-Pour a few inches of baking soda into shallow bowls and leave them uncovered around the odorous rooms of the house for a few days. 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Baking soda alone can be used to remove odors from almost anything, from refrigerators to carpet. Just sprinkle some in the offending area (on the carpet, in your shoes) and let it sit or put some on a plate and let it sit. It just sucks the odor right out of there.
Baking Soda deodorizes by bringing both acidic and basic odor molecules into a neutral, more odor-free state. Use Baking Soda as a personal deodorant for underarms and feet, and as a household deodorant on carpets, upholstery and in the fridge and freezer. Baking Soda can also deodorize when it's dissolved in water.
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.
Baking soda is pure sodium bicarbonate, a fine white powder that has many uses. You may wonder about bicarbonate of soda vs. baking soda, but they are simply alternate terms for the same ingredient. If your recipe calls for bicarbonate of soda, it is simply referring to baking soda.
Anything with deep grooves or cracks. Baking soda leaves behind a white, dusty residue after it dries. Therefore, you should never use it to clean surfaces with deep grooves or cracks because the residue will get left behind and can build up.
Baking soda is best for odor absorption in concentrated areas, like inside your pantry shelves or your fridge. Keep an open box in these areas to prevent odors. Baking soda is also a powerful cleaning agent and can be used to absorb odors in carpet or furniture stains, so keeping an extra box handy is never a bad idea.
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.
Keep your home ventilated
Mould, mildew and other microbes thrive in moisture-rich environments, so one of the best ways to starve them off is by keeping your home ventilated. If your room smells musty, allow fresh, dry air to circulate by opening windows and doors wherever possible.
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.
The reaction is: Sodium bicarbonate and acetic acid reacts to carbon dioxide, water and sodium acetate. The solid baking soda was placed in liquid vinegar producing carbon dioxide gas, which is evident because of the formation of bubbles in the foaming mixture.
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.
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.
"Baking soda is basic and vinegar is acidic," says Bock. "When you put them together you get mostly water and sodium acetate. But really, just mostly water." Plus, vinegar causes baking soda to foam up. If stored in a closed container, the mixture can explode.
That's right, bicarbonate of soda is the secret ingredient that's going to get your soft furnishings looking and smelling great again. Bicarbonate of soda not only neutralises smells, but as you've no doubt witnessed in many of our natural cleaning articles, is also a sensationally powerful, natural cleaner.
Bicarb soda has 3 to 4 times more power than baking powder, so if you need baking powder and only have bicarb soda on hand, you will need to increase the amount of acidic ingredients in your recipe to offset bicarb's power.