Natural ways to remove odours from your home and household items

The hotter it gets, the more your home and things inside your house can smell.

Making your home a positive place to be is sometimes as simple as making it smell good. We love to smell beautiful and be surrounded by nice smells – even walking into a fresh home can improve your mood!

Here’s how to banish those bad smells from the stinkiest places in the home, naturally.

Rubbish bin

Does your rubbish bin frequently unpleasant and stinky, even after emptying? Here’s how to make some deodorising disks to freshen it up.

Fridge

Got a constant smell in your fridge, but swear blind there’s nothing causing it? There’s a very simply solution: simply keep a small container or the box of bicarb soda in the bottom. Changing every few months.

Sink

Whether you have an insinkerator or just a normal drain, it can get a bit smelly as the food leftovers and other things dry out. Your bathroom sink could get very stinky especially.

To fix this, here’s a simply drain cleaner recipe.

Ingredients

• 1 cup vinegar
• 1/4 cup bicarb
• 1L hot water

Method

• Pour the bicarb down the sink and let sit for a couple of minutes.
• Pour the vinegar and let it fizz up and settle. Leave for 15 minutes
• Rinse it all with hot water.

The carpet

Nothing traps odour more than your carpet – it grabs all the dust and grime from outside, plus pet smells and smoke. Don’t bother with the expensive carpet cleaners or talcums, this natural solution will be the job!

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup borax
• 1/2 cup bicarb soda
• 1 teaspoon your choice of essential oils

Method

1. Combine borax and bicarb soda in a bowl.
2. Add about 20-25 drops of essential oil and stir to combine
3. Transfer powder to an empty jar, preferably one with small holes in the top.
4. Shake the powder onto your carpets at let sit for 15 to 20 minutes before vacuuming.

Toilet

Even after you clean the toilet, it can get a bit smelly from time to time. Commercially made toilet cleaners introduce a lot of harsh chemicals into your bathroom, but this natural DIY toilet bomb recipe costs just a fraction… and really works!

Makes ~40 bombs

Ingredients

• 1 cup cornstarch
• 1 cup bi-carb soda
• 1/2 cup citric acid
• 1/4 cup washing soda
• 100ml water
• 10 drops of your favourite essential oil

Also needed:

• spray bottle
• gloves
• shaped mould

Directions

1. Wearing gloves, mix the cornstarch, bi-carb, citric acid and washing soda in a large bowl.
2. Mix the water and essential oil in the spray bottle.
3. Spray the cornstarch mixture with the water mixture. Add the water slowly while you’re mixing.
4. When you squeeze the mixture, it should hold its shape.
5. Press the mixture into the mould and let dry for at least one hour.
6. Place in your toilet tank!

The rest of the house

Scented wood blocks

All you need is:

• Wood blocks
• Scented oil or perfume
• Small paint brushes

Simply paint the oil on to the wood blocks and then put into a container with a few drops of the perfume or oil and shake. Let it sit overnight and done! Display in a decorative bowl.

Orange peel candles

Oranges aren’t just for eating! For a delicious smelling (and tasting!) candle, all you need is:

• Oranges (how ever many you like)
• Knife
• Oil (canola, vegetable or olive)
• Candle lighter

Cut the orange in half and run the knife around the edges, loosening the fruit from the peel. Grab a fork and scrape the inside of the orange out without removing the inside stem (in centre of orange), Fill 3/4 of the orange halve with oil and let sit for 45 minutes. Try to light the orange (you’ll need a candle lighter so it can hold the flame for longer) by heating up the stem for 2-3 minutes until black and dry to the touch. It should relight easily after this!

Room spray

For a little spritz of freshness, you can also make your own room spray.

All you need is:

• Essential oil
• Clean spray bottle (small)
• Water
• Vodka

Add 10-20 drops of oil (or a combination) to a clean spray bottle filled with 3 parts water and 1 part vodka – voila!

Natural home scent recipes..