A Stink-Free Sanctuary: How To Keep Your Home From Smelling Bad

Not all owners know this, but there are several sources of stench at home that could inconvenience you. Neglecting to identify, check, and clean these areas might not only disgust the inhabitants of the house but compromise their health. Besides the obvious toilet, spaces that can easily get stinky include the kitchen, living room, pet corner, and smoking area.

This is can be attributed to how these areas get exposed regularly to food waste, cigarette smoke, pet stains, and accidental spills. If you’re a busy parent that has to handle work and children or a young professional preoccupied with your career, it might be hard to keep track of this odor concern. Still, it’s important to remember that home sanitation leads to cleanliness and uncompromised health.

Thanks to multifunctional cleaning products available on the market right now, you can kill bacteria and neutralize the odor in stinky areas with ease. This can be done either by yourself or with a professional cleaning team, depending on how bad the stench has become. Here’s a closer look at the areas that need to be rid of odors.

Food Odors In The Kitchen

What you cook in the kitchen could lead to it having that smell for a prolonged period. Common examples include cooking curry-based dishes, fried meat, or spicy recipes. While the smell left behind by these might not be as bad as that of waste, some guests or inhabitants might find the smells irritating.

What you can do is check if the cooking ware has been washed thoroughly of any grease or remnant from the dish. You can also find out if there has been any splatter of oil or sauce on the kitchen walls or countertops while you were preparing the dish. Don’t forget to look at the appliances as well, be it the oven, dishwasher, stovetop, or indoor grill.

There might be food remnants that were left unseen in these objects. Even something as unassuming as a cutting board could be a carrier of these odors, be it from meat juices left after you used the thing for slicing ingredients.

Spoilage In The Fridge

Speaking of food, check your fridge for signs of strong odor which might affect the quality of the consumables stored inside. With its airtight and limited space, it wouldn’t be surprising for a fridge to smell of meat, cheese, or other consumables with strong smells. Food, after all, is to be expected in the fridge, but it gets bad when it becomes spoiled and the odor circulates inside the room.

If you don’t remove the strong odors inside, these could make your liquids or leftovers also smell of meat or vinegar. What you can do is use a box of baking soda and leave it open in the freezer or the bottom part of the fridge, whichever has a stronger smell.

You may also improve the way you store aromatic or pungent food inside. Wrap cheese twice and store leftover food in containers with tight lids. This might take a little more time than just putting your food inside regardless of it being covered, but at least it’ll keep the strong odors from sticking to the stored food.

Indoor Trash Cans

While outdoor trash cans have open space, indoor ones are limited to the confines of the household. This becomes worse when biodegradables like food waste start to decay due to not being taken out immediately. Even though the trash does get taken out, there’s the problem of the waste leaving stains inside the cans.

In case this happens, apply a sprinkling of baking soda or use an odor-neutralizing pod such as Fresh Wave on the trash can. Make sure to follow up with a spray of Lysol or similar disinfectants to make sure that germs or bacteria are eliminated.

You can do this regularly from here onwards, but you can also come up with a composting bin wherein you can put food waste that would otherwise be icky when grouped with nonbiodegradables. With a compost in your kitchen or indoors, you’ll have an easier time dealing with trash can smells.

Impurities In The Toilet

The toilet is probably the first thing that came to mind when you started reading this. After all, it’s where you relieve yourself of waste from your body as well as scrub dirt off your skin during bathtime. The bathroom floor and the toilet are exposed frequently to the water that flows when you urinate, defecate, or bathe, which means they need regular cleaning.

Failing to do the latter could result in mold growth, pee and poop odors, and other unsanitary occurrences. The toilet seat especially needs regular cleaning, because it’s where you sit with your exposed bottom. Leaving it dirty could lead to infections due to bacteria getting in contact with your skin.

Stains In Carpets And Rugs

Leaving it dirty could lead to infections due to bacteria getting in contact with your skin. Your rugs and carpeted floors are exposed to foot traffic and pets every day. Over time, dirt from outside, pet hair, accidental spills, and other impurities can accumulate in your rugs, which can manifest as stains or odors.

If these are neglected over time, these might harden or dry out, which makes it harder to clean them. If your house has been infiltrated by floodwater, have your carpets and furniture cleaned and dried immediately so that mold growth from water damage won’t occur.

You can enlist a professional carpet cleaner to steam-clean the rugs for you. Not only does this help eliminate the stains and odors but this kills the bacteria as well, ensuring sanitation for everyone at home.

A Stink-Free Sanctuary

Homeowners need to make time for deodorizing their premises. A home wouldn’t be something you’d look forward to if it smelled bad, which would be a hassle for you and your guests. Make sure to check areas or objects that can easily get stinky, such as the toilet, the kitchen, the trash cans, the fridge, or the carpets. So long as you keep an eye on these through regular cleaning, your nose will thank you for it.