How to Eliminate Cooking Odor

Cooking odors can turn your home into a smelly mess.

Cooking home-cooked meals will fill the air with a delicious aroma. Unfortunately, these odors will last for days after you have consumed the meal. Lingering in the air, the cooking odors will attach themselves to furniture, walls and even your clothing and hair. Fortunately, various methods are available that will remove the odor from your home. These methods use common and inexpensive items that will eliminate the odors instead of merely masking them.

Things You'll Need

• Spray bottle
• White vinegar
• Baking soda
• Vacuum
• Sponge
• Lemon wedges
• Pot
• Cinnamon sticks
• Aluminum foil
• Baking sheet
• Bowls or cups

Instructions

1. Open as many doors and windows in your home as possible. This will help remove the stale air from the house.

2. Fill a spray bottle with white vinegar and mist curtains, upholstery and carpets. Let the white vinegar air-dry on the item. As the white vinegar's pungent odor dissipates, it will eliminate the cooking odors. Repeat the process as needed.

3. Sprinkle a layer of baking soda on carpet to remove cooking odors trapped in the carpet fibers. Leave the baking soda on the carpet for several hours before vacuuming up the soda. For tough odors, let the baking soda sit on the carpet for 24 hours.

4. Wash walls with white vinegar. Remove mirrors, pictures and decorations from your walls. Dampen a clean sponge in white vinegar and wipe -- do not rub -- the walls with the sponge. Let the vinegar dry on the walls.

5. Place several lemon wedges in a pot filled with water on your stove. Let the water begin to boil and turn the heat down just enough so it simmers. Let the water simmer dry. The lemons will eliminate the odors and fill your home's air with a citrus aroma.

6. Wrap several sticks of cinnamon in aluminum foil and place on a baking sheet. Set the baking sheet in 325 degree Fahrenheit preheated oven. Leave the aluminum-foil-wrapped cinnamon sticks in the oven for 15 minutes before turning the oven off and opening the door.

7. Fill bowls or cups with white vinegar and place in various locations around your home. The vinegar will absorb the cooking odors in the air. Leave the vinegar-filled bowls or cups out for 24 hours.

References

• "Good Housekeeping"; Ask Heloise: What's That Smell?; Heloise
• "Reader's Digest": How to Kill Kitchen Smells
• DreamLG.com: Cooking Wisdom
• Apartment Therapy; Eliminate Cooking Smells From A Studio Apartment; Laure Joliet; January 2009