dry and 'aired' or fresh.

Zillah - the part of Wales where we are is pretty remote or at least we don't have anything like 'specialist' shops or chain stores here. We just have small, mostly family owned shops. Most of our linen is Irish, sent over by my lovely MIL. I have to admit that I haven't even heard of Cologne and Cotton - I lead such a sheltered life!

We don't have those here (or at least I've never seen them, and I've lived in different places through out the states). At least, not with a water tank. I have a linen cabinet that I keep my sheets in. It's built in the wall in the hallway where the kids bedrooms are. But it's just shelves with cabinet doors on the front.

Does the hot water tank take the moisture out of everything?

I just ADORE airing cuboards! Our last house had a lovely big one. You can put slightly damp washing in there and it's dry by the morning. It keeps your linen wonderfully dry. On winter's mornings you can take your towel out of the airing cupboard and it's blissfully warmed. DMIL's house doesn't have one . However, she does have underfloor heating .

Zillah

BTW, Snork Maiden, I forgot to say, if you ever see a Cologne and Cotton shop, you must go in. But you must, must, must leave your money OUTSIDE the shop with DH. It is so dangerous in there

Zillah

...which, I am told, is Where It's At. I have never heard of Cologne and Cotton either, Zillah! What is it and where is it? Just the name sounds lovely

I haven't got an airing cupboard either My hot water heater thing is on the kitchen wall - we have 'constant' hot water. I think the heater you have Snork, would be a tank? The kind that runs out of hot water half way through washing your hair? Happened to me many a time when I lived with my parents! There was a limited amount of hot water in the tank and once it was gone it was a couple of hours before there was hot water again! It was terrible when four people were all trying to get a bath, the whole performance took all day!

I'll vouch for Wales being damp but gorgeous We visited Wales for a week a couple of years ago and even the air is permanently damp, somehow, even when it's not raining. We were quite high up, so I thought that was why (Snowdonia). Lovely place - recommended!

Zillah, when i go to Cologne and Cotton, as I don't have a DH, I will jolly well just just have to take my money in with me...unavoidable

I've just been looking at the website of Cologne and Cotton - you're right Zillah, they sell very beautiful things, but I don't think I'll be affording too much of their stuff in this lifetime. Unless I was walking around with the proceeds of a second mortgage in my purse I don't think I need worry too much about leaving my money with DH.
That is exactly the sort of tank Honey - the great for an airing cupboard, completely inconvenient for creating hot water type. State of the art plumbing - Makes you proud to be British don't it?

Wow, I never thought about that being an issue. But it's so dry here in New Mexico and the desert, I wouldn't have to worry about it! LOL! The humidity most days is about 10-15%!!

I like lavender scents, but usually mixed with other scents like lavender and chamomile, or lavender and rose. If you can't like blends with lavender, I suggest sweet orange and rosemary. It's a very "bright" scent. I'd make a pomander type sachet and put drops of essential oils in it.

Another option is to put highly scented soaps on the shelves around the linens. Bee & Flower soaps are good soaps for that and come in Rose, Sandalwood, Jasmine, and Gingeng.

And there's the perennial classic, cedar. Bags of cedar chips, cedar blocks of wood, etc. Some people don't like it because they used cedar in the bottom of their pet's cages and the scent is forever associated with their hampster, guinea pig, rabbit, or other critter. I personally really like it because my mother stored linens in a big cedar chest and it's what clean sheets smell like to me.

Thanks for explaining what a warming cupboard is, I wondered, too. I LOVED the towel warmers in the bathrooms when we visited Scotland. In the fancier hotels the towel warmers were part of the water heating system, in the smaller inns they were electric, but either way, they were pure luxury. Had never seen one before then. It's the bathrooms that really bring home to you that you're in a completely different country, I think.

Anhata
www.familynaturally.com
Your Family's General Store, Naturally

Damp, cold, leaky, draughty........or is tht just my bathroom?

Oregon and Washington are as damp as Wales in parts, but I have never seen an airing cupboard in either place. However, my aunt in Oregon does have a towel warmer. I think she got it from the Sharper Image catalog or something like that. It gets too hot though, so I wouldn't want one with kids in the house.

Taiwan is also wet, wet, wet-- similar climate to New Orleans (but we lived on a mountain so were on high ground)-- but there are no airing cupboards there either. We ran dehumidifiers and used the collected water on our houseplants.

Speaking of Washington State, Fort Worden's Commanding Officers quarters (near Port Townsend) has a wonderful example of not only an airing cupboard, but an airing room. They have turned it into a museum and it is well-worth the trip to see it...kind of expensive to get there from Wales though!