Getting Rid of the Worst Common Household Odors

Everyone wants a fresh, clean smelling home. I know I do. There are a lot of different products being manufactured for getting rid of unpleasant household odors. However, many of them only mask over the odors instead of actually getting rid of them. I for one have had problems with some of the common household odors that just would not go away. However, through trail and error and thinking, I discovered ways of getting rid of the unpleasant household odors that I was having trouble with. Perhaps they can be of uses to anyone bothered by the same odors.

Plastic Food Containers
Plastic food containers are magnets for food odors. No matter how many times I washed my containers in dish soap and hot water I could not get rid of the old food smell. When I stored cake, cookies, or pop corn in the containers they would absorb the smells of onions, garlic, spoiled beans, or whatever else was in the containers previously.

One day when I was reading a magazine I found a short article that explained how to remove onion and garlic smells from one's hands. I was interested in the article because I often use onions and garlic in my cooking. I know that the smell of onions and garlic can stay on one's hands for up to two days. When reading the article I learned that rubbing lemon juice from a freshly cut lemon will instantly remove the onion and garlic smell from one's hands. At that time my hands were smelling strongly of onions and garlic because a few days before I had made spaghetti for dinner. I immediately cut a lemon and rubbed the juice on my hands. After I washed my hands I smelt them and was amazed to find that the onion and garlic smell was instantly gone.

I then began thinking. If lemon juice can remove onion and garlic odors from one's hands, perhaps it can remove food odors from my plastic food containers. I took out my smelliest container and wiped it with a sponge of lemon juice. After rinsing the container I smelt it and found that the odor was gone. So I took out more lemons, juiced them and washed all of my plastic food containers in fresh lemon juice. I have made it a habit to clean my plastic food containers with fresh lemon juice.

Stale Indoor Cigarette Smoke
My family and I recently moved into a house. The previous residents were heavy smokers. After moving in the house we opened all of the windows and doors everyday to air it out. We even sprayed air fresheners throughout the house. However, the daily airings and air freshener spraying did not help. The cigarette smoke odor just would not go away. The odor was so strong, it was getting into our things, such as clothes and furniture.

Wondering how will I get rid of the cigarette smoke odor, my mind went back to when we had purchased a used dinning room set. The previous owners of the set were heavy smokers. The table and chairs were so absorbed with smoke to the extent washing it with soap and hot water was useless. The smoke odor on the table was so strong we could not smell our food during meal time. One day when preparing meatloaf for dinner some blood from the raw meat dripped on the table. I washed the table with some bleach water. Afterwards I was surprised to find that the cigarette smoke odor was gone. So I cleaned the entire table and all the chairs with bleach water. Afterwards they were completely free of cigarette smoke odor.

After thinking back on that experience, I decide to mix some bleach and warm water together in a bucket and go throughout the house washing the walls and the ceiling. This action really helped a lot! The cigarette smoke odor was gone completely off the walls! Then I wiped the doors, the baseboards, the windows, the window sell, all the cabinets and the tile floors. The bleach water washing completely killed the smoke odor.

The only smoke odor that we were getting was coming form the carpet. So we rented a carpet shampooer and bought several bottles of Fabreeze. We poured the Fabreeze in the water and cleaned away all of the smoke odor in the carpet throughout the house. Now our home smells completely smoke free.

Toe Jam Odor In Carpet
When walking on carpet with sweaty, smelly feet, foot odor gets into the carpet. I thought of some ways to keep from having toe jam smelling carpet without spending money on carpet fresheners and frequently shampooing:

When at home do not walk bare footed. Immediately change into a pair of clean socks when returning home.

Wear comfortable house slippers when inside.

If you are the kind of person who likes to walk around the house barefooted when you return home for the day take off your shoes and stocking or shoes and socks and wash your feet.

Pet Odor
My family and I do not have pets, but we know people who do. Following is a list of tips they used to keep their homes from smelling like a zoo:

For caged pets such as rabbits, hamsters, and birds, the cages should be cleaned daily. To simplify this task put plastic wrap at the bottom of the cage and tape down the edges. Then put newspaper over the plastic. When cleaning the bottom of the cage all one has to do is remove the plastic and newspaper and throw it away. There is no need to do any washing nor scrubbing. This makes cleaning away smelly poo-poo easy.

Keep litter boxes in the garage instead of inside the house. Use the type of litter that prevents odors. Have your cat and/or dog trained to go out into the garage to use the litter box. Have a little door fixed in the bottom of the door so the family cat or dog can go in and out of the garage freely.

Inside have a special chair for your cat or dog to sit on. This prevents pet smells from spreading to all the furniture. Training the pets to only set on their special chair is not hard because they like having a place of their own to sit.

If you keep several cats or dogs and keep them indoors, it would be best to have a hardwood laminated floor instead of carpet. laminated hardwood floor is easier to clean after a pet has an accident.

Other Tips
When cooking keep the kitchen vent on and the kitchen window open to air out the food odors when cooking. Also keep the bathroom vents on to keep out stanky odors.

Strong food odor, stale smoke odors, and pet odors are common odors in the house that can be very annoying and hard to get rid of. However, there are ways to get rid of them, and you can have a fresh smelling home in which to live.