Ask the Strategist: Where Can I Find a (Budget-Friendly) Closet Fragrance?

Because most scents can be “overwhelming,” Cornetta recommends “a subtle scent like lavender,” which will keep yourcloset and drawerssmelling fresh without overpowering your senses. These lavender-scented sachets will last up to four months each and come in packs of three, so you can add them to more than one place for about $2 a piece. The biggest downside is that they don’t have a loop to hang them up, like the ones from Diptyque do, so these are really best for sticking in between drawers or resting on shelves, rather than hanging in closets.

We’ve written about Mrs. Meyer’s products many times on the Strategist before. Its lavender scent actually is ourbest-rated drugstore candle, and itsbasilandlemon-verbenaproducts come recommended to us by experts thanks to their gentle and ecofriendly ingredients, as well as pleasant scents. So we suspect these scent sachets, which come in different scents — likegeranium,honeysuckle,lemon verbena, and evenbasil, in case you’re not into lavender — will smell just as good. Each $4 sachet will last up to 60 days before the scent wears thin.

These lavender-stuffed sachets are a bit pricier than the ones from Fresh Scents or Mrs. Meyer’s, but they’re still less expensive than the one from Diptyque, and they should last for two years, so in the end, you might actually save some money. They also are easy to hang in a closet, like the ones from Diptyque. Before you hang them, massage the sachet to get the lavender oil infused into the linen; that’s what makes them good to go for years to come.

And if you really dislike lavender, we can offer you these mint-scented pouches, also recommended by Cornetta. They supposedly neutralize odor and will work for 45 days.

For those who are also afraid of their clothes being ruined by moths, and hate the smell of traditional mothballs, Cornetta recommends these cedar blocks. These are lavender-scented, so you’ll get that “subtle scent” you want. And once you notice the lavender scent fading, just sand it down and the scent will return. These don’t have a hook, so you have to place these on a shelf or in a drawer.

These are very similar to the Container Store ones above — recommended by our expert, lavender-scented, odor neutralizer — but they’re thinner, so if space is an issue, these might work a little better for you.

And if you’d rather hang them up, here are some lavender-scented cedar block rings that go directly on your hangers. They’re even light enough to toss into a bag when you’re traveling or moving things into storage.

If you’re not sure whether you want lavender-scented cedar blocks in your drawers or your closet, you might be better off with these blocks from Home Depot, with screw-in hooks that are easy to remove or add back in.

These don’t actually have a fragrance to them, but hear us out: For those most concerned about keeping their shoes smelling fresh, these Jason Markk shoe inserts are a “newer option on the market,” according to Cornetta, and will neutralize any odors, keeping your shoes smelling fresher for longer. They eliminate allergens, bacteria, pollutants, and more from your beloved shoes. And while the brand doesn’t give an exact amount of days you’ll get out of these inserts, they can be “recharged 12 times.” Once the insert seems to stop working — meaning your shoes still smell — you place these in the sun for one hour, and they’ll be ready to go again.

And just in case, at the end of the day, you decide you really just want to splurge on the fancy closet fragrance from Diptyque, here it is.