Heather,
I hear so much on this forum about the benefit of smudging that I choose to believe it can make the difference. However I’m going to add one word of caution as well based upon the one (singular) experience I had with trying to cleanse my condo mostly on my own 20 years ago.
Very long and boring story made short, I bought a condo in 1999. Didn’t know anything about any prior owners but the condo was only six years old so I suspected it didn’t have much history. Still I had odd occurrences and felt uneasy enough in there to be suspicious. So I searched out paranormal advice online and stumbled upon TAPS (the group made famous by the Ghost Hunters TV series but before they were well known). They gave me a prayer to chant - I don’t recall which one nor any of the words now - and told me to place three pennies on each window sill and doorway threshold after saying the prayer aloud in each room. I guess the plan was to clean then seal each room.
I was very ignorant. But I followed their instructions. Not necessarily the best course of action based upon just how ignorant I was. I followed the instructions I was given but I knew nothing about manipulating energy nor about the powerful influences of my own intents. And in doing so, I believe that whatever happened to be in the condo then became accidentally trapped in my bedroom by my actions. The occurrences there increased. Ultimately a small band of Wiccans volunteered to come in and do a slower, deeper smudging for me to make things right.
So my warning is that I suspect there might have been more to the process - to do it well or do it right - than I was aware of. I’d urge you to review the PNF Crew’s inputs carefully and ask questions of us to be certain you are comfortable before attempting the smudging. Unfortunately I’ve never smudged myself, so I won’t be the best resource for you. Still, I feel you deserve to hear my warning so you don’t ignorantly stumble through whatever the critical processes might be.