How to Eliminate Odors | 9 Odor Eliminating Tips for Every Area of Your Home

It’s a fact; even the cleanest homes attract odors.

The trick to eliminating those nauseating odors is knowing how to do it. If you think burning candles and spritzing air freshener is going to do the trick, you’ve been terribly misinformed! We’ve got the skinny on how to eliminate odors in every area of your home. Read on for the 9 best odor eliminating tips, ever.

Upholstered Furniture

Whether it’s your couch or ottoman that’s making your nostrils curl, you’ve definitely got a stinky situation on your hands. To remove odors from upholstered furniture, try sprinkling a liberal amount of baking soda on the surface, then vacuum it up with a hose attachment. In a matter of minutes, your furniture will embrace a whole new level of freshness.

Stinky Shoes

Stinky shoes produce highly-offensive odors, which slowly release with every step you take. Odors find their way into everything from gym shoes to baby shoes, so knowing how to combat the stench is the key to freshness. Try leaving a bowl of kitty litter near your stinky shoes for 48 hours; the stink will fade away perfectly.

Bathrooms

No matter how often you clean your bathroom, odors will always find their way back in. We’ve all seen (and probably purchased) those harsh aerosol air fresheners, right? Well, unless your goal is to mask odors with an artificial floral scent, those cans are nothing but a waste of money. Try filling small, breathable, sacks with lavender springs for a fresh, long lasting scent. Place one on top of your medicine cabinet, around your door knob, or anywhere else you can think of.

Refrigerators

It seems as if the refrigerator occasionally acts as a black hole for leftovers. We’re all guilty of forgetting about veggies in the veggie drawer, allowing items to sit far past their expiration date, and tossing Tupperware-packed leftovers into the fridge, only to totally forget about them. Other than the disgusting amounts of germs and bacteria this generates, it also is the main cause of odors. To deodorize your refrigerator, try placing a bowl of fresh coffee grounds on the top shelf before heading to bed. In the morning, remove the bowl, and breathe in the freshness. Ahh, now wasn’t that easy?

The Air, Everywhere

Nix the store bought air freshener from your shopping list, and make your own instead. Try mixing a few drops of lavender oil with a cup of water in a spray bottle. This concoction works wonders on tough odors, and is safe for kids and pets, which means you can use it in every area of your home. If you’re more of a potpourri fan, we’ve got a DIY solution for that too! Simply combine equal parts of cloves, allspice, and cinnamon sticks in a jar, and you’ll create a spicy and warm fragrance that’s perfect for those cozy fall and winter months.

Linens

Don’t put the lavender oil away just yet – you’re going to need it! Linen sprays are work great at keeping linens freshly scented between washings. Store bought versions can be expensive, so we suggest taking the DIY route! Add 30 drops of lavender oil, three ounces of vodka, and 1 ½ cups of distilled water to an empty spray bottle, and voila – you’ve got a homemade linen spray that works beautifully! Go ahead and spray it on your sheets, duvet, and pillows, but don’t go crazy; when using linen spray, keep a “less is more” mindset.

Fresh Paint

We might shock you with this next odor elimination tip, so get ready. If the stench of fresh paint is driving you crazy, try cutting an onion in half, then place each half at different ends of the room for a few hours. See, we told you it was a wacky one! The truth of the matter is that onions are seriously potent, and have the ability to scent an entire kitchen in a matter of seconds; the same is true about fresh paint! When you turn the two against each other, the bad odors cancel each other out. Tip: after a few hours, don’t forget to throw away those cut up onions. If you forget about them, you could have a whole new stinky situation to deal with!

Carpets & Rugs

We’ve seen our fair share of stinky carpets and rugs over the years. While we do offer deodorization treatments with our professional cleaning services, (which just so happen to work wonders at eliminating odors from pets, kids, and everything in-between) try saturating a few cotton balls in your favorite perfume, then dropping them in your vacuum bag. The next time you vacuum, the heat will release the scent into the air, and deep into the fibers of your carpets and rugs.

Kitchen

The kitchen captures a variety of scents, some of which are simply divine! However, the kitchen is also the holding room for several not-so-sweet scents – like burnt eggs, for example. To create a wave of aromatic freshness in the kitchen, add three tablespoons of vanilla extract to an oven-safe bowl, then bake at 300° for an hour. In only 60-short minutes, your kitchen will be filled with that warm and welcoming smell that takes you back to the days of baking homemade cookies with grandma. After getting your kitchen to smell this good, we recommend whipping up something sweet – it seems wrong not to!