Smelly trash cans can really stink up your home environment! Here are a couple of easy tips to remove bad smells from trash cans and other household items!
How To Remove Bad Smells And Odors From Trash Cans, Books And More…
Put a small handful of laundry detergent in the bottom of your trash can. It helps keep bugs away and controls the trash odor. Then when you are ready to wash your trash can, you already have your soap in it.
If you have musty-smelling books or other strange-smelling things, seal them in a plastic bag with cat litter or baking soda for a couple of weeks and the smell will go away.
Don’t forget: baking soda is great for absorbing odors so when you open a box for baking be sure and put it in an airtight container because otherwise it will sit and absorb all of the odors (like spices) in your cabinet or pantry. Sometimes, when you taste cookies someone has made and they have a slightly different taste, it could be the baking soda.
Jill
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Another suggestions to place a small container with lid (pierce holes in the lid) with either laundry detergent or baking soda. Place under the seats of your vehicle to absorb odors.
This are such good ideas. Thanks. I love the garbage can one especially.
Or put a bar of unwrapped body soap under your car seat for deodorizing. When it doesn’t smell good anymore, wash with it.
If a closed food container smells, wipe it out with a papertowel dampened with vanilla. Leave the papertowel in the closed container.
be careful with scents that are powerful for keeping in your car.
I could not figure out why I would be in a friends car for 5 minutes and get out with a migraine that would last for hours.
She kept a bounce sheet under the seats.
Some people are very sensitive to smells and get bad reactions from them.
vanilla or food scents seem to be less invasive to them.
I just tried “Gold Bond” body powder sprinkled in the bottom of a a diaper pale. It absorbed the smell right away. I tried it in another trash pail. We never used the body powder and I was going to get rid of it but now found a new purpose.
A note about dryer sheets; right out of the box, these can smell too strong for people with allergies or other sensitivities. But, if you use the sheet once or twice, it is great to put under your car seat and also as a quick duster for your shelves, etc. Not food/pet safe so be careful!
I buy Irish Spring soap just for this purpose I shred it just as you do for laundry detergent. I shred 1 bar of Irish Spring soap added to 2 cups of baking soda. I add my soap after the trash is picked up, add 2 TBSP to bottom of can, 1/4 cup if it’s an extremely large can, Add a bucket of hot water, scrub the sides up and down then let it sit for 15/20 mins. Rinse and let dry in hot sun if you can. Irish spring is the only soap that I have found to work until next trash pick-up. You can cut the bars in 1/3’s and place around inside edges of garage or where you find mice, they hate this stuff and it last a long time before you have to place new soap out. Make sure to only use bar soap, the liquid version doesn’t work
These are such great ideas! We also pour a tablespoon of baking soda inside a new trash bag to help eliminate food odors. We rarely have to add another tablespoon as the trash becomes full.
Any ideas of how to remove musty odors from inside wooden dresser?
You can try a couple of things and it depends on how bad it is. First you can wipe it down with either Borax (mixture of 1/4 c. to 1 qt.water) or bleach (1 part bleach to 3 of water)- don’t use a soaking wet rag. Let it dry out for 24 hrs. If you need to you can then spray with something like Lysol or Febreze. You can also try using something like setting a bowl of clay cat litter, baking soda, Borax or charcoal briquettes (the kind without the lighter fluid added) inside each drawer. As a last resort you can paint the insides of the drawers with Kilz or a coat of polyurethane.
Once you get the drawers fresh you can keep them nice smelling by putting a couple of dryer sheets in them or a small bowl of Borax, cat litter or baking soda.
What great ideas! I have a little hint—- when my kitchen garbage can is starting to smell a bit, I layer a few newspapers over the top of the garbage. It seals in the smell enough for me to finish filling the bag before taking it outside.