Baking soda is a natural deodorizer and a fine abrasive — that's good for odor absorption and scrubbing. Vinegar's acid cuts through grease and shines things up, making it a winner for cleaning hard surfaces like countertops and windows.
Baking soda is great for absorbing the smells, but it doesn't happen instantly. -Combine with vinegar and use it in lieu of soapy water to scrub down particularly odorous surfaces.
Sprinkle the mixture onto fabric surfaces, including carpeting, and let sit for 30 minutes or overnight. Vacuum up the baking soda mixture, and with it, those bad smells.
Baking soda, unlike most commercial air fresheners, doesn't mask odors, “it absorbs them," says Mary Marlowe Leverette, a home economist and blogger. Baking soda (sodium bicarbonate in a convenient box) neutralizes stubborn acidic odors -- like those from sour milk -- as well as other funky smells lurking in your home.
For instance, vinegar is potent at fighting mold while baking soda is great at fighting wine and coffee stains. The former is a better disinfectant but the latter is a phenomenal deodorizer.
How long will a bowl of vinegar absorb odors for? You can leave a bowl of vinegar out in the kitchen for several hours and it will help to get rid of smells.
Yet a few inexpensive household essentials you probably have on hand already—vinegar, salt, coffee, baking soda, hydrogen peroxide—will neutralize most noxious odors around your home and in your vehicles.
#1 - Baking soda
Baking soda is one of the best items you can use to absorb bad smells. You can leave an open box or bowl of baking soda in your refrigerator and sprinkle some in the bottom of your trash cans to neutralize foul odors that tend to develop in these places.
Several common household items (most notably baking soda and white vinegar) contain powerful properties that eliminate smells without the use of chemicals. But less-commonly known products like coffee and vodka can do wonders when it comes to eliminating, not simply covering, bad smells.
Although mixing vinegar and baking soda is not considered dangerous, you should still avoid mixing these in a container. Vinegar is acidic and basic soda is basic, so the by-products are sodium acetate, carbon dioxide, and water that are not toxic.
Some of the best odor eliminators are coffee grounds, tea, vinegar, oats, and baking soda. Leaving a bowl of any of these odor absorbers out in a room that's due for a little freshening up will help clear out the less-than-pleasant smells from the air.
Add about 25 drops of your favorite essential oil to 2 tablespoons of baking soda and stir to combine. Lemon and lavender are great choices, but eucalyptus is my favorite because of the refreshing scent. Pour the baking soda and essential oil mix into the water and stir. Then funnel the water into your spray bottle.
Mixing baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) and vinegar (acetic acid) causes a chemical reaction that produces a salt (sodium acetate) and water, as well as carbon dioxide gas.
It depends on the air flow in the space. However, vinegar actively looks for things to bind to. In most cases, it won't take more than 5-15 minutes for the smell to go away.
The acetic acid in vinegar neutralizes alkaline odors, which means it can help get rid of cooking smells cheaply and easily. Some people make a diluted solution of vinegar and keep it in a spray bottle to mist around the room. This covers a lot of area at once for a quicker fix.
Vinegar: To use vinegar as a deodorizer, fill up several cups with vinegar and place them around the home. This absorbs the dead animal's foul odor and makes the area smell better.
Deodorize the Room
Unpleasant odors lurk in the carpets, rugs, and upholstery. To remove these musty smells, fill a dish with half an inch of white vinegar and leave it out in the room until the smell dissipates.
Add in 1 cup of baking soda into whatever you're mixing or storing you air freshener in. Baking soda is great at absorbing odors, it is what will suck all of the bad smells out of the air leaving your room smelling fresh and clean.
Successful removal agents include potassium permanganate, sodium hypochlorite, chlorine dioxide, ozone and dichromate.
Of course, over time, the smell will dissipate, but you shouldn't have to wait around for the smell to fade. Here's how to mask the smell of white distilled vinegar or apple cider vinegar without affecting its cleaning power.