Tips to get rid of cooking smells in your house or apartment

While preparing food, so many different aromas start lingering that you don’t want to be there once you’ve finished cooking. After an initial clean-up and opening the windows to air, there’s the possibility that certain strong odors such as fried fish or grease smells are still there and sneak into the other rooms too, especially if you have an open plan kitchen or live in a small apartment. Spraying chemical containing air fresheners is not an option in the kitchen, so you need natural solutions to stop those gross odors. Here I share 10 effective ways on how to get rid of cooking smells in your house!

Light odor eliminating candles

There’re many sprays with sweet smells that banish odors around the home. However, the kitchen is a sensitive area and anything it’s critical to eliminate anything potentially harmful on food items to avoid ingesting contaminated foods. Lighting a scented candle will work effectively leaving your kitchen smelling fresh but be keen on the type of scent you choose since the wrong choice is as bad as grease smell.

Avoid food scented candles; a pumpkin pie candle smells amazing, but mixed with grease smell, it creates a weird, unpleasant aroma experience. Choose special kitchen odor eliminator candles that will not just cover but fully eliminate odors.

Get an air purifier

An air purifier is one of the most effective ways to remove cooking smells from your apartment. Choose a kitchen air purifier that has a HEPA or activated charcoal filter to deodorize your kitchen and neutralize all trapped smells, especially smoke and oil-related odors.

For optimal effectiveness, place the purifier near windows or close to doorways to enable the airflow from outside to be circulated through the purifier, distributing it in the kitchen.

Prepare a simmering potpourri

In modern houses, the cooking area often extends into the dining or living room which allows food odors to quickly spread even in those rooms you don’t want them to. To prevent such situations, simmering potpourri while you are cooking is a wonderful way of getting rid of cooking smells in an open plan kitchen.

There are many crock pot potpourri recipes that you can try according to the season recipes, but if you have just a few ingredients at home such as orange and lemon, you can still create a natural kitchen freshener. Put the citrus slices with a few pieces of cinnamon and cloves in a pot on the cooker for almost 15 minutes before you finish cooking. As the mixture warms up, it will help to cut through cooking smells in the house.

Put lemon slices in the trash can

A smelly garbage bin may undo all the hard work you spent on cleaning the cooking area after preparing food, but here is a cheap and simple trick. Lemon dials down smells in a home even when left on the counter uncut, but in this case, place some freshly cut lemons in the bin; it will help to stop the garbage smell until you take the bin out.

Invest in a quality range hood

Besides an air purifier, a professional hood range is the best way of getting rid of cooking smells. It requires a little investment indeed, but you can a very effective and easy-to-use device that will allow you to get better ventilation than through windows. No matter whether you live in a house or a small apartment, a quality range hood is a must-have if you want to keep your home free of gross cooking smells.

Install a hood directly above the cookers or any above countertops where cooked food rests before you serve them. Hoods work best on hot odors than cold so make sure the switch it on as soon as you start cooking and don’t forget to clean the filters regularly.

Cook or bake something good smelling

One ideal way to get rid of cooking odors in your house is by preparing food that smells good. Cinnamon rolls or apple pie can easily conquer smells from shrimp and chicken broth. A tasty aroma is guaranteed, and you’ll have something to serve as dessert; I love these 2-in-1 solutions!

Use baking soda

A versatile, effective natural air freshener for cooking smells is baking soda that you can use in various ways around the kitchen area. It works as a neutralizing agent for acidic food smells by balancing the pH. Surfaces such as the counter or a chopping board become odorless when sprinkled with baking soda, and it works wonders if it comes to deodorizing pots and pans after cooking something smelly in them.

Remove odors with vinegar

Another budget-friendly and natural kitchen odor-removing method is vinegar. Leaving vinegar in a shallow bowl on the counter overnight helps to neutralize odors, but if it comes to strong smells, boiling a half cup of vinegar over a stove is the best. The pot should be left open to ensure steam circulation across the kitchen and in the whole house.

This trick is the most effective if you start boiling the vinegar as soon as you start cooking something smelly, for example when frying fish, but I understand that not everyone likes the sour smell of it. The good news is that it also works as an absorbent after the smells have started lingering!

Make your own air freshener spray

Store-bought spray bottles to eliminate smells that may contain harmful ingredients, and therefore a DIY solution is recommended. Start with an empty spray bottle, fill it with ¼ cup witch hazel and 1 cup water then add eight drops of lavender, lemon, and eucalyptus essential oils.

Shake it well and spray around the countertops, stove, and vents before letting the fan run for a minimum of 5 minutes for efficiency. A fresh, clean aroma will replace gross food smells immediately!

Ground coffee

The worst kind of smell you can have in your house is the odor from frying oil since it is sticking to clothes and couches. A bowl of ground coffee on top of the countertop overnight gets rid of cooking smells in an open-plan kitchen. The acidic grounds help break down odorant compounds and deodorize the kitchen.

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