No matter how much you spruce up and decorate your bathroom to make it look nice and homey, there’s one thing you still might be struggling with: the lingering odors that’re a little too friendly with your toilet, shower, or sink. These unwanted guests have invaded your area of privacy and are starting to take over your entire bathroom, making you feel frustrated and slightly embarrassed when you have actual guests over.

How to Get Rid of Bathroom Odors

If you’re wondering how to eliminate bathroom odor without the use of harmful chemicals, you should know that there’s a wide variety of products and methods to choose from. Below are eight effective bathroom odor solutions that will help you restore your private space to its former glory.

Natural Products to Eliminate Odors

1. Essential Oils

Essential oils are great because their scents last longer than regular air fresheners and leave your bathroom smelling pleasant and fresh. To get the most fragrance out of essential oils, you can place cotton balls dipped in them around your bathroom or simply use a diffuser. You can also utilize an essential oil bathroom spray that makes the process of eradicating strong odors even easier for you. Made with fresh orange oil and notes of clove oil, tea tree oil, eucalyptus oil, and rosemary oil, the Eliminati Luxury Odor Eliminator from Angry Orange destroys bad odor with citrus scents. While other products simply mask smelly odors, this bathroom odor eliminator spray knocks them out completely so they disappear without a trace.

2. Baking Soda

It’s no secret that a good ‘ol box of baking soda in your fridge will absorb any stale or rotten smells. And guess what? The same principle applies to your odor-ridden bathroom! Baking soda is able to neutralize odors because it’s a base substance, meaning it has a high pH value. Meanwhile, most odors are acidic in nature so they have lower pH values. In other words, baking soda is a neutralizer for the acids that cause your nose to scrunch due to terrible odors. Whenever you decide to use baking soda, don’t forget to occasionally change the box; you might even need to do this sooner than the expiration date if the baking soda absorbs too many odors over time.

3. Lemon

If you have any extra lemons lying around in your kitchen and don’t know what to do with them, you can finally put them to use as a natural odor eliminator. Add a bit of freshness and citrus tang to your bathroom by slicing some lemons and placing them on a plate or dish (just make sure to change them once a week to effectively control odors)!

4. Bamboo Charcoal

Bamboo charcoal is a sustainable and eco-friendly product that acts as an air purifier by removing unpleasant odors and bacteria, as well as filtering out harmful pollutants and allergens. In addition to the clean air it can provide for your bathroom, bamboo charcoal can also serve as a natural dehumidifier.

Other Easy Ways to Reduce Bathroom Odors

5. Air Purifiers

You might also want to try investing in an air purifier. Air purifiers are devices that help increase air circulation and remove odor-causing particles and other pollutants. Even if your bathroom is equipped with odor eliminators, these alone may not be enough to prevent bad smells from interrupting you during your bathroom break. Unless there’s sufficient air circulation, your nose won’t be having an enjoyable time.

6. Air Fresheners

You can easily buy air fresheners online or in stores, but if you’d rather save your resources, you can also make your own right at home. In fact, homemade air fresheners can be safer than store-bought ones (which often contain toxic compounds). To create your own DIY air freshener, mix the following together in an eight-ounce spray bottle:

• ¾ cups of water
• Two tablespoons of rubbing alcohol
• Five to six drops of an essential oil of your choice

7. Exhaust Fan

Although exhaust fans are mainly used to remove moisture, they also have the ability to control and eliminate bathroom odor. As a source of ventilation, exhaust fans recycle air and increase air circulation (just like air purifiers) to draw out unpleasant smells. By installing an exhaust fan, you’ll be creating a cleaner-smelling atmosphere for yourself and other bathroom-goers. Just make sure to thoroughly clean your exhaust fan every six months for quality control purposes!

8. Give Your Bathroom a Deep Clean

Not all odors are created from your one-time trip to the bathroom. Over time, an uncleaned and gunk-ridden bathroom will produce bad smells that make you want to run away. As a rule of thumb, you should try to clean your bathroom at least once a week and do a more thorough clean once every month or two. Besides the obvious areas of your bathroom that need to be scrubbed down with cleaning products (such as your shower, sink, and toilet), here are a few other areas that might need your attention:

• Grout — Untreated mold and mildew can hide in harder-to-reach areas of your bathroom, such as the grout in your shower or on the floor. Sometimes, your grout may be cracked, making it more difficult to clean. Make sure to check and clean your bathroom often for mold and mildew; you can use cleaning products or undiluted vinegar as a natural substitute. 
• Towels — We might not think of these often, but towels are excellent breeding grounds for bacteria and mold when they aren’t dried properly. To avoid the musty odor that could linger in your bathroom, replace and wash your towels regularly.
• Trash can — Bathroom garbage such as feminine products and wet wipes can cause odor too. Try to regularly empty your bathroom trash can to avoid bad smells from accumulating.

How to Keep Your Bathroom Smelling Fresh: Final Thoughts

If you find that your bathroom is starting to make you scrunch your nose, it’s time to take action and freshen up the air. Although maintaining your bathroom is no easy task, these eight effective tips on ways to eliminate bathroom odor will allow you to breathe happily again!

Contributing Writer: Rebecca Lee