It can be very frustrating when despite regular cleaning, your home still seems to have some unpleasant lingering smells. Like many, you’ve probably tried a range of options to improve the smell. However, lovely scented candles, febreeze, perfume plugins and essential oil diffusers just don’t cut it and will just mask some of the smells, offering only temporary relief. What you really need to do is address the root causes.
There could be several different causes contributing to the unwanted smells in your home, so it’s worth working your way through this list to eliminate each possibility.
Refresh Fabrics
Odours are easily and quickly absorbed by fabrics in your home – curtains, cushions, pet beds, setae covers – are all potential perpetrators for stinky smells. Ensure they are regularly washed or dry cleaned and in order to avoid future smells, you may wish to consider opting for blinds (not made from fabric) or leather sofas which are easier to keep clean and will soak up fewer smells.
Renew your Wood
If you have natural wood doors or skirting board, whilst they look wonderful, they could be a cause of some of the unpleasant odours in your home. Wood soaks up smells very easily and over time these can emit stale or musty odours. To address this, you can retreat and seal the wood or ideally, it may be more beneficial to replace your interior doors, skirting boards or any other natural wood culprits in your home.
Clean your Bin
Whilst you may regularly empty your bin and replace with a new bin liner, often the bottom of your bin can start to accumulate a certain amount of rubbish debris, kitchen bins, in particular, can get pretty grimy! Although it may seem like a chore, giving your bin a thorough clean with a disinfectant after emptying it will reduce the chance of debris accumulating and foul smells developing. You can also double up your bin liners to reduce potential drips and leaks.
Fridge Clear Out
Because we use our refrigerators on a daily basis, it can often get neglected in the weekly clean! Together with ensuring you regularly dispose of out of date food, it can be wise to take everything out every few weeks and give it an thoroughly good clean! You can also reduce potential odours by sealing particularly smelly food like cheese and meats.
Shampoo your Carpet
Carpets can be a prime suspect when it comes to nasty odours in the home. You can, of course, replace them and perhaps consider laminate flooring. However, simply giving your carpet a deep ‘industrial’ clean occasionally can do wonders for eliminating smells. In addition, before your weekly vacuum, if you sprinkle bicarbonate of soda and leave it for 30 minutes to an hour you will find it may help in reducing the build-up of odours, as it acts as a neutralizer.
Unblock you Sink
Unbeknown to us our water and waste pipes can get quite clogged up with ‘gunk’ and often begin to emit foul odours which make their way up through the plug holes. To eliminate this possibility, regularly clear out your drainage pipes with a quality product and perhaps once a year get in the experts to do a more intensive clean. In addition, to prevent the build-up of waste in the pipes, avoid putting food debris and grease or animal fat down them.
Ventilation
If your property suffers from the build-up of mildew, making sure you have sufficient ventilation can be a great help. Opening windows, drying your clothes outside or using a dehumidifier can all help to reduce moisture in the home and alleviate the potential for rising damp and mold growth.
