Pipe or cigar? Clove cigarettes?
How do I make my dorm room smell nice?
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Reduce the number of times per week you eat at Taco Bell.
I remember moving my son to the dorms in his freshman year. The dorms were old and his room had a stale smell. I mopped the floor with pinesol and bought those plug in air fresheners. Nothing really helped other than keeping the window open. The smell never went away. Luckily the next school year he moved to new dorms.
Thoroughly cleaning top to bottom, inside and out, making sure all trash is removed at least once a day if not twice, never leaving food around, and keeping your windows open and door when at all possible.
That will give you the cleanest base you can start with.
Then, if you wish to fragrance your room, you can use air fresheners of various sorts. Oddly enough, some of the very very best and most mild are in fact JAPANESE incense.
Try the Morning Star line of joss. Smell the box and if you like it try it. Cedarwood is perhaps their strongest and most cleansing. Amber and Sandalwood are great as well.
If they only had Febreze when I was in school. Don't forget the spray, it helps.
We use the spray in the locker room at the HS and at home.
+1
Although its difficult to bring too may women into one's room, I would make a point of not over-doing it with other things. Kind of like EdT or cologne, its easy to make a scent too strong. I've found that keeping clean and leaving the windows open works well, with an occasionally spritz of febreeze when needed.
As a university housing administrator (any guesses at which school?), let me warn you against the use of open flames in residence hall settings. This typically includes candles, incense, and things like the lamp shown in the video above. Seriously, they're safety policy violations in pretty much every residence hall in America, at least.
Those policies may also include "warming plate" type devices, such as those by Scentsy (this is often covered in the same policy that says you can't have hotplates, irons, or coffee pots with warming plates).
You've already gotten all the best possible advice in this thread otherwise - clean, open a window, change your sheets, wash/dry your laundry & towels, and get a plug in air freshener and/or Ionizer. Because of the mass of humanity often concentrated in that space, it can be very difficult to control odors.
Talk with the building housekeeping or administrative staff about them shampooing the carpet (if you have any) or cleaning out the drains/traps in bathroom areas. You'd be surprised what kinds of nasties can live in the carpet of a dorm room. That having been said, I've never seen a microbe or spore test count where the interior counts exceeded the exterior ones, and it rarely smells bad outside, so some basic logic must state that allowing as much airflow as possible is probably a good thing. Open a window, get a fan, keep your door open, and create a draft. You might even make some friends.
Also, consider plants. They have the added benefit of helping regulate humidity and providing oxygen (which will help you study, right?).
Those policies may also include "warming plate" type devices, such as those by Scentsy (this is often covered in the same policy that says you can't have hotplates, irons, or coffee pots with warming plates).
You've already gotten all the best possible advice in this thread otherwise - clean, open a window, change your sheets, wash/dry your laundry & towels, and get a plug in air freshener and/or Ionizer. Because of the mass of humanity often concentrated in that space, it can be very difficult to control odors.
Talk with the building housekeeping or administrative staff about them shampooing the carpet (if you have any) or cleaning out the drains/traps in bathroom areas. You'd be surprised what kinds of nasties can live in the carpet of a dorm room. That having been said, I've never seen a microbe or spore test count where the interior counts exceeded the exterior ones, and it rarely smells bad outside, so some basic logic must state that allowing as much airflow as possible is probably a good thing. Open a window, get a fan, keep your door open, and create a draft. You might even make some friends.
Also, consider plants. They have the added benefit of helping regulate humidity and providing oxygen (which will help you study, right?).
All good advice. I was a resident head--sort of like the adult on duty--in a dorm at an urban college for several years. No open flames--rooms are just too crowded for that. Incense isn't a good option either. In such an enclosed space it makes it smell like you've held a funeral in your room.
If you need something, my advice is one of those refillable plug-in air fresheners that go in a wall socket. You can get some subtle fragrances (avoid anything with the word "Tropic" in it) and some of them have little regulators to allow you to adjust the output. When I went from room to room in the dorm, the ones that had something like this definitely smelled better. Even the clean ones take on a weird funk in the dead of winter.
Fortunately for me, my dorm room doesn't even have carpet!
Matt - remind me to wear shoes if I'm ever in your dorm room.
My mother gave me a Woodwick Candle for xmas. I opened the top and stuck it on a night stand, the scent lingers in the room. But not an over the top smell. Best of all I dont even have to light it.
Avoid the plug-ins as they smell horrible. A friend of mine, loves them but everytime I walk into his house and all i can smell is urinal cakes.
Avoid the plug-ins as they smell horrible. A friend of mine, loves them but everytime I walk into his house and all i can smell is urinal cakes.
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I used to keep a few plants and the window and door open. Along with the beer flowing, which was always a good aroma. haha.
I doubt you can burn candles without setting off the smoke detector (at least I can't in the barracks, I'm told) so I got a candle warmer and use the Yankee Candles in it. It works great and it works when I want it to so I don't always have it heavily scented when I don't want it. Now if I could only find a reasonably priced Blenheim Bouquet candle (if they even make them).
i have seen recipes for home made Febreze: water, baking soda and fabric softener 
Get rid of that Shetland Pony you hide in the closet.
Or get a Yankee Candle in one of their many satisfying scents. Maybe something neutral like vanilla or sugar cookie. Something that's not too "in your face" as quite a few YCs can be a bit too much for a small space.
I used to live about a mile away from the Yankee Candle HQ in S. Deerfield, MA. I'd go out to walk the dog and it would smell like someone was burning a YC in the yard. Kind of strange.
Or get a Yankee Candle in one of their many satisfying scents. Maybe something neutral like vanilla or sugar cookie. Something that's not too "in your face" as quite a few YCs can be a bit too much for a small space.
I used to live about a mile away from the Yankee Candle HQ in S. Deerfield, MA. I'd go out to walk the dog and it would smell like someone was burning a YC in the yard. Kind of strange.
When my son was in college the only thing that worked was finally getting his roommate to wash his feet!
+1
Get a goat. Besides being a great study buddy they will give you milk, help you keep the place clean, and provide a great conversation starter. Incidentally, I've found that no woman can resist goat cheese. Scientific fact.
Plus, it sounds entirely more plausible when you tell a professor that your goat ate your term paper. I mean, who would ever believe a Shetland eating a term paper?
