Does your home smell like a barn or Don Draper’s ashtray? Is your nose so used to the stench that someone else had to tell you it won’t sell in this condition?

Step away from the Glade plug-in air fresheners, scented candles, and cans of Febreze. It’s time to learn how to deodorize a house by attacking the root of the cause. Masking the problem with nausea-inducing fruity fragrances will only have homebuyers reaching for the Pepto-Bismol.

“You have to get rid of the problem, whether it’s the cats, litter boxes, dogs, or smoking,” says top-selling Cincinnati real estate agent Jon Bowling. “If you’re not willing to do that, I might not take your listing because it’s so difficult to move a home with bad odors.”

For every foul odor, there’s a different remedy, so let’s go through how to get rid of bad smells in your house, including:

• A dirty or messy house
• Walls drenched in cigarette smoke
• Pet odors seeped into carpets and furniture
• Damp, mildewy bathrooms or closed-in spaces

Then, we’ll guide you through the types of smells you should add back into a home that appeal to the widest pool of buyers.