How to Get Rid of Cooking Smells in a Small Apartment: 10 Easy Ways

Reviewed by Brandon Pleshek

Small apartments don’t always have the best ventilation systems, which explains why your whole apartment smells like yesterday’s dinner. It’s normal for cooking smells to linger while cooking. What’s not pleasant, though, is when these odors stick around long after the meal is over.

If your range hood isn’t enough to repel stubborn smells or if you don’t have one to begin with, don’t despair. Here are 10 tried-and-true ways to get rid of cooking smells in a small apartment—and most are natural.

Increase Ventilation in Your Apartment

First things first: get the air moving. The most obvious choice would be to open nearby windows to waft the cooking odors out. But if it’s pouring rain, too cold, or there are high levels of pollution outside, you might want to resort to air-circulating devices. Ceiling fans, portable fans, and air purifiers can all help drive off the stench quickly, plus improve indoor air quality at the same time.

Introduce Pleasing Scents

Ever heard of a chef’s candle? When lit, this type of candle counteracts stinky cooking smells and replaces them with something more aromatic, like fresh herbs or vanilla for example. If you’re looking for a stronger scent experience, consider oil diffusers. Lemon, orange, and tea tree oils will make any small space smell fresh and clean without being overbearing.

Tip

Neutralize or air out lingering cooking smells—unless you’re burning a chef’s candle while cooking—before introducing a new scent to avoid a clash of odors. Doing this first provides a clean canvas for the new scent to kick in.

Maximize Your Coffee’s Potential

Don’t throw away your coffee grounds just yet. Not only does coffee help shake off morning grogginess, but it also neutralizes smells from the night before. Put those used coffee grounds in a small bowl or spread them on a plate before you go to bed. You could also use this as an excuse to brew a fresh pot of coffee in the middle of the afternoon. The strong scent is sure to mask unpleasant food smells right away.

Deodorize Your Upholstery

If your sofa has been smelling like bacon for a while now, that is because the smell of cooked food can seep into and linger on upholstery fabrics. The same goes for bedsheets, rugs, carpets, curtains, and clothes. Luckily, there are a handful of ways to naturally deodorize textiles at home. A light spritz of linen spray will also do the trick, which is great for freshening up your furnishings in seconds.

Use Baking Soda

Baking soda is a well-loved, non-toxic cleaner with multiple uses. Simply sprinkle a few tablespoons of baking soda on a plate and let it sit overnight to soak up the smells of last night’s dinner. Give this one a go when cooking acidic foods like tomatoes, meat, and fish.

Clean as You Go

Did you know that oil splatters on your kitchen backsplash, cabinets, and walls can hold on to food smells? For this reason, it’s best to wash dirty dishes, wipe your counters, clear the stove, and sweep your kitchen floor as you go. We get it, cleaning right away sounds dreadful, but leaving the mess overnight smells worse. Put on your favorite playlist to make these cleaning sessions a little more bearable and fun.

Naturally Add Fragrance to Your Kitchen

Nothing beats natural, comforting fragrances. To create your own homemade air freshener, fill a pan with water and add your favorite fruits, herbs, and spices. Some popular examples include lemon rinds, apple slices, cranberries, cinnamon sticks, cloves, and lavender. Bring to a boil and let it simmer for as long as you’d like to combat unwanted kitchen odors.

Tip

Not sure what to do with your leftover simmer pot? Strain the remaining water in a spray bottle and use it as a room spray. As for the ingredients, store them in an air-tight container to reuse next time.

Turn to Your Trusty Vinegar

There really isn’t much that vinegar can’t do in the cleaning world. So, it comes as no surprise that vinegar is a smell-neutralizer too. Fill a bowl or two with white vinegar and leave them on your kitchen counter to cancel out any strong cooking smells. Some even go as far as simmering a cup of water and a half cup of vinegar in a pot—your kitchen will smell vinegary at first before all the lingering smells dissipate. Another quick hack: make a vinegar spray and use it as an air freshener to zap pungent odors with little effort.

Stop Smells From Traveling Too Far

A simple way to stop smells from traveling around your small apartment is by having a garbage can with a lid and keeping it closed. Any smells from your cooking scraps and other garbage will be confined to the can.

You can also make sure to close your bedroom doors to limit how far cooking scents can go.  Use a draught excluder to prevent stubborn smells from passing through the gap at the bottom of the door. This is a must if you’re cooking seafood—one of the strongest smell offenders.

Equip Your Apartment With Odor Eliminators

Add a few odor eliminators around the kitchen to be ahead of the game before you even begin cooking. Activated charcoal bags are renowned for their ability to absorb pesky odors without chemicals. Another great example? A splatter screen with an activated carbon filter. If it isn’t evident enough, activated charcoal is a go-to for trapping odor molecules due to its porous structure.

Read Next: How to Get Stinky Smells Out of Clothes

Read the original article on The Spruce.