“Vanilla freshens up stale rooms, etc. when placed in a small bowl etc.”
“We heard about something we are going to try and that is—coffee. We are going to sprinkle the books with ground coffee while they are packed and when we unload them hopefully some of that musty smell will be eliminated. Some of the furniture that has already been moved into the new house I have cleaned with paint thinner, etc., and I’m freshening the insides of those drawers with small open containers of coffee for a few days.”
”Place open boxes of baking soda in a lot of different areas around the smelly environment, especially if combined with open windows and fans. Or, combining this with a pan of simmering water with a lot of baking soda dumped in. A very effective way to use baking soda is to sprinkle it on carpets, let it sit for a while, and then vacuum it up. Most deodorizing products designed for vacuuming up from carpets are based on baking soda.”
We’d send an army of COH to help you if we could!
”Another home-ec writer suggests putting straight ammonia in little saucers or opening the bottle and letting some fumes into the air. The idea is that when the ammonia fumes dissipate, they will carry the offending fumes with them (i.e., truly cleaning the fumes away, not covering it up). She cautions not to leave too much ammonia open too long a time in a confined area, and suggests as a guideline, letting the open bottle sit in a bathroom without ventilation no more than five minutes, then leaving the bathroom door open and not entering the room for an hour or so, then repeating the process if you still smell the problem. She also warns, of course, not to do this in an area near any recent use of chlorine bleach or chlorine fumes. Another is a big fan of charcoal, as suggested in a previous post. She says it is harmless, cheap and very effective. They all suggest open windows and fans make any technique more effective.”
Getting Smells out of books:
“I’ve had good luck with putting books in a plastic bag with charcoal briquettes (not the lighter-fluid kind!) but that might be hard to find this time of year. Basically, I put the charcoal in the bottom of a bag, put down a sheet of tissue paper, then the book, more tissue paper, more charcoal. Twisted the top as tight as I could get it and left it two weeks. Worked very well. “
Pet Urine…
”I use a product called Nature’s Miracle. It is an enzyme digesting product and as long as nothing else has been used on the area it works wonders.”
”My pet rescue friends say this product is very helpful: www.planeturine.com.“
“More expensive laundry powders (Tide, Ivory Snow, check the ingredients panel) also have enzymes and I have successfully used them to get rid of animal urine smells from concrete— the enzymes digest the organic chemical compounds that create the odor. Will also work on curtains and carpets just patch test somewhere not noticeable first.”