How to get rid of cooking smells
Stinky odors, begone!
Updated December 20, 2022
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There's something comforting about walking into a home filled with the aroma of good ol’ home cooking. Whether it's your mom's famous enchiladas or your husband's Sunday morning bacon, food nourishes not only our bodies but also our souls, and the smell of it cooking feels like home.
However, there are times when you need to rid your home of cooking odors, too—no one wants their clothes to smell like last night's burger. So, here are 11 ways to get rid of cooking smells at home.
Not only does this cooking screen absorb odor, but it can also catch stray oils that fly out of the pan.
Charcoal cooking screens, such as the popular KitchenAid Gourmet Odor Absorbing Cooking Screen, sit atop a pot or pan while cooking and filter odors before they have a chance to escape into your kitchen. Plus, it helps reduce splatter, so you don't have stinky food residue hiding in places you can't easily clean.
$22 at Amazon
Air purifiers can be multifunctional for various areas around your home.
Aside from helping to reduce allergens and kill airborne viruses, air purifiers also help to filter and remove odors from our homes. Look for an air purifier that excels at trapping VOCs like the Winix Air Purifier, placing one in your kitchen can help remove food odors.
$160 at Amazon
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Cooking is a messy task, with spills and splatter being inevitable. But leaving all that mess on your stove means that you are also leaving odors behind, so make sure to give your stovetop a good scrubbing when you are done washing the dishes.
Pay attention to the side of the stove where food can drip and hide, and don't forget to check underneath the hood vent where food splatter messes can hide and fester into unpleasant smells.
If you are a regular in the kitchen, consider investing in a quality vented hood range, which vents cooking odors outdoors. This helps eliminate cooking odors before they escape the stove area.
Not all hood ranges are the same and some offer only subpar suction power, which is why regular chefs will want to invest in this kitchen feature in the same way they invest in quality appliances, pans, and knives.
$225 at Amazon
It may seem odd that by adding more smells to your kitchen you can reduce the cooking smells in your home, but vinegar, coffee grinds, and baking soda actually absorb and neutralize odors in the air.
By leaving individual bowls of them out overnight, you can help trap and eliminate odors; bonus, you can use this same method to remove the smell of skunk, cigarette smoke, and any other odor that lingers around your house.
Create a calming and aromatic vibe for your home.
Many people think of oil diffusers in connection with diffusing oils to boost your mood, calm your nerves, and possibly improve your immune system, but the potent oils also work to replace unpleasant odors in the home.
Stick with the oils bergamot, grapefruit, lemon, lime, mandarin, sweet orange, and tangerine to help neutralize cooking smells, since they are strong in scent without being overbearing. An essential oil diffuser like the Saje Aroma Om is one of the best you can buy right now.
$98 at Saje
The Febreeze Unstoppables fabric spray is light and fragrant.
Although most of the cooking cleanup happens in the kitchen, many cooked food smells actually settle into fabrics throughout the rest of your house. Spraying fabrics with a deodorizer like Febreze Unstopables is an easy way to eliminate cooking odors, and it only takes a few minutes.
A light mist of fabric deodorizer, paying special attention to the carpet, upholstered furniture, and curtains, is typically plenty to rid of cooking odors in your home.
$10 at Amazon
Dark, wet, and prime for growing bacteria, your garbage disposal is one of the dirtiest things in your kitchen—you just can't always see it. Cleaning a garbage disposal is as difficult as you might imagine. With a little elbow grease you can get rid of food residue before it has time to start smelling like a three-day-old dinner.
For a quick and easy cleaning, drop an Affresh Garbage Disposal Cleaner Tablet down the drain.
$9 at Amazon
Cinnamon is the ultimate scent of the holiday season.
A tried and true tactic, lighting a scented candle is an easy way to reduce cooking smells from your home. Like the hood range, quality is key and a good scented candle will infiltrate your home in the same way cooking odors do and leave behind a long lasting pleasant scent.
Garlic smell out, Yankee Candle sparkling cinnamon smell in.
$16 at Amazon
A lack of air circulation is a common reason why cooking smells linger. In addition to opening your windows and doors, turning on an overhead fan, like the Honeywell Carnegie Ceiling Fan can help circulate the stinky air out faster.
Remember, stale air means day old smells, so fresh air is key.
$135 at Amazon
If cooking created this smelly problem, then cooking can also get rid of it. By simmering water with lemon peels, cloves, and cinnamon sticks for as little as 10 minutes, you can create the same circumstances that diffused unpleasant odors into your home, but this time diffusing pleasant odors into your home.
Try a pre-made mix like the Home Fragrance Potpourri Jar, Citrus & Sage.
$50 at Williams Sonoma
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