How to Keep Your Home Smelling Awesome throughout the Monsoons?

Feeling the droplets of first rainfall on your face and the monsoon breeze in your arms after months of unrelenting scorching summer evokes feelings of ecstatic joy. Every year, monsoon rains not only reinvigorate your surroundings but also drench your heart and soul.

Don’t you love to soak in the pleasures of the rainy season while relaxing on your balcony and enjoying a cup of hot coffee with some cookies? Unfortunately, however, rains also bring along an undesirable companion, foul-smelling odours.

The monsoon creates a damp environment in the surroundings that is further strengthened by the lack of sunshine. This results in musty smells within the house and elsewhere. Thus, it gets challenging to keep your home smelling awesome during the monsoon.

This article discusses smart ways of eliminating foul odours so that you can feel as lively as the flourishing trees and plants during rains.

Generally, individuals focus on masking the bad odour rather than treating the underlying cause of the smell. The basic steps of eliminating odours include avoiding odours, eliminating inevitable odours, and spreading pleasant fragrances.

Avoiding Odours

There is a rapid increase in the moisture within the environment, leading to mould buildup during the rainy season. Thus, you must put extra effort into keeping your home clean. Ensure to do frequent cleaning by wiping floors, furniture pieces, bathroom, etc.

If you have moisture pockets in the house, use a dehumidifier for reducing the moisture. Maintain optimal ventilation in your rooms by keeping the windows open. This reduces the effect of stuffy smells. Use natural scents while wiping the floors for spreading fragrances.

Eliminating Existing Odours

If you notice the stinky smell in your stuff like shoes or clothes, take immediate measures to eliminate it. Sprinkle baking soda for removing foul odours from carpets, shoes, toilets, refrigerators, etc., after cleaning them. Dust off the powder after some time.

Baking soda works great in eliminating odour, and similarly, you can also use essential oils, fragrant candles, camphor, or incense sticks; for eliminating the stinky smell from different locations in the house.

Spreading Pleasant Fragrances

Once you have eliminated the foul odour, you can introduce pleasant fragrances to your living spaces. It is recommended to use one signature fragrance across your home or use scents that complement each other.

Allow Sunlight In Your Rooms

You don’t have sunlight most of the time during the rainy season. Therefore, you must allow the sunrays to bathe your rooms whenever you see the sun shining in the sky. The sunlight helps in removing foul odours by reducing dampness and serving as a natural disinfectant.

Ensure that you have thin drapes on your windows or keep the windows open for improving ventilation and eliminating the bad odour.

Use Air Diffusers or Scented Candles

Light scented candles for spreading a pleasing aroma in your house. The aromatic candles warm up your rooms while removing bad odour. Alternatively, you can also use air diffusers for making your home smell fresh. Some air diffusers also boost your room’s aesthetics.

Place Your Shoe Rack Near the Entrance

You should always keep your shoe racks near the entrance. This way, whenever you get drenched and come home, you can take off your damp and dirty footwear outside your house.

This allows the footwear to dry faster and air out the foul smell outside the home. It also helps in limiting the entry of dirt and odour creation in the room.

Use Scented Disinfectant Agents

Use disinfectant cleaning agents for reducing the dampness in your surroundings as it may promote germ breeding and mould buildup. Prefer a scented disinfectant agent because it removes the musty odour and keeps your home free from germs.

Keep Indoor Spaces Dry

Use carpets and rugs for absorbing the excessive dampness. Clean the dirty and stinky rugs frequently as they may smell unpleasant soon.

Use doormats effectively and hang your umbrellas or wet coats in the entranceway. This helps keep your indoor spaces dry by limiting the entry of water and dirt into your house.

Take Care of Your Pets

Make sure to limit the outdoor adventures of your pets during the monsoon. This is because pets can carry dampness, dirt, and germs into the house from outside. Moreover, pets can worsen the foul odours. Use a pet odour spray for containing the odour coming from stinky pets.

Avoiding Odours In the Entryway

• Your entranceway is subjected to immense dampness and dirt during the monsoon. Make sure to make a proper advance arrangement with rain gear holders for keeping your soaked clothes, wet shoes, or dripping umbrellas in your entryway.

Thus, you can use waterproof trays, a jacket basket, or an umbrella holder for keeping your drenched products in their respective holders. This will help you to avoid the dampness and moisture stench in your entryway.

Remember to empty the water collected in the containers drained from wet products frequently.

• Avoid keeping your wet shoes in a shoe cabinet, as this will trap the moisture inside and result in an unpleasant smell. Instead, make sure to clean the dirt off the shoes and dry them before keeping them in your shoe cabinet.
• For removing bad odour, keep some baking soda in your socks and insert these socks in the shoes. Prefer rain friendly footwear during the monsoon. Place a small-sized dehumidifier within the shoe cabinet for removing any leftover moisture.
• Hang a set of dry hand towels and keep a microfiber mat along with a sanitiser at the entrance. This allows you to get dry quickly before coming inside the house.
• Keep a deodoriser at the entryway so that you can have fresh perfume ready for removing any foul odours. Moreover, you can keep a bowl of potpourri next to your washbasin for containing the odours and making your room smell pleasant.

Avoiding Odours In the Washroom

• Your washroom is usually a damp place full of moisture. Thus, take extra care of your washrooms during rains. Keep it well-ventilated and run the exhaust fan frequently. Keep mesh fixtures for closing the openings to avoid insects marching in.
• Keep your washroom space dry and ensure to drain the water out completely after a shower. Wipe down the walls and corners of the bathroom regularly by using suitable disinfectants. This helps in preventing any unwanted moisture buildup.
• Check if your plumbing system is working fine without any clogged pipes. Use baking soda followed by lemon juice or vinegar for fixing any clog issues. Alternatively, you can use enzyme-based drain cleaners.
• Don’t leave any damp clothes in your washroom as these may result in odours. Instead, you should keep a covered laundry basket for storing dirty clothes together in one place.
• Use a flush soap with amazing fragrance for cleaning the toilet and removing any odours. Keep a bowl of potpourri on the windowsill or the dry corners for spreading pleasant fragrance.

Avoiding Odours In the Kitchen 

• Due to increased dampness during the monsoon season, the kitchen smells get locked for longer periods. Thus, keep your kitchen well-ventilated by installing enough outlets so that the cooking smell doesn’t linger on for long.
• To leave your kitchen smelling great, boil a pot of fresh herbs like cloves, rosemary, or cinnamon stick with sliced lemon and add a dash of vanilla extract. The strong scent of this concoction cuts through the undesirable post-cooking smell.
• Clean your refrigerator regularly and throw away any expired food as soon as possible. Also, ensure that there are no food spills on the fridge’s surfaces after your wiping routine.
• Don’t leave a pile of dirty dishes in your kitchen sink overnight. Instead, clean and rinse the plates and utensils after using them. Rub the kitchen sink with a leftover lemon wedge with lots of salt on it. This kills germs and makes your kitchen smell fresh.
• Arrange a layer of cat litter below the garbage bag and at the bottom of the trash can for absorbing the odours. Alternatively, sprinkle some baking soda inside your garbage bag for controlling the stench smell.

Avoiding Odours In the Closets 

• Make sure that different pieces of clothing are well-spaced out inside the closet. When clothes are packed very close to each other inside the closet, there isn’t any air circulation leading to clothes smelling stuffy.
• Organise your used but unwashed clothes in a separate section. Make sure these clothes don’t come in contact with freshly washed clothes.
• Place small cotton bags containing natural herbs between clothes or in corners of closets. This is for releasing subtle natural fragrances in your wardrobes.
• Alternatively, you can place small cotton bags containing activated charcoal or coffee beans in cabinets or drawers to absorb the mould spores and purify the air.
• Spray a natural perfume or cloth perfume for keeping your closet smelling fresh and great all day.

Avoiding Odours On the Fabric Surfaces

• Sprinkle baking soda over your smelly mattresses, leave them for 30 minutes, and then vacuum clean the mattresses. This helps in avoiding smell from the mattress due to moisture and sweat.
• During monsoon, pack away your heavy curtains, carpets, and rugs. Else, you can sprinkle them with baking soda and vacuum clean after 30 minutes for eliminating odours from these fabric surfaces.