Making sure that your meals are good for your health usually means preparing it yourself in your kitchen, and enthusiastic cooks would spend more time in them than the average homeowner resulting in a used up room. After repeated cooking of food, storing of ingredients, and cleaning of dishes, a kitchen would usually be neglected and not properly maintained resulting in the dirtiest room in the entire house.
The kitchen is usually called the dirtiest place in the house, and this also means that it is one of the worst smelling rooms in your home. The kitchen is typically messy because of neglect once the food is finished cooking and prepared in the dining room.
A smelly kitchen is by no means healthy. Just think about preparing your food in a stinky room while having no idea what the source of the foul stench is. It’s uncomfortable and potentially harmful; soon enough, you’ll lose your appetite and settle for fast food.
Cleaning up your kitchen is vital to ensure you stay healthy and the room stays fresh. Here are five ways to eliminate bad smells in the kitchen.
- Placing an open box of baking soda in the refrigerator
Baking soda can counter and absorb foul scents thanks to its alkaline substance. Leftover foodstuffs leave a terrible odor inside the fridge that affects the taste of other food stored within, making neutralizing the bad smell necessary.
An open box of baking soda left in the fridge will have the particles stick to it. You can let it stay for 30 days before replacing it. Since the baking soda absorbed the stench, it cannot be reused for cooking as it already contains the particles bearing the foul odor that would affect the flavor of the food.
An alternative to baking soda is charcoal and dry coffee grounds that would also eliminate the bad smell.
- Sprinkling lemon juice in musty-prone areas
Kitchen sinks can smell bad especially around the drainage area since it’s nearly always wet and not much air is circulating there. Lemon juice is another excellent solution to foul odors in musty-prone areas.
The acid in the lemons break down the mold in musty-prone areas and neutralize the smell.
Lemon juice is another excellent smell neutralizer that works by sprinkling it on musty-prone areas. You can add boiling water for more effective results.
- Keeping the ventilation going
The bad smell stays even when the cause is gone because the air isn’t circulating. Rooms with inadequate ventilation systems suffer from foul stenches because of stagnant air. Installing a ceiling fan can help freshen a room.
A ceiling fan would circulate and introduce fresh air to take away the bad smell. It can also cool the room down during the summer season by continually moving in the air.
If your kitchen has windows, opening them up would aid in ventilating the room by allowing the bad smell to go out and bringing in fresh air from outside. They are also good alternatives when trying to reduce power consumption.
The ventilation system is vital not only in the kitchen but also in other rooms to keep the house fresh.
- Disposing of used sponges
You use sponges to clean dirty dishes, but after continuous use, they become colonies of disease-causing bacteria. It is recommended to disinfect them after every use. However, cleaning them does not assure that they can long-term use.
After two to three weeks of continuous use, replace your sponges with new ones. Disinfecting sponges to prolong their lives are difficult since shortcomings in the process might lead to the proliferation of the bacteria residing in the sponges. It is advisable to dispose of them rather than regularly cleaning them.
The typical sign that sponges are infected is when they start to stink. Some bacteria may remain in sponges even after continuous disinfection.
- Cleaning as you cook
Cooking can be messy especially when you need to prepare a lot of meals. Sauces can spill, wrappers pile up, and dishes accumulate resulting in a filthy kitchen. Cooking is also tiring which makes cleaning up a burden.
There are times of lull though, and they’re usually the times when you wait for the food to finish. Cleanup is possible while waiting for the food. Spills can even be cleaned immediately as long as you have a towel nearby.
Wipe any spills as soon as possible before you forget about them. Once the spills accumulate, the kitchen will stink with a mixture of odors that can hurt the nose.
Take all the litter and throw them in the trash bin while waiting for food to finish cooking. Wrappers tend to have some residual powder in them that give off different odors based on the product. Disposing of them would significantly improve the smell of the kitchen.
Maintaining the cleanliness of the kitchen is essential in keeping it fresh. Taking out the odor without disposing of the cause won’t do anything to benefit your health. Click here to see Mr Cabinet Care’s infographic in eliminating the bad smells in the kitchen.
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