Nobody likes to talk about household odors, but it’s really important to deal with them. Rotten smells can settle into your rooms and, like an unwanted house guest, refuse to leave.
To make matters worse, many people choose to tackle unwanted scents with air fresheners that only mask odors and do nothing to eradicate them. Rather than plugging deodorizers into your electrical sockets or lighting an arsenal of scented candles, use a few household staples such as baking soda, distilled white vinegar, coffee grounds and lemons to get rid of odors once and for all. Here are natural remedies for four of the smelliest problems in your home.
Food spills and waste can make both your outdoor and kitchen trash cans stink. To freshen them, first wash them — inside and out — with warm soapy water, rinse clean, and dry thoroughly. To prevent future odors, try one of these solutions: Dust the bottom of the garbage can with scented cat litter or throw a few citrus peels — lemon or orange — in the bottom of the can before you insert your garbage bag. You can also dust the bottom of your garbage can with baking soda or unused coffee grounds — either will neutralize future odors. Just be careful with metal trash cans; you don’t want the baking soda to corrode the can’s bottom, so instead of sprinkling the baking soda over the bottom of the can, make a sachet by placing about a half-cup of baking soda in a paper coffee filter, close it up with a rubber band or twist tie, then place in the bottom of the can. Replace it every month.
That musty furniture smell that is particular to old furniture and cabinetry can make anything you put inside smell too. So before you fill your drawers or closets, crinkle up some old newspaper, sprinkle it with distilled white vinegar and stuff it inside each musty drawer or place it on the closet shelf for a couple of days to absorb the bad odor (this is also a good way to freshen smelly shoes). Once the smell is gone, keep drawers smelling fresh by placing scented dryer sheets in the drawers or on the shelves (use dryer sheets in your car glove compartment, car trunk and luggage to keep them smelling fresh too). You can also place the silica gel packs that you get when you buy new shoes, electronics or some food products in your drawers; they keep out moisture, which is the real culprit.
To clean your disposal, drop a cut-up lemon, a couple of tablespoons of salt and a few ice cubes into your disposal. Turn on the disposal, and run it until the lemon and ice are pulverized. The lemon deodorizes, and the ice and salt clean away scummy residue.
Over time, bacteria attack the little bits of food that collect in your dishwasher’s filter, causing it to smell. To get rid of the odor, first remove all food particles or scum from the bottom of the machine, making sure to remove and rinse the filter. Then pour two cups of distilled white vinegar into the machine (not into the detergent holder, but rather directly into the drum). Run the machine through a hot water cycle. Pause the cycle for about 20 minutes midway so that the water and vinegar mixture has a chance to break down detergent residue. Restart and finish the cycle.
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