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Onion in the basement and other surprising home de-odorizers
Categories: Just For Moms, Money & Work, Health & Safety
For the love of all things holy, the smell is everywhere. It catches me by surprise: when I open the freezer, the top drawer of my dresser, Nolan's play basket. The lingering remnants of skunk have sunk into every pore in my house, no matter how hard I scrub, or bathe, or furiously add vinegar to various rinse cycles. The rains have come again today, which makes it even worse: the moment Jordi gets wet, the entire neighbourhood is socked in the middle of the face with the smell of a thousand dead walruses. Awesome! More reasons to be loved.
So finding this article on 8 surprising home deodorizers has come in very handy. I tried Lysol and whole coffee beans scattered strangely throughout each hard-hit room to no avail. But according to Real Simple, the truly effective de-stinkers are a little unconventional.
For example, did you know that half an onion will make your basement smell fresh? (And non-oniony!) And vanilla extract will de-funkify your freezer. Vodka works on funky-smelling clothes. Weird!
Anyway, the list doesn't say anything about de-skunking several days after the fact, but if I combine vodka, vanilla, and onion and smear them all around the house, I'll finally get rid of this appalling scent.
If you have any raunchy smells of your own lingering around the house, check this out. The cure for the stinky dog-bed awaits.
So finding this article on 8 surprising home deodorizers has come in very handy. I tried Lysol and whole coffee beans scattered strangely throughout each hard-hit room to no avail. But according to Real Simple, the truly effective de-stinkers are a little unconventional.
For example, did you know that half an onion will make your basement smell fresh? (And non-oniony!) And vanilla extract will de-funkify your freezer. Vodka works on funky-smelling clothes. Weird!
Anyway, the list doesn't say anything about de-skunking several days after the fact, but if I combine vodka, vanilla, and onion and smear them all around the house, I'll finally get rid of this appalling scent.
If you have any raunchy smells of your own lingering around the house, check this out. The cure for the stinky dog-bed awaits.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Franny 8-08-2007 @ 9:53AM
Mythbusters says that baking soda+ hydrogen peroxide + dish soap helps to cut the smell, and its apparently better than the commercial shampoos and cleaners, so that's something that's relatively inexpensive you could try on Jordi and the dog bed.
Reply
Groovymarlin 8-08-2007 @ 9:59AM
Ah yes, the onion. Apparently an onion absorbs odors. I remember when I was a child my mother would always set out half an onion when my father was painting a room; it did seem to help cut down on the paint smell.
I've heard washing with tomato juice can help eliminate skunk odor, but thankfully I don't have firsthand experience with it. Here's a link to the baking soda concoction: http://www.chastainvets.info/focus/fs_skunk.htm. Be careful and don't store any - apparently it can explode if left in a bottle.
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Ethel 8-08-2007 @ 10:08AM
When I worked the slime line and freezer crew processing salmon we'd use cola, either fresh or flat, to help with the fish stink that gets ground into the clothes. So cola might help as well. But that could be along the line of never bringing a banana on board to avoid sinking the boat.
Reply
Meg 8-08-2007 @ 11:38AM
"The smell of a thousand dead walruses. . ."
Hah -- this description made me laugh out loud, Kristin! Oh man, I so can smell that from here just thinking about it.
We use Citrus Magic (orange non-aerosol spray) in my office and it works amazingly well. I find the citrus smell not nearly as offensive as more flowery kinds of air fresheners, and it's all-natural, no chemicals, cruelty-free, and the company does a lot of great stuff to boot. http://www.citrusmagic.com/
Good luck with the dead walruses! :)
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LS 8-08-2007 @ 3:32PM
I second the Citrus Magic. I used to work in a Vet Clinic, and you can't imagine smells like the ones we occasionally had to deal with (anal glands, Parvo, the list goes on and on. Yuk). We found that the Citrus Magic not only cut through most of the most offensive smells, it was light and pleasant without the cloying nastiness from most of the commercial "air fresheners" or disinfectants.
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