Yet a few inexpensive household essentials you probably have on hand already—vinegar, salt, coffee, baking soda, hydrogen peroxide—will neutralize most noxious odors around your home and in your vehicles.
As the vinegar evaporates, it takes those neutralized molecules with it, leaving behind no scent at all. You don't have to spray vinegar around to reap its deodorizing benefits. Just fill a small, shallow dish, stick it in the corner, and wait. After a few hours, that odor will be long gone.
Vinegar has an acrid, noxious smell, but it's only temporary, and its high acidity will kill burgeoning bacteria and other odor-causing elements quickly, cheaply and naturally. Make drunk air freshener: Finally, you have a use for that cheap vodka that's been sitting untouched for years — a DIY air freshener!
Cleaning expert Cristy Harfmann agrees. If you're wondering how to wash towels or clothes that may have a bad odor, then adding 1/4 to 1 cup of vinegar to the washer during the last rinse cycle will get rid of the scent quickly. 'It will remove the smells without making your clothes smell like vinegar,' Cristy says.
We all want our homes to smell fresh and clean but pets, cooking, smoking, and just living can get in the way. While there are dozen of commercial air freshening sprays, candles, and solids that promise to remove odors, you can also use distilled white vinegar in many ways to freshen your home.
Deodorize the Room
Unpleasant odors lurk in the carpets, rugs, and upholstery. To remove these musty smells, fill a dish with half an inch of white vinegar and leave it out in the room until the smell dissipates.
White distilled vinegar is an odor-neutralizer, thanks to its acetic acid content. It can tackle musty smells that have settled in the room. To deodorize your room, start by dusting your ceilings and walls. Then, fill a spray bottle with half white-distilled vinegar and half water.
Spread baking soda over carpets and big furniture
With a large colander, sprinkle a deodorizing powder like baking soda on carpets and big furniture. Let it sit for at least 30-60 minutes. Then vacuum it up, using your vacuum attachments on couches and chairs.
White vinegar is mainly composed of water and acetic acid. The amount or percentage of acid in the vinegar varies depending on brand and its intended purpose. The acetic acid does wonders at pulling odors out of the air and eliminating the bad smell in the house, leaving behind fresh and pure air in your home.
Better Ways to Freshen the Air
Vinegar – White vinegar is an effective natural deodorizer and mild disinfectant. Combine a teaspoon of vinegar with 2 cups of water in a spray bottle then lightly mist the air (you can also stir in a few drops of essential oils).
A really great way to make your house smell good is to place a few drops of Vanilla Essential Oil or Vanilla extract into a small (oven-safe) bowl. Then place the bowl into the oven at a low temperature and let the vanilla scent fill your entire home with a lovely scent!
The VAST majority of cleaning to make your house smell good can be done mostly with just baking soda and white vinegar. There are so many ways to freshen your house with just those two ingredients because they neutralize bad odors. (Remember making those DIY volcanoes in middle school?)
Baking Soda
Baking soda is a fantastic odor-absorber. Carpet and Upholstered Furniture - Sprinkle baking soda on surface, let sit 30 minutes or overnight, then vacuum away to freshen and remove odors. Bedding - Refresh your mattress with baking soda.
Add about 25 drops of your favorite essential oil to 2 tablespoons of baking soda and stir to combine. Lemon and lavender are great choices, but eucalyptus is my favorite because of the refreshing scent. Pour the baking soda and essential oil mix into the water and stir. Then funnel the water into your spray bottle.
The most popular anti-odor options include chemically treated antimicrobial fabrics, fabric woven or treated with silver and volcanic ash treated fabrics.
If you're worried that cleaning with vinegar will make your home smell like pickles, don't worry – the smell disappears pretty quickly, especially if you air out your space properly. Open windows and doors to encourage air flow. Once dry, you'll find that vinegar leaves a fresh scent.
Sitting in vinegar is one of the most effective ways to take advantage of its healing and cleansing properties. Vinegar has an antimicrobial effect and can help soothe the skin, reduce inflammation, detoxify the body and help with digestion problems.
If your home has a stale, musty scent, there could be a handful of explanations, including a plumbing leak, high humidity, poor airflow, dirty HVAC equipment, or soiled carpet.
There's another thing you can do, though: Pull out a bottle of distilled white vinegar. The acetic acid in vinegar neutralizes alkaline odors, which means it can help get rid of cooking smells cheaply and easily. Some people make a diluted solution of vinegar and keep it in a spray bottle to mist around the room.
Musty smells in homes can be caused by a range of issues, from improperly dried linens to dampness and mold. No matter the cause, a musty smell is often worrisome and should always be investigated. The good news is that most musty smells are not a sign of serious issue, and are often quick to rectify.
It's all thanks to a clever gizmo known as an HVAC scent diffuser. These are ultra-quiet attachments to heating/air conditioning systems that use high amounts of air pressure to deliver nanoparticles of scented oils uniformly around a room, area, or building.