We all know the feeling: opening the door of your home after a long day, looking forward to relaxing and unwinding, and then…wait, what is that? Your brow furrows, and your nose wrinkles. A strange stench you hadn’t noticed before has taken hold in your home. UGH. It’s impossible to rest knowing there’s a yucky funk in the house! There has to be a solution…
Whether you have a pet who leaves a pungent trace — or a roommate who does — unsavory smells at home are frustrating and uncomfortable. When stink is stubborn, masking it with deodorizers isn’t enough, so redditor u/lumis75 asked the online community for help, posting, “What is a cheap way to make your house smell better?” Here’s the sage advice they had:
1. “Figure out what is causing the unpleasant odors you’re attempting to cover up first. Otherwise, you will be doing A LOT of maintenance but will continue to struggle with the smell.”
2. “I mix essential oils with rubbing alcohol for the ideal homemade cleaner!”
3. “I make natural potpourri in a Crock-Pot with water. It makes my whole home smell good, and I can usually reuse the mixture for a few days. My favorite is dried orange peels and cinnamon sticks with some imitation vanilla added. I just keep the peels from my oranges in a bag in the freezer until I’m ready to use them.”
4. “A bowl of vinegar. Seriously. I put a bowl of white vinegar in the room where the smell is (after I find and remove the source) and close the door. After 24 hours, I remove the vinegar and air the room. It smells like vinegar for a few hours, and then the smell is gone.”
5. “Wash your whole house. Here in Morocco, we mix water and detergent in a bucket, splash a bit all over the floor, and scrub it with a broom. Then, use a cloth and bucket of clean water and dry (way easier if you have a drain nearby).”
6. “Clean your blinds! Scrape the oily, dusty residue off your blinds into a plastic bag, and smell it. Blinds stink! And they’re hard to keep clean. Washable curtains and roller shades are a better idea.”
7. “Remove or replace your curtains. We have a dog and a cat, and we could tell the pet smell lingered in our last home even after shampooing most fabrics, but we couldn’t pinpoint it. When we moved out, one of the last things we took down was the curtains. Oh. My. God. When we removed and folded them, it was like someone had dropped a stink bomb in the room. I had no idea they could retain odors like that.”
8. “Change your furnace filter every month.”
9. “Instead of blinds, I’m a BIG fan of putting privacy film on bathroom windows! They’re easier to clean.”
10. “I put food waste and other compost in a paper bag in the freezer until it gets full to reduce bad smells!”
11. “Don’t forget to clean your cleaning tools.”
12. “A dehumidifier can help with stale smells in the home, along with an air purifier.”
13. “After I vacuum the couch, rugs, headboard, and mattress, I spray them with a water/isopropyl alcohol mixture. This helps with odor and bacteria…isopropyl alcohol from the pharmacy section costs around $5, and I get spray bottles at the dollar store.”
14. “Does your laundry stink? Instead of a basket, maybe get a large storage bin with a lid for about $10.”
15. “Use baking soda on rugs and furniture (including mattresses) and then vacuum it up.”
What do you think of these odor-ridding tips? Let us know in the comments.
Note: Submissions have been edited for length and/or clarity.
