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Tips on cleaning, stain removal, and homemade air fresheners

Submitted by Merlin on July 15, 2005 - 6:15am.

Cleaning and Stain Removal

As a consequence of my being too lazy to take the trash out a couple nights ago, the smell of salmon took up residence throughout our kitchen. In addressing the stank, I ran across this ginormous page full of of links on cleaning and stain removal including a handy collection of homemade air fresheners. Excerpts:

Cinnamon and Cloves - Boil these spices for a fragrant smell. For ease of cleaning, make a cheesecloth bag to contain these spices, and boil the cheesecloth bag. An excellent alternative when entertaining is to steep spiced tea or cider.
Oil of Wintergreen - Dampen cotton balls with oil of wintergreen and place out of sight but where air will touch them.
Vinegar - Distribute partially filled saucers of vinegar around the room or boil 1 tablespoon of white vinegar in 1 cup of water to eliminate unpleasant cooking odors.

God damn if that vinegar didn’t do the trick.

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I prep my microwave oven...

Submitted by Mary (not verified) on July 19, 2005 - 11:52am.

I prep my microwave oven for cleaning by putting water and lemon juice in a little bowl, then running the oven on High for 2 minutes. The scented steam loosens stuck on food and knocks out the cooking odors. After I clean the oven, I stick the bowl back in on High again for a minute to finish off.

My husband and I have live in a World War 2 era apartment with no bathroom ventilation. Worse yet, all the rooms are accessed through a single hallway running the length of the apartment. This means that when either one of us sits and delivers, so to speak, there’s almost a visible miasma hovering about the bathroom for several minutes. We’ve tried home remedies like burning a match, but the combined odor was actually worse, especially when it clung to us.

We read about a product called Just a Drop in a business magazine and risked CDN$9 on it. It seems to be a eucalyptus scented highly concentrated deodorant/disinfectant and works incredibly well. It doesn’t matter whether you squeeze a drop of it in the bowl before or after use as it does a phenomenal job of actually neutralizing the odor, leaving only a bit of that eucalyptus scent behind.