10+ Household Tricks That Can Help Your Home Smell Like a Luxury Hotel

After big cleaning sessions, our homes look renewed. However, after having spent the whole weekend doing this, we sometimes can’t get rid of the feeling that our home is still far from being ideally pristine. The reason for this can lie in various smells that get absorbed into the walls, furniture, and home appliances.

We at Bright Side found a bunch of easy tricks that will help neutralize the main sources of bad smells at home.

Your favorite spice can serve as an aromatizer for shoes.

Shoe shelves can’t be called nice-smelling places. Shoes, boots, and sneakers oftentimes start to smell bad due to an interaction with sweat. But if we use cloves, we can get rid of the issue. All you need to do is place some bags, which can be made from handkerchiefs, with this spice into each shoe or boot. It will require several hours for the cloves to absorb excess moisture and give off their aroma in the shoes.

Candles eliminate bad smells in the bathroom.

Candles in the bathroom can not only create a cozy atmosphere, but also neutralize unpleasant smells. And it’s not necessary to use just aroma candles for this. The slightly noticeable smoke that comes from a scent-free candle can perform this task well too. That’s why burning a candle while enjoying your hygienic procedures can bring you some good — just remember to blow out the candle before leaving the bathroom.

Car air fresheners can fight unpleasant bathroom smells.

To make your bathroom smell nice, you can try using a car air freshener. The item normally has a hanging rope that can be used to tie it to the bin. You can do the same thing with a garbage bin to disguise any odors coming from the trash.

Laundry detergent will freshen the air in the bathroom.

Another good way to freshen up a bathroom is to make the aromatizer yourself. Place several cotton balls into a bowl, pour 2-3 tbsp of liquid laundry detergent into it, and place the pot into a nook in the bathroom. The aroma will last for up to 3 days — after that, the handmade aromatizer should be replaced.

A bag with soap can remove the musty smell from your closet.

Musty odors in closets are caused by dampness and lack of ventilation. Therefore, before putting clothes in the wardrobe, you need to make sure that they are completely dry. Also, it makes sense to “settle” on a homemade flavor in the closet. To do it, wrap a piece of nice-smelling soap with a piece of fabric and place it next to the clothes. You can use a clean sock as a bag for the soap.

Also, it’s worth considering replacing plastic and wire hangers with wooden ones. You can choose products from cedar, which is able to absorb excess moisture and give things a pleasant aroma.

Tangerine peels can freshen your microwave.

Sometimes when opening the door of a microwave oven, we lose our desire to put any food in there. Instead, we want to pinch our noses and keep a safe distance, as bad smells can often appear here. Luckily, it’s quite easy to get rid of the issue.

All you need to do is take a tangerine peel and heat it on low power to prevent any burning. The bad smell will go away. You can make your oven smell nice using the same method.

Bread and potatoes ensure a nice smell in the fridge.

You can make a fridge freshener yourself. To do it, take a piece of bread, bake it until black, and grind it up. Pour the crumbs of the burnt bread into a gauze bag and put it on the shelf along with other products.

Peeled and sliced potatoes can also help you get rid of bad smells in the fridge. This acts as an absorbent. This potato “filter” needs to be changed every 2-3 days.

Vinegar and apple will help remove bad smells from cutting boards.

Wooden cutting boards absorb the smells of the food we cut on them. To prevent the product from becoming a source of bad smells in the kitchen, try using vinegar. The board should be washed with hot water and detergent, then wiped with vinegar and rinsed thoroughly.

Apples can help eliminate the lingering smell of garlic. To do this, grate the fruit, spread it over the surface of the board, and leave it there for 10 minutes.

Toothpaste and newspapers thwart the smell of plastic dishes.

Many of us use plastic containers to carry our lunch and, over time, they start to smell bad. In order to get rid of this issue, take a sponge and wash the container with a small amount of toothpaste.

Also, you can use newspapers. Place several crumpled pieces of newspaper into a dry container, close the lid, and leave it overnight. The smell will go away.

Heating sponges in the microwave oven can prevent the appearance of bad smells.

Bacteria reproduce well in humid environments, so a dishwashing sponge is a perfect place for them to grow. That’s why, over time, our sponges start to smell disgusting, and we throw them away.

The sponge will last longer if it’s disinfected after each dishwashing. To do this, you just need to warm the wet product in the microwave for 1 minute. This method eliminates up to 99% of bacteria, which means that the sponge won’t exude an unpleasant odor for a long time.

An improvised diffuser against cooking odors

The smell of cooked food is pleasing to our nose, only when we are hungry. After eating, we normally want to get rid of all the kitchen odors that the oven hoods capture. A slow cooker and baking soda will help solve the issue.

All you need to do is pour several tablespoons of baking soda into the bowl of the appliance and add water. After this, close the slow cooker and turn on the “heat up” mode. The steam emitted by the appliance will fight the bad smells.

Lemon and potatoes will prevent a fishy smell from spreading around the home.

No matter how much we love to eat fish, its smell is not something we want to inhale for a long time. Unfortunately, cooking this product goes together with spreading the unpleasant aroma all over the kitchen or even the entire home.

In order to significantly minimize the odor, rub the fish with lemon juice before cooking it. If you need to fry it in a frying pan, it’s recommended to do it together with a few slices of potatoes. This vegetable can absorb a part of the odor.

What other tricks that help fight against bad smells at home are you aware of?