How to get rid of bad smell in kitchen cabinets

Kitchen cabinets are the places that save your kitchen utensils and ingredients. Hence, they have to have decent smells so your kitchen activities will be more fun. Then, how to get rid of the bad smell in kitchen cabinets?

Using baking soda or vinegar, rubbing alcoholic substances on your kitchen cabinets, or deodorizing the stinky areas, are some ways. In this article, we will look at ways to eliminate the two most common bad smells in kitchen cabinets, which are musty and cigarette smells.

Let us look at why our kitchen cabinets can stink before we delve deeper into the “how-tos” for us. Here are the reasons:

Why do my kitchen cabinets smell

Smelly kitchen cabinets are there for numerous reasons. Poor basic cleaning is often the reason behind these entire things. If poor basic cleaning is the reason, that scope could be anywhere from not cleaning up the whole kitchen thoroughly to other rooms near the kitchen cabinets that you haven’t cleaned up for days.

Not using deodorants, diffusers, or other room fragrances, also belong to the slobby cleaning reason. This one is a reason that stems from yourself and things around you. In addition, you can even overuse the things that should eliminate the smells that they end up producing even a stinkier smell.

Things outside your control that impact the smells of your kitchen cabinets include sudden fire or flood from your kitchen and rooms around it. Sometimes, random animals and pests come without invitation. Thus, they can cause your kitchen cabinets to be smelly.

How to get rid of smelly kitchen cabinets

By now, you know that smelly kitchen cabinets are not there without any reason. At the same time, knowing the backgrounds is not enough if you don’t know how to get rid of the bad smell in kitchen cabinets. Are there any ways to do it?

Fortunately, there are ways that you can apply to make your kitchen cabinets more fragrant. Many people say baking soda, vinegar, and alcohol, are among the three most effective substances in dealing with stinky kitchen cabinets.

Bear in mind, though, that these three substances don’t work hand-in-hand. If you’re going to apply them, make sure you focus on only one of them. The appropriate application of these substances will save your kitchen cabinets from getting too smelly. Eventually, you will be able to create delicious, one-of-a-kind recipes from your kitchen.

Does baking soda remove smells from kitchen cabinets

Baking soda is not only famous for cakes and tons of desserts. Many people use it for cleaning purposes, including to remove lingering odors from kitchen cabinets. This substance can even replace ground coffee powders with the same effectiveness in keeping your kitchen cabinets away from stinks.

The simplest thing you can do with baking soda to remove unwanted smells from your kitchen cabinets is to place it inside a bowl. Then, place the bowl inside your kitchen cabinets and leave them be for several weeks.

Alternatively, combine baking soda with vinegar or water in proportional ratios and put them inside an empty spraying bottle. Spray them around your kitchen cabinets to remove the unpleasant odors.

Does vinegar remove smells from kitchen cabinets

Vinegar is a substance that you frequently find in foods. Some vinegar types belong to the ready-to-drink category. Household-wise, they are super-effective in removing the kitchen cabinets’ smells, specifically if the kitchen cabinets are from woods.

A combination between vinegar and water is both removing the odor and helping you to clean up the furniture around your house. Your kitchen cabinets are no exception. Using a bowl of white or cider vinegar is one of the popular methods people use to remove smells from kitchen cabinets.

Tea tree, peppermint, or orange essential oils enhance the vinegar’s capability to be the agents of cleaning or disinfecting activities for your kitchen cabinets. Additionally, you may want to place a couple of charcoals to eliminate the odors further.

Does rubbing alcohol remove smells from kitchen cabinets

Alcohol is one of the strongest substances to make your kitchen cabinets less smelly. Even if you only have 1/2 bowl of it, you can eliminate the unwanted odors from your kitchen cabinets using alcoholic substances.

1. Mix 1/2 bowl of alcohol with one pint of mineral oil to start the DIY process of removing the unwanted kitchen cabinets’ smells.
2. Rub them around kitchen cabinets’ areas that are most vulnerable to stinking, such as the drawers.
3. Finally, use damp cloths to wipe them out. Do these steps every day to protect your kitchen cabinets from unwanted odors.

These 3 steps usually work when your kitchen cabinets are from the woods. You will reap better results if your kitchen cabinets are from other stronger materials than woods, such as marbles.

How to remove musty smell from wood cabinets

Musty smells are unclean, stale, and moldy smells that are dangerous for our health. Often, molds are the cause of musty smells. As the molds grow, spread, form, mutate, and adapt, they will emit microbial volatile organic compounds (MVOC) gases.

In terms of kitchen-related furniture, these natural gases are more often in wooden cabinets. This situation occurs because wood cabinets can be weathered in any room with around 30-40 degrees Celcius temperature.

The “magic” recipe that mixes vinegar and water in a spraying bottle is the most effective recipe to remove musty smells from wooden cabinets. If you decided to use baking soda, you should soak a sponge in hot water to dip it into the baking soda. Apply those around the areas in your kitchen cabinets where you detect musty smells.

When you clean up your kitchen cabinets, make sure you activate fans or dehumidifiers to help you remove the odors. Using masks and other health protection tools while cleaning up your kitchen cabinets helps you when your health condition suffers because of the smells.

How to remove cigarette smoke smell from kitchen cabinets

Cigarette smoke smells are some of the most frequent smells that we can find, including in and around kitchen cabinets. The most straightforward reason for their presence is that there are smokers in our houses. Or, we may invite guests who smoke and somehow forget to deodorize the kitchen cabinets. 

Interestingly, even if nobody is smoking in our houses, our kitchen cabinets can still be subject to cigarette smoke smells. If we cook under a big fire or put charcoals around our kitchen cabinets, those can be the reasons why our kitchen cabinets smell like cigarette smoke. 

Bleaches are robust agents to eliminate cigarette smoke smells from our kitchen cabinets. Don’t stop by only placing a bowl of bleaches inside the kitchen cabinets. Instead, bleach the areas with cigarette smoke smells. Then, wipe out using a spray of vinegar and water and a damp cloth. 

Using as many deodorants as possible is yet another one of the most well-known ways to eliminate the smells of cigarette smokes from our kitchen cabinets. People usually use two or three deodorants with the same fragrances on each corner of the kitchen cabinets. Avoid using deodorants with smoky fragrances as they only enhance the cigarette smoke’s smells.

How to deodorize kitchen cabinets

Many deodorants around us seem to “help” us answer the question of, “How to get rid of bad smell in kitchen cabinets?”.

However, many readily available deodorants have some degrees of questionable chemical substances in their ingredients that we can only use as the last resort. Therefore, having a DIY process to your kitchen cabinets’ deodorant is a supportive action that you can take.

Baking soda is a powerful deodorizing agent that you can use for your DIY kitchen cabinets’ deodorants. You can place them inside the drawers in an opened carton box. Or, mix them with water and use cleaning cloths to soak in them. Then, scrub the cleaning cloths around your kitchen cabinets.

If your drawer connects to the refrigerator, place the baking soda deodorant in the fridge. Change them once every month to preserve the deodorizing function.

How to deodorize cabinet under sink

The cabinet areas under the sinks are yet the nearby cabinet areas that tend to stink. Such occurrence is no surprise since food, oil, seasonings residuals, and cracks from kitchen utensils are thrown away into these areas. The good news is that, as with other areas near the cabinets, you can deodorize them.

1. Before you deodorize these areas, you should ensure that the trash bags and cans are empty.
2. Then, rinse the trash bags or cans with warm water and soaps.
3. After that, use baking soda to sprinkle them around the sink areas.

As an alternative, you can place a bowl that consists of either baking soda or white vinegar in the cabinet under the sink and leave it be for at least 24 hours to absorb the odor. If you have cats, you can place their litter into a bowl and repeat the alternative steps.

Now, you’ve understood how to get rid of bad smell in kitchen cabinets. So, are you ready to apply the tips and steps?

Are you interested to learn how to get rid of roaches in kitchen cabinets or how to get rid of musty smell in cupboard under stairs too?