How To Get Rid Of Vinegar Smell on Floor, Carpet & Clothes

Despite the fact that vinegar is a miraculous cleaner that you can use on almost any surface, cleaning can occasionally be difficult due to its potent smell.

Vinegar smell can be eliminated by spritzing the area with a solution made by combining a small amount of baking soda with water in a spray bottle.

Why You Should Clean With Vinegar?

We adore you, distilled white vinegar. Let’s list them out.

But seriously, if you haven’t yet gotten on the vinegar-based cleaning bandwagon, this is the time. Why? Vinegar is environmentally friendly, super inexpensive and incredibly effective on a multitude of household surfaces (for starters, it is an absolutely essential). What is there not to love, really? (Other than the smell, of course; however, more on that later.)

Even better, if you find yourself in the middle of a cleaning project that involves some particularly tough stains or for some other reason requires a bit more cleaning power, you can easily mix vinegar with one of our other favorite cleaning hacks—baking soda—to create a paste that’s pretty much a cleaning superhero. (Just be cautious mixing these two together to avoid accidentally recreating the explosive volcano demonstration that we all performed in fourth-grade science.)

How to Get Rid of Vinegar Smell?

1. Open the Windows

Before, during, and after cleaning with vinegar, open your doors and windows to let in fresh air and let the vinegar smell escape. Plug in your fan if you have one and turn it on. Does it seem too good to be true? The vinegar odor in your house will significantly improve thanks to this easy action.

2. Install An Air Purifier

Purchase a HEPA-certified air filter to help circulate and cleanse the air in your home. Make sure to purchase one that will fit the space you’re using it in, and be sure to replace the filter as directed by the manufacturer. Every three to six months is the usual interval.

3. Run a Dehumidifier

If the vinegar smell in a room is especially strong, plug in a dehumidifier and let it run for at least 15 minutes or up to a few hours. By removing moisture from the air, this device also removes the smell of vinegar. Plus, it’s a great way to lower the humidity in your home.

4. Try Baking Soda

If you can identify the surface you cleaned with vinegar, you can try cleaning it with baking soda once more to get rid of the smell. One tablespoon of lemon juice, one and a half cups of water, and one teaspoon of baking soda should be combined in a spray bottle. Spray the baking soda solution on the vinegar-soaked area, then wipe it dry.

5. Mix in Essential Oils

Whether you enjoy the scent of eucalyptus, rosemary, or peppermint, essential oils are a great way to lessen vinegar’s overpowering odor. Just add 20 drops of your preferred oil to a 1-gallon vinegar bottle. To prevent using it for cooking, be sure to label it.

6. Dilute Your Vinegar With Water

There’s no need to use plain vinegar, which has the strongest odor, when you’re cleaning with vinegar. To lessen the smell without sacrificing cleaning power, you can instead dilute it with water.

• Dilute vinegar by adding one part vinegar to three parts water to create an all-purpose cleaner.
• Use one part vinegar to one part water to make a cleaner for a deeper clean.
• Consider cleaning with vinegar and baking soda together since baking soda is a natural odor neutralizer.

7. Boil Citrus

Has your yard a citrus tree? Any citrus fruit, such as lemons, limes, or oranges, should be gathered in a handful and sliced. Put them in a pot of water and heat it up until it boils. Let the fruity aromas fill your house as you bring it to a simmer. In order to prevent the water from burning off, keep an eye on the pot.

8. Light Things Up

Purchase scented candles or incense with your favorite scents—pine, lavender, whatever—and let them take care of changing the odors in your house. The scent will start to fill the room once the candle or incense stick is lit. Never leave them in a drafty area of the house where a wind gust could send an ember somewhere it shouldn’t be, and always remember to blow them out before you leave.

9. Consider Using Another Vinegar

In addition to having a more pleasant smell than distilled white vinegar—many people describe it as sweet—apple cider vinegar is a great substitute. Even though it doesn’t have the same antimicrobial qualities as white vinegar, you can still make a cleaning spray to use in many of the same places. Don’t forget to saturate it with water at a ratio of 1:1. Additionally, because apple cider vinegar is colored and could leave a stain behind, avoid using it on carpets or fabrics.

How to Neutralize the Smell of Vinegar

The smell of vinegar can be managed in another way, right? How do you neutralize it, exactly?

1. Use Febreze Unstopables AIR Fresh to actually clean away odors and help get your home back to peak freshness.
2. Your vinegar cleaning mixture should also contain baking soda. Baking soda is the ideal foil for vinegar because it not only has incredibly potent cleaning abilities on its own but also does a fantastic job of odor neutralization. Try a solution of one part baking soda to two parts vinegar. If you want a little extra cleaning power, you can also stir in a small amount of dish soap. The end product ought to be a surface cleaner that is still natural and effective but much less smelly.

Pro tip: If you have a stain that is especially difficult to remove, you can adjust the baking soda and vinegar cleaning solution’s ratios to make more of a paste, and then use an old toothbrush, sponge, or rag to attack the stain vigorously.

3. start a flow of air. Even though using vinegar to clean is incredibly straightforward, making sure your space is well ventilated before, during, and after will help to mask the smell. If it’s not February in Chicago, we strongly advise against opening your windows and doors to let some fresh air into your house. If you have a fan, turn it on. It’s even better if you have several. Additionally, turning on your air conditioning, if you have it, can help. The idea is to get your home ventilated well and effectively to get rid of the vinegar odor.

Keep in mind, too, that there’s no reason you can’t come at this problem from multiple angles: you should feel very free to mask the smell with aromatics and a scented candle A fan should be running, and you should keep your windows open to neutralize it.

Conclusion

We frequently discuss identifying the smell’s source and removing it when talking about how to get rid of an offensive odor. However, in this instance, we actually recommend masking and/or neutralizing the vinegar smell using the aforementioned advice because we love the source of the smell (your freshly cleaned home) much more than we do removing it!

Additionally, keep in mind that, despite how potent it may be at the moment, the vinegar smell will pass. The vinegar smell will disappear on its own even if you don’t follow any of the recommendations we’ve provided above. Just give it a little bit of time. Hey, what a great justification to leave the house and get some fresh air!

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