How to Keep Your Kitchen Smelling Great

It too often seems to be the case that you leave the house for a few hours and when you walk back in the front door, you recoil, wondering, what is that smell? It's probably the kitchen, and though you may not notice it after having been in the house for a while, it's going to bother anybody who walks into the house and there are things you can do to avoid that "nasty kitchen smell".

The first thing you can do is clean the oven on a regular basis. Whenever you cook, particles of oil from the food item of choice disperse from the pan (even if you use a splatter screen) and migrate to parts of the oven that you didn't even know existed. Make it a regular habit to remove the knobs from the front of the oven and clean behind them (as well as cleaning every part of the knob itself). Also be sure to pull out the oven once a month or so - if not more regularly - and clean behind the back-splash. Oil that doesn't travel above the oven will travel behind it and coat the back of your oven with a smelly mess. Also remember that you can't just do the dishes when you're cleaning the kitchen. The sink too must be deep cleaned on a regular basis and so must your sponges. Bacteria and sponges go together like baseball and bat. One implies the other. You must soak your sponges in bleach or bleach alternative on a regular basis to avoid the kitchen funk that you can't seem to get rid of. A third thing that you may not think of is the way in which you store food. I knew somebody once (and I'm sure many, many people do this) that had a habit of storing his potato chips and his used frying oil in the same pantry. Needless to say, his potato chips would become ruined the day after he opened the bag. They all tasted like used frying oil (and that is NOT a good taste). Like I said before, oil likes to disperse and migrate giving your pantry an interesting smell and your open food items a disgusting taste. When storing food items properly, your pantry items will each go into a proper, air-tight container and stay in your pantry. This includes used frying oil and potato chips. Store each item in its own container and you will have neither a pantry that you have to hold your breath to go into, nor food that you have to hold your nose to eat.

One more thing that you need to remember when trying to keep a kitchen smelling great is your refrigerator. Ah, old reliable. There are probably items in your refrigerator dating back to the Reagan years but regardless of the memories tied to that now unidentifiable food item, you have to get rid of it. When you buy items that need to be refrigerated, make a list of what is in there and when it expires. List the items on your calendar (electronic preferably) so that a week or two after the expiration date (because we all know that food doesn't actually expire exactly on the expiration date) you get a reminder to throw it away. For those foods that don't have a set expiration date (like that lasagna you made last night for dinner), just remember that most freshly cooked foods in a refrigerated environment will last about four to five days. Freezing those same foods will make them last for weeks, so you may want to consider that as an alternative. Remember too that even cold food locked inside of a seemingly air tight refrigerator will smell up a kitchen. Be sure to keep your foods in air tight environments like bowls with sealed lids, Tupper-ware or other similar containers. This will allow your foods more shelf life and it will keep your kitchen smelling the way you want it to.

And last but not least, the most productive way to keep a kitchen smelling great (this advice comes straight from my wife) is to make an effort to bake something in it at least once a week. Even if it's store bought, bread-machine white bread. Baking cookies, cakes, breads and pies will keep your kitchen and home smelling inviting and delicious and will keep your family dying to get home to try your newest creation.