How to Remove Odors from Home: Use Baking Soda

Remove odors from home, clothing, and even your body with baking soda--a step back into frugal living and more natural products.

Baking soda has no significant odor, so it does not mask the odors from your home with perfume like many of the sprays and detergents. It is inexpensive, harmless, and will not damage your home.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• baking soda
• odors in your home

1. Use baking soda in the laundry.
   
   Baking soda is great to remove odors in the laundry, including body odors. It also removes difficult odors like mothballs, cedar and tobacco from your clothing and fabrics. Add about one-half cup of baking soda and half the amount of detergent you usually use. Wash as usual.

2. Use baking soda before you wash.
   
   Baby clothes with sour odors can be soaked in baking soda prior to washing. This will remove the odors and usually the stains, too.

3. Soak stinky feet with baking soda.
   
   If you like to soak your feet, or if your feet smell bad, soak in a pan of water with about half a cup of baking soda to eliminate foot odors. Also, wash socks by hand in about a fourth of a cup of baking soda to a gallon of water, and dry without a rinse. This will keep your feet from smelling bad.

4. Clean kitchen appliances with baking soda.
   
   Smells in the microwave can be cleaned with about a fourth of a cup of baking soda in two cups of water. Boil for a couple of minutes and let it cool with the door closed. Open the door, and use the remaining water and soda mixture to wipe down the interior of the microwave.
   
   The oven racks and refrigerator can also be cleaned with baking soda and water mixture. Check the owner's manual for a self-cleaning oven to be sure baking soda is an acceptable cleaner if you choose to use it on the inside of the oven.
   
   Many homemakers leave an open box of baking soda in the refrigerator to absorb odors as the occur. We often use two layers of plastic wrap instead of one when we cover spicy foods, to prevent refrigerator odors.

5. Keep baking soda in the bathroom.
   
   Baking soda cleans the bathtub scum better than most commercial cleaners, and removes drain odors as you rinse. It works in the sink and commode, too, and removes odors as you clean.

Tips & Warnings

• We often write about frugal living and natural products. See more articles in Resources below
• Copyright 2009 Linda Richard
• Feel free to link to this article or send it to a friend.

Resources

• Repel Bugs and Animals with Cayenne Pepper
• Prevent Bee Stings
• Dispose of Prescription Drugs
• Use Baking Soda to Wash Laundry
• Make Christmas Window Ice
• Save Energy with a Washer and Dryer

[bellerose]

on 11/12/2009 Great article with many not-so-common applicationsfor baking soda. I was glad to see that there is something that can get rid of the smell of mothballs! 5*

[godfather25]

on 11/12/2009 These are great ways to remove odors from your home.