FOOD ODOURS CAN TAKE OVER YOUR HOUSE BUT WITH A FEW SIMPLE TRICKS YOU CAN RID OF THEM QUICKLY.

Most people can’t even tell their house smells of zesty food odours because they live in day in and day out.

When visitors come around the smell can be very overwhelming especially if you like to cook with spices, onions and garlic like we do in the CBB house.

When you start to smell the refrigerator getting a bit whiffy or even before it gets to that point it has been smart kitchen practice to leave an open box of baking soda inside to soak up those nasty food odours.

Tackling food odours outside of the refrigerator is also a must if you don’t care for the smell of cooked food in your living environment.

How do you get rid of lingering food odours?

Well, you take action and with a little bit of smell smarts and a few dollars you can take a smelly kitchen back to fresh and beautiful.

Before I even get into the low-cost ways that we tackle food odours in our house I want to talk a bit about how to help prevent smells from

Strong Food Odours that linger

• Garlic
• Onions
• Curry
• Seafood
• Burnt smells or smoke from cooking
• Crock-pot smells
• Grease
• Tomato sauce or long-cooking foods

Examine Your Surroundings First

One of the number one reasons food odours stick around the house is because the exhaust fan in your kitchen is builder grade garbage, it’s cheap as chips, blocked up, broken or not even vented out properly.

Our wonderful kitchen is equipped with the cheapest exhaust fan you can buy for around $50 and it’s no wonder it works like crap. A couple of years back we were able to find a $4500 exhaust fan to go with our stove when we renovate the house.

The Thermador exhaust fan was a showroom fan so we picked it up for a little over $1000. I know it will be worth it once we get around to completing the renovation.

Sometimes you have to spend a little to get the results you ultimately want from a product. This will also help increase the price of our house as a new kitchen typically will boost interest when home selling.

The exhaust is only one way to help eliminate settling food odours while you are cooking your favourite meals.

If you aren’t sure take the time to investigate your kitchen exhaust and other exhaust fans throughout your house to make sure they work. Hiring a contractor to come and look if you aren’t sure where to begin is also a safe bet since they know what they are looking for.

In the summer I found out my in-laws kitchen exhaust fan wasn’t even vented which meant all those food odours they were trying to get rid of when no-where, literally. What a waste of electricity running the fan and hopefully something you don’t find in your house.

Another area you may want to target is grease and other cooking splashes on your walls from floor to ceiling that can become deep-rooted.

Almost every kitchen will have grease and you must clean the walls and appliances often or that mess will add to the food odours in your home.

Sweep up, move appliances, wash, wash, wash

Any fallen food or crumbs on the floor may also contribute to food odours that persist even after using the various methods I’m going to talk about below in order to help rid the smells.

Oh, and clean out those garbage cans as they are one of the worst enemies for bugs and food odours.

Air-purifiers are also a great way to help exterminate food odours but they can be costly and for the frugal person this may not be the budget-friendly route to take.

We even find during the summer months when our central air-conditioner is running and although the house is cool that the food odours still linger. Some people suggest the A/C will help with food odours but only if it’s cycling the air out of the house.

Bring the outside In

Opening the windows is always your best defense during nice days. Take advantage of FREE!

Low-Cost Ways To send food odours packing

You could easily put bowls of baking soda around your kitchen as that would be the first thought that comes to mind for most people.

There are many other ways to get rid of food odours in your house if you just so happen to be out of baking soda or prefer to freshen up the rooms with something with a bit of fragrance.

During the Spring, Summer and Fall you have the opportunity to open your windows to let the flow of air circulate through the house letting all those food odours vanish.

Turning on the furnace to ventilate your house also helps but nothing is as good as fresh air. When the winter rolls around all I hear is Mrs. CBB complain about the smell of food odours in the house and how much she loathes it.

She’s certain she has a bit of Obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) when it comes to cleanliness and smells which treatment has helped lessen but it still bothers her. She’s been fighting the battle of the clean house forever and now with a toddler in tow it’s even worse.

You may not suffer from OCD but for some people certain smells may cause anxiety or other reactions that just don’t sit right with them. Even myself at times I have to air out the house when I cook a big batch of something with lots of organic garlic or onions.

I really don’t blame her since food smells delicious when it’s simmering, baking or frying up on the stove where the after-smell is not so pleasant. Last year I purchased big bags of spices from the neighbourhood Indian store as they have the cheapest prices for spices.

Not all cities have international shops like we do there are alternatives like the grocery store, big box stores or even online stores like Amazon where we’ve purchased lots of kitchen extras.

Three of our favourite food odour fighting spices are cinnamon sticks , whole star anise and cloves

How to make a stove simmer

An easy way to remember how to make a stove simmer is 1 to 1 measurements which you can adjust as needed.

For every cup of cold water I add 1 tablespoon of vinegar, cinnamon, extracts, lemon juice etc. Bring to a boil and then let simmer on dial number 1 or 2 on your stove but watch carefully as it can evaporate quickly.

If you are worried about your house smelling like vinegar, don’t. Once you remove the vinegar source the smell will go away along with those yucky food odours. Personally, I’d rather smell the vinegar than the food.

You could even use your crock-pot if you really want to set it and forget it for a few hours. I know some of you might even have the small simmering crock-pots which are also perfect. I’m pretty sure I saw one in a box of Mrs. CBB’s in the basement that we haven’t unpacked yet.

• Brown sugar, apple peels
• Cinnamon Sticks and Cloves
• Lemon Peel
• Lemon juice
• Lime juice
• Apple Cider Vinegar
• Leave white vinegar in bowls around the kitchen or area that has the strong odour and
• Orange Peels, Mandarin peels, Clementine peels
• Ginger Peels
• Fresh Rosemary
• Bay Leaves
• Vanilla Extract
• White distilled vinegar

Don’t waste your money buying those grocery store bottles of room spray when you can make it at home for nickles. We make a homemade room spray which consists of vinegar, water and an essential oil which is typically tea tree oil or lavender.

The essential oil smell is personal and there are plenty on the market to choose from. If you don’t fancy the vinegar you can leave it out and go with water and essential oils.

Keeping the cookware free from food odours

All of your pots and pans will soak up any spices and oils that you use in them and so will your cutting boards. It’s good kitchen practice to soak your utensils, cutting boards, pots and pans (according to cleaning manual) in hot water and white vinegar over night.

This will help remove the food odours and bring them back to a healthy looking colour. I know some people like to put a spot of bleach in the water as well which also helps lift food odours and deep-clean.

If you find your pots and pans have caked on spices or smells from cooking slice up some potatoes, add salt then rub them around the pan. Cover overnight and the potatoes will soak up any of the spices and food odours by the next morning. Give your pans a quick scrub and wash then thoroughly dry them before storage.

I do this with all of our costly but amazing to cooking with Le Crueset cast iron pans as well. I also bake the cast iron pans in the oven with a sea-salt scrub to clean them up once a month or as often as needed.

Bake out the food odours

Sometimes I bake a sweet dessert to get rid of food odours because nothing smells as gorgeous as a fresh baked cake or pie sailing through the house.

If you don’t fancy baking there are some baked goods candles you can buy or if you don’t like the smell of cake perhaps candles with warm scents might be better.

If all else fails grind up those coffee beans you have in a bag that have been collecting dust in the kitchen cupboard and brew a big pot of coffee.

The ground coffee beans (or even the used coffee grinds) will mask the food odours and what better way to enjoy the start or finish of the day with a hot cup of coffee. (Yes, I can sleep after drinking coffee)

P.S- If you find your hands smell of garlic and onions even after you’ve washed them my father-in-law taught me to rub a large spoon around the area and it will expel the stingy food odours. Ta-Da…you learn something every day.

Discussion: What other ways can our readers get rid of food odours in the house after cooking especially during the winter months?

October 2018 Grocery Game Challenge

Join the 2018 Grocery Game Challenge (GGC) but before you do you must read The Grocery Game Challenge Rules and Print the 2018 Schedule which includes new prizes!

Last Shop from September– 5 Pointers To Find The Best Prices At The Grocery Store

• Freebies We Get From Our Favourite Canadian Grocery Stores– GGC #1 October
• Top Products To Stock Up On In October and November GGC #2 October
• The Dark Side of Grocery Store Shoplifting GGC #3 October

2018 Grocery Shop Results

Yearly grocery budget for two + 1 Toddler 2018: $3600 or $300/month (The above total does not include the stockpile budget of $300/year or $25/month.

Points Overview (add any other sections you need to show us your savings or that you would like to track on your own)

• Total Grocery Budget for this Month: $300
• Total Grocery Budget with any carry-overs $300
• Total Gift Cards used to date: $0
• Total Rewards Points redeemed this week: $0
• Total Rewards Points used to date: $0
• PC Optimum Points to Spend: 3,600,000
• Scanning Code of Practice (SCOP) to date $0

Coupon Apps (add any other apps you use to save money)

• Zweet -$0
• Checkout51– $1.50

Our Grocery Shop This Week

Zehrs

• 6 x Philadelphia cream cheese $2.49 $14.94
• 3 x 330g PC Mushrooms Sale $0.99 $2.97
• Bananas $1.48
• 3 x English cucumbers $1.29 $3.87
• Tomatoes on the vine $1.25
• Boneless Blade Steak $6.90-50% $3.45
• 2x Breakfast sausages $6.29 ea -50% $6.30
• 2 x Rubschlager sesame bread sale $1.99-50% $1.99
• 2 x Tre Stelle mini boconccini balls $13.98-50% $7.00
• 2 x Riviera Yogurt Plain $6.99-50% $6.99
• 4 x Black Diamond Thick Cheese Slices $2.00 ea $8.00
• Black Diamond Old Cheddar Block $3.99
• PC Argula bucket $5.49-50% $2.49
• Jalapeno Peppers $4.99 OUCH
• PC Kale Slaw $3.89-50% $1.95
• Carrots $1.99
• 2 x Celery stalks sale $1.39 $2.78
• Gala apples $2.59 (6)
• 4 x Schneiders Bacon sale $4 $16

Shoppers Drug Mart

• 4 x Milk 4L $17.08

Total Out-of-Pocket $17.08

Note: All totals below already have tax factored into them.