Pet odors, stinky shoes, mildewed wet laundry, and your everyday household odors: A spray of Febreze might not be enough to conquer them.
This is a problem that has troubled us throughout Lifehacker’s long history. Over the years, we’ve tried and tested many DIY methods for getting the bad smells out of your home without resorting to equally smelly chemicals. Here are 10 methods you should try regularly to keep your environment smelling fresher.
Neutralize pet odors with vinegar or tea leaves
A truly magical substance, vinegar works great for deodorizing rooms and taking care of pet odors. The vinegar helps to neutralize both new and old pet odors if you spray it on carpets (though don’t expect it to eliminate truly overpowering smells like cat urine).
Speaking of which, if the awful smells are coming from the cat’s litter (which is supposed to help reduce odors; see the next entry on our list), you might want to mix some dried tea leaves into the litter box.
Deodorize just about anything with cat litter
On the other hand, if the smell is outside of a litter box, kitty litter could do wonders: in stinky shoes, in the fridge, at the bottom of trashcans and diaper pails. The cat litter soaks up odors—even musty ones from clothes pulled out of storage—but you’ll have to change it weekly or at least before it gets damp.
Keep plastic containers odor-free with newspaper
Plastic containers absorb the smells of whatever you’ve stored in them, sometimes even long after washing the containers. Crumple up some newspaper pages and store them in the containers and you’ve got an odor-free container for your next use.
Newspaper will help remove odors from trash cans and fridges, too
Yup, newspapers again. Crumpled up newspaper can take the place of baking soda for deodorizing just about any container in your home—trashcans, shoes, and fridges could be considered containers of sorts.
Make your closet smell fresher with chalk
Hang some chalk in your closet. Chalk absorbs moisture, as many sources attest, so it’s a helpful aid to reduce dampness—and the resulting smell in your closets. Just tie up a bundle with some sturdy string and hang it where it won’t brush up against your clothes. It’ll absorb moisture and the resulting smell, and your closet will become a nicer place to be.
Get the smoke smell out of clothes (and other items) with dryer sheets
Dryer sheets to the rescue! If there are a few things you own with some lingering smoke odor on them, try putting then in Ziploc bags with a dryer sheet or two. For furniture and other smoke-tainted items, we’ve got other suggestions.
Get rid of garlic or onion smell on your hands with stainless steel
So maybe you don’t have any of the odor issues above. Chances are, though, if you cook you’ll get some stinky garlic or onion smell on your hands. The quick solution: rub your hands with something made of stainless steel—a spoon or even the edge of your sink—under cold water. Goodby lingering cooking smell.
(They even make stainless steel “soap” bars to help you with this issue—and we tested them out.)
Neutralize body odor with baking soda
Yes, you could just use deodorant or anti-perspirant, but if you have sensitive skin or simply prefer to go the more natural route, you don’t have to submit to stinkier living. Instead, try baking soda, which neutralizes the PH of your sweat, decreasing the odor-causing bacteria in your armpits and feet. In other words, it’s a natural deodorant.
Defeat bad breath
Don’t be embarrassed: halitosis affects many of us. But there’s lots you can do about it, from learning good methods for checking if you have bad breath, to fixing it with good-breath-friendly foods like cinnamon and practicing good oral hygiene (from familiar stuff like flossing and using mouthwash to figuring out what a “tongue-scraper” is and how to use it).
When in doubt, try vinegar, baking soda, newspapers, or dryer sheets
Many of the odor-busting tips we’ve featured over the years involve the same ingredients: vinegar, baking soda, newspapers, and dryer sheets. So you should probably have these items on hand to conquer most odor problems, inexpensively and naturally. (For example, vinegar removes mildew smells from towels and wet laundry, as well as many lingering food smells.) Unlike air fresheners, these products don’t mask smells, but rather work to absorb moisture and neutralize the causes behind these odors, so both you and your home can smell fresher.
This article was originally published in 2014 and updated on Feb. 16, 2021 with additional information and updated links, and to align the content with current Lifehacker style.