If you’re a lover of home fragrances, you probably express a mild annoyance every time you cook, and the smell of strong seasonings, oils, and, more embarrassingly, waste, invades your space. It seems inevitable. After all, what are you to do? Dedicate your life to a spotless kitchen and never cook up a meal again? I don't think so.
It is tempting to light a candle or plug in a diffuser an hour before guests come to help make your home smell good, but this won’t hide any underlying smells that linger regularly. Whether you host at the island or usher guests into other rooms, keeping your kitchen smelling fresh sets the standard for the rest of your home.
It seems tiresome to maintain, but the experts have some simple yet effective hacks and product recommendations that not only neutralize the odors in your kitchen but also help to create a signature scent profile.
1. Short But Regular Bursts of Cleaning
Nothing can be more distracting than being in another room, be it your home office or living room, and smelling what you had for dinner last night. And it’s never distracting in a good way. If you lead a busy life, prevention is better than cure to get the best home fragrance into your space.
"Keeping the kitchen fresh is all about simplicity and functionality," Abhishek Dekate, Creative Director of his eponymous interior design and food brand, says. "I clean as I go to keep odors to a minimum. I keep the counters clear to maintain a calm, clutter-free space." He also recommends taking out the trash daily to avoid unwanted smells of mixing or decaying food.
Drawing wisdom from her Italian grandmother, one thing that Marilynn does to ensure that her kitchen has a baseline freshness is wipe down the counters daily. "They get wiped down as I go and every single night — regardless of if the kitchen has been used that day or not," she says.
She suggests using cleaning wipes "especially for stovetops and those clean-as-you-go moments." It can be particularly helpful for picking up dust, greasy residues and crumbs that you might not catch at first glance.
Price: $28.10
Kinfill’s cleaning starter kit catered to specific areas of the home, extending to often neglected places. The floors in a kitchen are occasionally swept and much less frequently mopped, but cleaning them regularly and using this as an opportunity to add another layer to your home’s scent profile is an understated way to elevate your space. The product can be applied to natural floors, such as wood and concrete, making it perfect for the brutalist home. You can buy one refill if you’re exploring the brand but if you’re acquainted with their products, they also do a refill bundle that will keep your floors clean and fresh for a year.
2. Use an Air Freshener Gel
Air freshener gels are a great way to freshen the home because they don’t evaporate or dry out as quickly as room sprays or reed diffusers. They are on par with candles for their longevity, but they offer minimal work and maximum safety. You don’t need to do anything to activate the scent, and you don’t need to worry about fire risks.
Not only are air freshener gels able to allow scent to travel around the home, but they can be repurposed as a solution for food waste odors.
Marilynn recommends scooping air freshener gel (like this Fresh Wave IAQ Commercial Odor Eliminating Gel from Amazon) that is past its best out of the container and placing it at the bottom of a new trash bag. This reduces the punch of food waste odors as the bag fills up and allows you more time before you need to take out the trash again.
3. Use an Air Purifier
Exchanging the musty, smoky, or even rancid air from cooking and subsequent pathogens with fresh air is a great way to neautralise the scent at very little cost, but it requires a habitual routine to have a lasting effect. Abhishek shared two ways that you can purify the air inside your kitchen.
The first? “I always make sure to use the exhaust fan and open a window if the weather allows,” he says. Allowing fresh air into the room is an effective long term practice to combat cooking odors that make the air feel heavy. Albeit simple, putting this into practice is necessary for those with tighter budgets and hugely effective if you have large windows or a reliable exhaust fan.
The second? Investing in an air purifier. “It’s great at removing cooking odors, and I place it near the kitchen to catch smells before they spread.” He personally uses the Dyson Air Purifier, with activated carbon filters and HEPA filters to act quickly on cooking smells. Air purifiers are not only labour-saving devices, but are great if you live in a colder climate and can’t open the windows regularly or have windows that are too small for your kitchen.
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A budget-friendly and portable option is the Levoit Core Mini-P. It is small enough to fit in small nooks and helps to clear the air when your windows or exhaust fan just won’t do.
4. Light a Candle
Some old habits never die and sometimes they shouldn’t — beyond nursing a sense of indulgence, lighting a candle regularly with consideration for the scent profile can even compliment your cooking smells. This may be one of the smart things people with nice smelling kitchens always do.
"Scented candles or diffusers with woodsy scents like cedarwood or sandalwood add a grounding, earthy feel, perfect for creating a relaxing atmosphere," Abhishek says. If you’re doing the work to keep your kitchen at the minimum standard of scent neutrality, why not congratulate yourself with a candle that you know you’ll love?
We're currently loving this Apothecary 18 Floral Peony Blush Glass Jar Candle from Anthropologie, priced at just $38.
5. Let Your Food Be The Scent
Marilynn says what we’re all thinking but don’t dare to admit: Cooking smells are "what makes a house smell like a home." As we all gravitate towards more lived-in and real homes, we have to accept that all homes will have food smells. However, not all food smells are bad — especially if you’re using high-quality ingredients.
If you can’t commit to a pre-holiday cleaning list or can’t afford to buy neutralizing products for your kitchen but want to still have a palatable home, using spices is a great way to tackle food odors at the source. "I love adding fresh herbs for both cooking and a natural scent," Abhishek adds. Why not try new recipes that have a focus on pleasant herbs and spices, tweak your favorite recipes to prioritize the scent profile, or switch your sunflower oil for something more natural like coconut or olive oil?
Used coffee grounds are a quick and zero-waste way to neutralize odors, and the majority of people love the smell. It’s a great alternative to air freshener gels, and word on the street is that they can be repurposed for baking cookies, which always deliver a heavenly aroma.
Spices like ginger, coriander, pepper, lemongrass, and nutmeg compliment a home that already uses sweet, woody, or nutty home fragrances elsewhere and have health benefits that exceed those of premixed seasoning sachets. These ingredients tend to be received with gratitude, not only by your nose but your whole body and might provide the depth that your home’s scent profile needs.
FAQs
How Do I Keep My House From Smelling When Cooking?
"Honestly, I find that’s one of the best aspects of cooking!" Marilynn Militello, of home odor-eliminating brand Azuna, says. "Don’t you just love walking into a kitchen that smells like a warm and wonderful meal? Well, except salmon. Nobody needs to smell salmon," she jests.
If you have your own salmon dilemma, Marilynn’s advice is to clean as you cook rather than allow the smell of food residues left in utensils, pots, and pans to linger.
This way, the kitchen is clean and fresh by the time the food is ready, and you don’t need to pencil in time to clean items that have accumulated in the sink. Not only this, but it stops the decaying odors from setting in as a day of procrastination becomes a week.
What Is The Best Scent To Get Rid Of Food Smell?
There’s no clear answer to this as every person’s grocery list and culinary tastes are different. However, products with a tea tree oil or citrus base are a great way to naturally neutralize odors without having to go home remedy crazy.
"After cooking, I’ll simmer some vinegar or citrus to neutralize any lingering smells, and I light a candle or use a diffuser to keep the air fresh," Abhishek Dekate, Creative Director of his eponymous interior design and food brand, says. Whilst some scents may be more effective than others, he advises priotitising scents that complement your space. He uses his own home as an example of this: "woodsy and earthy scents, like sandalwood and cedar, feel grounding and add warmth to my home. I also love the subtle smokiness of incense or a deep, spicy scent that reminds me of cozy, rustic spaces. These fragrances blend well with my interior, offering a sense of calm, while also enhancing the creative energy that I want to nurture in my environment."
Marilynn recommends layering scents like lavender, sandalwood, vanilla and lemon: "They tend to layer well together, so when I need to use multiple products that don’t all have the same exact scent, it lends to this great more complex personal scent that’s still somehow subtle."
