Removing Kitchen Odors

From the Dollar Stretcher Website:

Yesterday, I was cooking some chicken breasts in water for later use in soup. I had to leave to pick up my daughter from school and forgot to turn off the burner. When we came back home, the house was full of smoke and the fire alarms were going off. Now my house smells like burnt chicken! I aired out the house right away and tried boiling vinegar on the stove. It's still pretty pungent in here. Do you have any suggestions that don't require cash? It was pretty warm out when this happened, but the temperature dropped over night and we are now having wind chills in the single digits. I just can't afford to heat the outdoors. Kathy

Clean Odors Trapped in Fabric

Odors don't get trapped in air; they get trapped in fabrics. Be sure to launder all curtains and any loose washable fabrics like pillow covers. Hang any moveable carpets outdoors for a day or so. Leave small dishes of white vinegar sitting around and that will help absorb the smoky smell. Some Febreze(r) sprayed on upholstery may help. Try renting a steamer and cleaning any wall-to-wall carpeting. The smell should be gone in a week. C

Fragrant Solution

Try boiling lemon slices with a handful of cloves for 15-20 minutes. Wipe down the counters with vinegar as vinegar helps to absorb odors. G

The Aroma of Coffee

Open a can of coffee and pour it in about four bowls. Set them around the room. The room will fill with the coffee odor instead. We even use this in old refrigerators that have been closed up and smell rotten. It works for us. Karen in Alamogordo, NM

Simmer. Don't Boil.

Simply heating white vinegar on the stove will remove the smell in your house. Do not boil the vinegar as this will not work. Suzie

Use Charcoal Briquettes to Remove Kitchen Odors

The very best technique I have found for removing odors is charcoal briquettes. A person who worked for a company that cleaned up after fires gave me the tip. Just set them around, but be cautious of children and pets, of course. Sharon

Leave Vinegar Sitting Out

The only suggestion I have is to put white vinegar in a bowl and leave it overnight (or during the day). The vinegar will absorb most of the odors. I realize the user boiled the vinegar on the stove, but I have never tried that myself.

After trying white vinegar, open all the windows in the house and turn on the house exhaust fan for about ten minutes. Always works for me! Dorina

Do you have any suggestions for getting rid of unwanted smells in you kitchen...

Just a suggestion from Lucy: It is a good thing to check you onion bowl when you smell a foul odor in you kitchen...Last Saturday TF asked me "What is that smell"....I had just come home from the grocery store and was putting away the groceries...I had bought some white onions and was reaching for the onion bowl, on top of the refrigerator, when I noticed the pungent smell. There in the onion bowl was an onion that had "gone bad"...I threw that sucker in the garbage and instantly walked it out to the trash can... I washed out the bowl and put my new onions in.....

Have a great week everyone.