A little-known secret among food critics is the fact that a visit to the bathroom can make or break their review. A dirty, foul-smelling bathroom is a serious warning sign about your food’s safety, not to mention a greatly unpleasant experience. At home, it’s not much different. A foul bathroom can make it awkward for guests at your home and also ruin your ability to enjoy clean facilities. If you’re having a hard time keeping your bathroom fresh, we found the knowledge you need.
Keeping your bathroom smelling fresh isn’t a one-time deal. You will need to employ several methods to ensure that it stays fresh 24/7. The most important things to do are as follows:
- Keep Your Bathroom Clean
- Use Enzyme Cleaners In Your Drains
- Get A Quality Deodorizer
- Keep Your Vents Open
- Use Toilet Spray
A fresh-smelling bathroom might feel like a pipe dream, but it’s doable. To help you get your bathroom to smell fresh as possible, we’re going to discuss the most important methods and tools for the gig. Let’s get into it, shall we?
Keeping Your Bathroom Smelling Fresh
It’s time to take a look at the most important cornerstones of being able to keep a bathroom fresh and clean.
1. Always Keep Your Bathroom Clean!
A bathroom that is poorly cleaned is a stinky bathroom. If you currently are dealing with musty smells or similar odors, the first thing you should do is use a bleach bathroom cleaner to scrub your tiles, grout, shower, and toilet. The bleach will kill any mold and germs that have accumulated in the majority of your bathroom.
Next, take any linens that you have and take them to the laundry room. Grab your bath mat, shower curtain, and towels, too. If you have to, take them to the cleaner. This will get rid of any of the odors that cling to your more porous surfaces. By this point, you should be able to feel a noticeable difference.
Still having a hard time with the deep clean? Check out these 7 bathroom tile cleaning hacks you should learn.
2. Use Enzyme Cleaners In Your Drain
Did you know that some bathrooms stink solely due to the crud that’s built up in the pipes? It’s true, which is why part of the full deodorization process has to include drain care. CLR and similar drain cleaners may be too harsh for your drains, which is why you should opt for something a little gentler, like an enzyme cleaner.
Click here to get this enzyme cleaner on Amazon.
3. Get A Quality Deodorizer
There are a ton of deodorizers you can choose from that will help keep your bathroom smelling fresh. Deodorizers can do one of two things: they can either neutralize the odor or add a fresh scent. Some do both. If you want to have long-lasting freshness, it’s best to have a small odor eliminator gel tucked away near the toilet. This will help reduce the smells people experience during their use, and it lasts fairly long.
Click here to get odor eliminating gel cups on Amazon.
Of course, you don’t have to stick to gel if you don’t want to. There are plenty of other options that you can choose from. For example, many people prefer to try something along the lines of a scented plug-in air freshener. These last about a month to two months, and are fairly powerful.
Click here to get a plug-in deodorizer on Amazon.
Still not feeling these options? Don’t worry, we’re going to get deeper into this once we wrap up the removal of your odors.
4. Keep Your Vents Open
One of the easiest ways to help reduce the smell of a foul bathroom is to prevent moisture from getting trapped there. Moisture and trapped air cause bacteria to build up, which means more odors in the air. Keeping your bathroom vent open, cracking open a window, or even going so far as to get an extra vent installed can all help.
Your goal here is to keep your bathroom dry and airy. If you don’t use your vents after a shower, you’ll find yourself in a lot of trouble. The moisture will make all your bacterial problems multiply.
5. Use Toilet Spray
For the longest time, there wasn’t much that one could do about the smell of waste that pops up when you just finish using the toilet. Recently, there was a new invention that helped contain those types of odors. It’s called a toilet spray, and it’s fairly simple in its design. You spray it on the toilet water before you go, and the spray traps the odor from escaping the bowl.
Using this spray is a game-changer, particularly if you have a small apartment or if your diet is a little bit pungent. The smell of the spray itself, while pleasant, will dissipate in around five minutes.
Click here to get Poo-Pourri from Amazon.
What Causes A Bathroom To Smell Bad?
If you’ve ever gone to a bathroom that hasn’t been cared for, you already know that it can smell foul. Most bathrooms that have a foul, lingering odor smell that way because of both mold and bacterial buildup. In order to get rid of those smells, you are going to have to remove the cause. That’s where heavy cleaning comes into play.
Is A Musty Smell In The Bathroom Dangerous?
If you get a whiff of a musty, almost mildewy smell in your bathroom, you should be very concerned. Mildewy smells are a sign of mold in your bathroom. People with mold sensitivities may experience difficulty breathing, headaches, rashes, as well as nosebleeds. In some cases, it can even cause serious damage to your lungs and immune system. Don’t ignore that stink!
The most common culprits include having mold in your shower grout, a shower curtain that hasn’t been properly cleaned, or having mold that grew as a result of a flooded toilet. No matter what the culprit is, it’s absolutely imperative that you address it as soon as possible.
How Often Should You Clean Your Bathroom?
One of the main reasons why a bathroom might smell bad deals with a lack of a proper cleaning routine. Most parts of your bathroom should be cleaned once a week. If you use your bathroom very frequently, you should also clean your linens at least twice a week. Toilets should also be cleaned once a week, at a bare minimum.
Can Bathroom Odors Get Trapped In Your Walls?
Though most people assume that bathroom odors are exclusively trapped in linens or grout, the truth is that your walls can start to absorb and even carry foul smells too. This is something that typically occurs over the course of several years, often as a result of both mold growth and neglect. Thankfully, it’s an easy fix.
The simplest way to deodorize your walls is to make a one-to-one solution of white vinegar and warm water and put it in a spray bottle. Use this solution as a cleaning solvent on your walls, scrubbing away any stains you see with a soft sponge. The vinegar will deodorize and neutralize any remaining odors that could have built up.
Click here to get distilled white cleaning vinegar from Amazon.
What Is The Best Scent For A Bathroom?
The best scent for a bathroom is purely a personal preference. As we’ve mentioned, some like to have a neutral-smelling bathroom while others enjoy a fragrantly-scented bathroom. Regardless of which side you lean toward, a bathroom should never have a sour, musty, or mildewy scent.
How Do You Make A Natural Air Freshener For A Bathroom?
Have you ever gone inside a bathroom that always smells fresh, almost to the point of fragrant? We all have, and if you’re like most people, you’re wondering how they manage to keep it so nicely perfumed. The truth is, it has a lot to do with the room fragrance devices they choose, as well as how strongly they use their options.
Obviously, every room has its own ideal fragrance diffuser. Though gel and plug-in air fresheners are the most common picks for bathroom settings, there are other ways to ensure that you have the freshness you want. If you’re looking for a DIY, natural option, we’ve got you covered.
How To Make Your Own Potpourri
The easiest way to make your own fragrance for your bathroom is by creating your own bowl of potpourri. Doing this is actually fairly easy to do, and will only require you to have some essential oils, a spray bottle, and some dried flowers. Here’s how to do it:
- Start by buying dried flowers or grabbing a potpourri mix from a craft store. If you want, you can also use a dehydrator to dry your own fruit peels, flowers, and pine cones.
- Mix several of your favorite essential oils together and put them in a spray bottle with an oil mixer. We suggest using a large number of essential oils.
- Spray the potpourri mix until it’s adequately fragranced. Let it dry, and then you have some brand new potpourri.
- To ensure that your potpourri can diffuse the fragrance around your bathroom, place it in a bowl in the open air. If you notice the smell losing its potency, stir the potpourri around with your hand.
Click here to buy premade potpourri from Amazon.
How To Make A Natural Bathroom Air Freshener Spray
Sometimes, you just want to be able to spray down a room without actually having to reach for a commercial mixture. When that happens, the best way to make sure that your bathroom stays fresh without harming anyone sensitive to chemicals is to make your own bathroom air freshener spray. Mix all of these ingredients in a bottle, and spray it whenever you want a spicy scent boost:
- 3/4 cups water
- 2 tablespoons real vanilla extract
- 3 drops clove essential oil
- 4 drops cardamom essential oil
- 3 drops cassia essential oil
- 4 drops orange essential oil
Of course, you don’t have to stick to this recipe to get a good spray. If you want to, you can experiment with your own favorite essential oils to create your own signature scent. Many people prefer a scent based on peppermint, lavender, or eucalyptus.
Click here to get essential oils from Amazon.
How To Make Your Own DIY Toilet Cleaner Powder
Keeping your bathroom fresh doesn’t have to mean incorporating tons of corporately manufactured chemicals if you don’t want it to. Baking soda is a highly-recognized deodorizer that also boasts impressive scrubbing power. Of course, baking soda alone isn’t enough to add a nice scent to your bathroom.
The best way to make sure your toilet smells good is to add 15 to 20 drops of orange essential oil into four cups of baking soda and set it aside as your go-to toilet cleaner.
Click here to get orange essential oil from Amazon.
How To Absorb Bathroom Odors Naturally
Sometimes, you don’t want to have to perfume your bathroom, per se. Sometimes, what you really want is to just keep your bathroom smelling neutral. When this happens, your best bet is to pick up a large box of baking soda and pour some of it into a jar. Then, just tuck the jar away in a nondescript corner of your bathroom.
Baking soda is one of the best natural, safe odor absorbers on the market. It literally absorbs foul odors and helps keep any other foul smells at bay just by sitting nearby. To ensure that your baking soda remains useful, make sure to change the jar out at least once every three months.
Click here to get baking soda from Amazon.
In Closing
No matter how large or small your bathroom happens to be, keeping your bathroom smelling fresh is going to be a marathon race. It’s a goal that requires regular cleanings, keeping an eye out for things that could cause mold or bacterial growth, and investing in devices that can help diffuse fragrances throughout the room. Saying it’s a multi-pronged approach isn’t that unrealistic.
Though it is a tough battle to win, careful work and a keen interest in keeping your home sanitary will give you the results you want. Once you get used to your deodorizing routine, you’ll be amazed at how much more welcoming your home can be.