Nothing can depreciate the quality of living or the cost of your home more than a persistent odor. Whether you are selling, thinking of selling, buying or are just tired of people asking you, “What’s that smell?” you don’t have to live with home and apartment odors one second longer. Odors from kids, odors from pets, odors from cooking, odors from smokers—eliminate them all with these four tips for getting rid of smells in and around your home, fast.
Below are 4 Great Ways to Eliminate Odors in Your Home
The next time you smell something foul in your home, try the following:
1. Open up all of the windows and baking soda vacuum the carpets. The first step should always be getting those windows open, laying baking soda down on the carpets and letting the house air out for a day. Of course, don’t put your security at risk, but do be sure to unblock all airways and paths for the wind to blow through, creating cross ventilation if possible. Sometimes, this is all you’ll need. Once the baking soda draws the moisture and odor out of the carpets (and even from underneath them), simply vacuum it up—repeat if necessary. You can put baking soda just about anywhere there are odors, especially in the fridge to help absorb them before they even start. Toss some inside garbage cans before you line them to ensure that the insides stay dry and smelling fresh and clean.
2. Clean all fixtures, especially lights. Another place that odors hide in is on the surfaces of our fixtures, counters, tables and especially lights. While you might not smell it on the counter tops, it’s there, subtly adding to the unpleasant aroma in your house. Think about how much surface area there is in your house and if all of it smells just a little, that’s a whole lot of stink when it’s all said and done. On top of all that, light bulbs make great stink factories since any smell that gets on them (e.g. cooking grease, cigarette smoke, etc.) will return whenever you turn your lights on and the smell heats up. Wipe all these surfaces down and even change some of the bulbs in problem areas (see number four below).
3. Pour bowls of white vinegar and place them around the house. Vinegar is an amazing odor eater, taking just about anything you can throw at it and magically making it disappear. The vinegar in a bowl trick is fairly well known, as are the lemon in water in a bowl and onion in a bowl. Personally, vinegar just does the job better for me, but others might find their specific odor problem responds to onions or lemons. Regardless, the point is the same: placing these objects in bowls in open areas will help eliminate the odor by drawing it out of the are and into the liquid. Of course, you won’t be able to smell the odor in the liquid, but you also won’t be able to smell it in the air anymore and that’s the whole goal. Use two to three per room for heavy smell areas and one per room for areas of the house with less smell problems.
4. Give extra attention to problem areas. Finally, there are just some parts of your home that are going to smell and there’s not much you can do about it aside from trying to keep it as neat, clean and neutralized as possible. These areas include garbage cans, pet rooms or pillows, laundry hampers, diaper changing and disposal stations, garbage disposals, work areas, workout areas, etc. You know the places—they always have that same distinct smell. Go over these areas in the aforementioned manners, but then spend a little extra time there. Is there something specific in that area that is really harboring the smell? If so, get rid of it. Put baking soda with powdered charcoal down and then vacuum it up. Try potpourri in the room or Febreeze. Other odor neutralizing sprays will work as well, helping to get the odor out of the room without making it smell like a mixture of roses and dung like with scented sprays.