Moving to a new house can be very exciting for everybody. New plans, new hopes and expectations ahead… We usually think of buying new furniture, making some small adjustments and reparations to make our new house a perfect place. However, being occupied with all these exciting and time consuming preparations, people usually do not foresee a very unexpected problem, such as bad smell in house. Unfortunately, this is not a very uncommon problem. Many people reported being ill after moving to their new place of residence. Very often it happened due to bad or toxic smell in house.
Why does my room smell bad?
Actually, there can be many stinking objects in your new room or apartment that spoil the air inside. However, paint smell in apartment one of the worst things, since it can be toxic and may cause sometimes headaches and allergies. Below we shall speak about this issue in details. However, you should keep in mind that there can be two reasons for malodours in your dwelling place:
- Internal
- External
In the first case, the stinking source is located in your house, while in the second case it means that such a source is located outside. It can be either still stinking water nearby your house, as well as rotten corpses of animals in the attic, in the basement or nearby. Sometimes bad air can penetrate your dwelling place through the air ventilation pipes. So, you should analyze all these possibilities if you want to win your fight against bad odours definitely.
How to get rid of smell in house
When you move into a new house, room or apartment, you may discover that it’s previous inhabitants have left some strange souvenirs behind, such as bad odour. So, what should you do if your new house smells bad? Your task in this case is to analyses it and try to understand what is the source of odor in new house. When you aired the dwelling several times, cleaned and washed it but the air still stinks to something, then you should look for some hidden stinking objects. You must reach all the hidden spots and verify whether there are some remainings of food that fell down and went wrong, or any forgotten package of food went wrong. Some wet rugs or spills of water may start stinking after a while. If a bird or a mouse or another small animal entered a house and then died, it’s course starts stinking after a while and your task in this case is to find and eliminate it.
As a matter of fact, stale smell in bedroom can be due not only to the closed space. In this case it is very easy to freshen the air, just leave the windows open for some time. However, your bedroom may stink also due to the fact that all linen, mattresses, curtains and other fabrics were soakened in this stale air for too long. In this case, the only effective solution would be to wash everything that you can wash and dry clean the rest of the stinking materials. Do not forget about the effectiveness of dry plants, like lavender or other ready made herbal sachets, as well as aromatic candles, to aromatize the stale air. There is also a wide range of natural odor absorbing materials you can use around your apartment, such as plates or decorative containers filled either with vinegar, or coffee grounds, as well as with water with some essential oil in it. Everything depends on your fantasy and availability of these simple natural remedies.
How to get rid of new wood smell
Very often we leave the old furniture behind and buy new one for our new place of residence. In this case, a new wood smell is inevitable, as well as in the case when some wooden construction materials were used for your newly build dwelling. As a matter of fact, new wood, if not treated heavily with all kind of chemicals, can have a pleasant natural scent of forest and pure nature. Some people really like a scent of fresh natural wood. If you do not like it, you can use air sprays, air the rooms, but eventually you won’t perceive any trace of it already after few days. If you cannot wait to get rid of new wood smell, you can speed up that process. Leave the window open daily for few hours. Wash wood surface with vinegar and water 1:1. Sprinkling wood surface with baking soda and leaving it overnight will also help removing wood smell from house.
A much worser case is when your new wooden products stink more of chemicals than of fresh wood, so that there is chemical smell in house. Especially it is alarming, when we speak not about massive timber but about glued timber, products made either from glued vaneer, plywood or sow dust. This glue can emanate toxic gases, for example, formaldehyde, whose emission should be strictly controlled and certified, since it’s highly poisonous. In general, if your newly built home stinks of chemicals, try to air and ventilate it very well. If there is no much improvement, you probably should contact specialist or use professional air cleaning equipment. Anyway, do not stop half way, since stinking chemicals can be damaging your health.
Remember: they can cause severe allergies, headaches, suffocation.
How to get rid of mold smell in house
Second dangerous to your health is the mold smell in house. It is a signal for your immediate action.
Attention: mold can trigger some of the severe allergies, as well as other health problems, especially in people with weakened or suppressed immune system.
Hence, start inspecting your home immediately to locate it and remove it definitely. This is exactly the case when you must fight with the cause (mold) and not with the consequences (mold stink). It is possible to get rid of musty mildew smell in house only if you identify the location of mold and remove it using either bleach or vinegar solution. If you say to yourself “my house smells musty”, it means that there are moist, dark and poorly ventilated areas in it. You should improve these conditions, otherwise mold and mildew will come back. There are always some mold spores around the house, but they won’t start multiplicating unless they find dark, humid spot with stale air.
How to get rid of food smells in your house
Cooking can be definitely a great fun, to say nothing about eating tasty food. Unfortunately, some great dishes and foods stink a lot: just think about fresh fish, garlic, onions, curry, etc. Luckily, cooking smell is not dangerous to your health and cooking smell removal is relatively an easy enterprise. Of course, try always to use a cooking smell removing machine, but if you don’t have one, here are some simple tips on the basis of very simple things you surely have at home. Our old friend white vinegar can solve this problem effectively, just pour a cup of it on the plate and place it in the kitchen. Another simple remedy is soda bicarbonate. Just leave an open package of soda in the kitchen, it will help getting rid of cooking smell in the house. Also remainings of coffee can neutralize various stinks in the kitchen. Leave some coffee grounds here and there on the plates to keep the air in the kitchen clean. Otherwise, you can boil slowly lemon peels or some sticks of cinnamon for the same purpose.
How to get rid of wood stove smell
Actually, having a wood stove in the house inevitably means to have some smoke smell around. Even if you are very careful, some smoke will always escape when you add wood. However, here are some tips to reduce the smoke scent in your home. First of all, remove all the cold ashes immediately and keep it outside. Wash all the curtains, table cloth, etc. regularly. Sprinkle your upholstered furniture with baking soda in the evening and remove it the next day, it will neutralize smoke smell. You may also use white vinegar and activated charcoal on the plates around the house to keep the air clean.
How to get rid of new stove smell
Many specialists say that new stove smell is inevitable, especially it is true of new ovens. So, unless you smell gas, it is normal that your new stove or oven stink when used for the first time. Some say it is due to the protective oil coating which stinks while burning. Anyway, let your new stove work before it stops stinking, usually few cycles are enough. Do not cook any meals during the first time, otherwise your food may also stink.
How to get rid of new carpet fumes
New carpet from wall to wall can definitely look great but it can be also a source of a very unpleasant odour due to volatile organic compounds. So, how to get rid of odour in the room with a carpet? Remember, that also the glue which fixes the carpet to the floor can contribute greatly to this problem. When VOC get into the air, we have off-gassing in a new home. This is how to get rid of new carpet fumes. Usually, the higher the temperature, the sooner the fumes will disappear. So, use the heating and open windows every few hours, this is how to get smell out of house. With this procedure, you can air out a house, however, it will raise your electricity bill immensely. As an alternative, use vacuum cleaner daily as the best way to get the carpet smell out of house. As a, matter of fact, you can also sprinkle the carpet with baking soda, since it is a good odor removing material. Leave it overnight and then vacuum clean. If you are wondering how long does outgassing of your new carpet last (or of any other new building materials in your new home), then keep in mind that usually it takes some time removing carpet smell from house, up to 3 weeks. If even after that period you are still wondering how to get rid of carpet smell in house, then probably, you’d better invite specialists to see what is wrong with your carpet or it’s glue.
How to get rid of paint smell
Fresh paint fumes can last rather long, up to a week. Some of these fumes can be toxic and cause headaches. However, you can get rid of smell of paint quicker. Place a bucket with water in the center of a painted room and leave it overnight. It will help to get rid of fresh paint smell. Freshly cut onions, placed in different corners of the painted room is just another trick what gets rid of paint fumes. Peel some onions, cut them in four pieces and put it in different places. It is a given fact that fresh water absorbs paint smells very well. However, if you think that it is not effective enough and in case you want a more effective solution, you may add other components as well. For example, some white vinegar and salt, added to water bucket in the center of a room is what absorbs paint smell. Also, do not forget that the warmer the air in the room, the quicker the paint fumes are emanated. Hence, if you are in a hurry, you can heat the room and open windows for some time to get the fumes out, then close the windows and heat again. After several similar cycles the stinking air will become cleaner.
How to get rid of chemicals & insecticide smell
If your new dwelling stinks to insecticides, it is both good news and bad news. On the other hand, it means that the previous inhabitants or landlords took care to kill the insects before your arrival. The bad news is, that these insects may come back any moment if the treatment was not adequate or effective enough. Anyway, it is a sign of alert for you. Try to get information about the reasons for this treatment and what was done exactly. Now, as far as the smell itself is concerned. Probably, the best way is to keep the windows open for several hours every day for several days. As a matter of fact, it also works if you must get rid of stale smell in bedroom.
Important: always try to understand the source of malodours as it can be dangerous to your health. If it is the cause, fight the source, and only then the smell itself.