The kitchen can often be the smelliest room in the house, but it doesn’t have to be full of unpleasant odors. You may just need to make some simple changes to get rid of unwanted scents and make your kitchen smell appealing. Poor smells in this part of the house can affect how food tastes and can indicate that there is a health hazard. We have a few tips to help you minimize odors in the kitchen that we hope you will be able to use.
1. Cover or Remove Garbage
The biggest contributor to bad odor in the kitchen is the trash can. It’s convenient to have a bin for garbage located in this room, but it can be difficult to keep that bin smelling pleasant.
The first thing to do to minimize garbage bin odors is to keep a lid on it at all times. The lid doesn’t have to be airtight, but it should rest firmly over the bin and completely cover it.
Secondly, make sure the garbage is taken out of the house when it starts to smell really bad or when the bin is full. This bin should be changed every one or two days to keep the odor to a minimum.
The third thing you can do is to use an air freshener on the garbage bin. Hang it on the inside or under the lid to cover up odors at the source.
If none of these tactics are enough to keep the smell down, it may be time to think about moving the kitchen bin elsewhere. If the smell is out of control, it will be worth the inconvenience of having the bin in another room just so your kitchen smells pleasant.
2. Clean the Kitchen Frequently
This is a basic tip but very necessary. If your kitchen isn’t clean, then it is unlikely to smell nice. Food particles can fall to the floor and collect under the edges of your kitchen cupboards and fixtures. That attracts pests and leaves unpleasant odors behind. If there are spills or grime on any kitchen surfaces, these can smell bad too.
Try to wipe the counters down after every use, clean up the dishes at each meal, and clean the floors once a day. If you can keep up with that regimen, your kitchen should smell nice most of the time. If you can’t keep up with a regular cleaning schedule in the kitchen or you have some deep cleaning that needs to be done, then hiring professional Imagine Maid would be a smart move. You can get the kitchen cleaned better and eliminate smells you don’t want.
3. Use Ventilation
Some kitchens trap cooking smells very easily, and you may have to find creative ways to vent the odors out of the kitchen. In most cases, you can turn on a vent above the stove and open windows and doors to air out the kitchen. If those are not options in your case or they don’t offer enough ventilation, then you can bring a standing fan into the kitchen to blow the smells out. For poorly ventilated kitchens, consider having proper ventilation installed.
4. Deal with Odors Overnight
After a long evening of cooking, there may be lingering smells in the kitchen that you want to be rid of. Scrubbing down floors and wiping counters may not be enough. We suggest leaving out odor absorbing items to eliminate the smells. You can use a bowl of sliced onions set in the middle of the kitchen. A bowl of baking soda works well too, as it will absorb odors over the course of a few hours and leave your kitchen smelling nice and fresh.
5. Clean the Sink Thoroughly
There are some places in your kitchen where odors tend to hide that you might not think of looking. Your sink is one culprit we want to bring to your attention. Simply rinsing out or scrubbing down the sink might not be enough. Bad odors can hang around if there is food stuck in the drains or pipes. Sometimes, you can clear out clogs and get rid of stuck on food by pouring boiling hot water down the sink drain. If that doesn’t quite do the job, try using a drain cleaner.
It also helps to be careful about what you pour down the kitchen sink. Some foods and other substances simply don’t belong there. Try not to let any solid food go down the drain unless you have a sink garbage disposal. Even then, be careful about putting hard foods like bones and dried beans down the drain. For sinks that have no garbage disposal, though, you want to avoid pouring grease or oil of any kind, as well as anything thick and slimy that might stick to the pipes. If your sink has a trap to clean out, then lift that out and clean it up every so often to eliminate odors.
6. Make Up Something That Smells Nice
You can get rid of some bad kitchen smells by spraying air freshener to cover the smell until it goes away. If you want to save money, try making something that smells pleasant. Slice and boil lemons on the stovetop to get rid of bad smells and actually absorb the unpleasant odors. You can also make a stew of items that are good at covering bad odors with their aroma and absorbing them at the same time. Our suggestion is to take apple peels, orange peels, rosemary, cinnamon, and anything else you can think of that smells great and cook it up on the stove. What you are making might not be edible and the ingredients might not taste very good together, but you can kill odors this way.
These are just a few suggestions you can try, and we hope they help you get rid of bad odors. We want you to have a kitchen that smells clean and delightful, and some or several of these methods can be used the next time you have an unwelcome smell in the kitchen.