This post has affiliate/referral links. Learn more.
Bleaching powder is made of Calcium hypochlorite, an inorganic compound. It is often used in pools and other places to get rid of algae and bacteria. This is a great cleaning agent that is used in most households to wash clothes, kitchen drains, and bathrooms. However, it has a strong, chlorine-like odor. This can give you a headache and make rooms inhabitable if too much of it lingers.
You can use an air purifier with a high exchange rate to quickly get rid of the bleach smell in a room. Keep in mind the size of your room when you are purchasing an air purifer.
In this article, you will learn more simple tips and tricks on how to get rid of bleach smell with simple household products.
How to Get Rid of Bleach Smell
Below are different methods to remove the smell of bleach from different objects including rooms, clothes, and yourself. Read on and pick the method you need to remove the chemical scent from your home.
How to Get Rid of Bleach Smell from a Room
If you have done a deep cleaning activity in one of your rooms that involved bleach, then you are probably wondering how to get rid of the bleach smell in that room.
It can really prove to be an inconvenience in terms of a bad odor and can also give you a headache or a vomiting sensation if the bleach smell lingers in the room for long.
You can use the following quick ways and DIY methods to get rid of it from your room.
● As you would to get rid of any bad smell, open the windows and doors wide to ensure good ventilation. Good air circulation alone would help take care of getting rid of bad odor in most cases. You can use a large fan to push air out of an open window.
● Using an air purifier is another way to remove bleach smell quickly. You can check how often the air exchanges in the room size. Choose one with at least 5x air exchanges for a standard size room (200 square feet). The higher the air exchange rate, the faster the air purifier works through the air in the room, leaving fresher air, faster. Look for an HEPA purifier if you want to also get rid of allergens while you are ridding the room of bleach smell.
● If required, point fans towards specific places in the room where there is a heavy bleach odor. Pedestal fans work great for such scenarios. Slightly spray a room freshener of your choice through the blades of the fan so that it spreads the fresh smell to counter the odor of the bleach. This will improve air circulation and at the same time spread a good scent throughout the room.
● Another method is to place a cup of activated charcoal or baking soda at some corner of the room. This will help with multiple cleaning projects be it vessels, clothes, rooms, or sinks. A cup of baking soda or activated charcoal will most likely absorb the odor of bleach, eventually getting rid of it. Once you get rid of it you can stash the used cup. Following this, you can switch on your fans in the room and spray a mild, room freshener to make the room inhabitable again.
How to Get Rid of Bleach Smell from Kitchen sink/bathroom
Another common area that stinks of bleach smell is the kitchen sink or bathroom. The kitchen sink is used to wash dirty vessels and often the drain is clogged by food waste, which needs to be removed and cleaned.
As you do this frequently, it builds up a bad odor and gets wet and slippery due to prolonged use.
During such times, bleaching powder comes to the rescue to get rid of the slippery and slimy texture and restore the shine and cleanliness of the kitchen sink.
The same is the case with bathroom floors, tiles, or the toilet. If not cleaned often, your bathroom can reek of urine odor and the floor and tile can turn slippery.
Here again, when you get into a cleaning spree using some bleaching powder, the floor and tile are no longer slippery and you are also able to get rid of bad odor in the bathroom.
But the flip side to using bleaching powder is that next you need to figure out how to get rid of the bleach smell from the bathroom or kitchen sink.
This is still a better odor to get rid of. To do so, you can follow the methods below:
- Nine times out of ten, it is the drain that often retains the odor of the bleach. So you can clean it with some baking soda.
- Since it’s the odor we are trying to get rid of, you can use a scented powder or simply coffee powder to just counter the smell of the bleach. Coffee powder is a natural scrub even for skin. Try scrubbing the drains with it and then pour a lot of water down the drain. Repeat the steps until you get rid of the bleach smell.
How to Remove the Smell of Bleach from Refrigerators
If you have cleaned your fridge/refrigerator with bleach and you still seem to get the bleach odor after a few days — then it’s time to get rid of it. It’s not good for the items you may have kept inside the fridge/refrigerator.
Empty the contents of the fridge/refrigerator completely and switch it off. Use a bottle of lemon juice and wipe down the fridge/refrigerator and let it dry completely.
This may take several hours and you may have to keep it open. Air it out until you don’t smell the bleach any longer.
Lemon juice could make the walls and floor of the fridge/refrigerator sticky, so wipe it down again with a damp cloth and dipped in mild liquid soap and then with plain water.
Now you are ready to use the fridge/refrigerator again.
How to Get Rid of Bleach Smell on Clothes
The best way to get rid of the bleach smell from clothes is to wash them with a small amount of baking soda.
If you have got tough stains on your white shirt or top, then it’s recommended to use bleach to get rid of the stain.
Since bleach causes colors to fade, it is advisable only to use it when you wash your whites together and not on any other colored clothes.
That said, the very usage of bleach can give the clothes a bad smell, so right after you wash your clothes with bleach, rinse them again with a solution of warm water plus a few drops of baking soda. This will do the trick.
Experts say that baking soda and bleach are on different levels when it comes to pH scales and so it deodorizes the spots to get rid of the bacteria left by the bleach, thus getting rid of the smell as well.
How to Get Rid of Bleach Smell on Hands
Finally, you’ve washed everything you need to with bleach. You used the above methods to get rid of the bleach odor from clothes and rooms. However, you may end up still smelling it right on your hands due to your efforts. Do not fret. There are easy tricks to get rid of it from your palms and fingers.
- Rub some dishwashing liquid between your palms and wash it well under some running warm water.
- Use baking soda instead of soap and wash your hands with it.
- Cut a lemon (or any citrus-based fruit) in half and rub it all over your hands for a couple of minutes. Then use a mild soap to wash the sticky juice away and this will help you get rid of the odor of bleach.
How to Get Rid of Bleach Smell in Nose
One of the worst problems with bleach is when the smell of bleach gets stuck in your nose. It can continue to linger there for quite some time and is a strong, unpleasant odor. Here are a few ways to get rid of bleach smell in your nose.
- Make sure you have cleaned the room and your clothes of bleach. It may just be residue from them that you are smelling.
- Sometimes persisting smells are caused by a temporary disconnect with our brain. This can be overcome by smelling another strong scent – fresh coffee grounds from a tin work well.
- Wipe a scented lotion around the base of your nostrils. This may help combat the smell.
- Sniff a strong essential oil, like peppermint, to overpower the smell,
- Clean your nose if you might have any bleach residue in it. Follow instructions found on the product packaging if it’s directly on your skin.
- Try a saline spray rinse.
If you have the smell of bleach stuck in your nose and you haven’t used any bleach, it may be indicative of a health problem.
This can include gum inflammation and infections, sinus infections, nose polyps, and more. Be sure to consult a health professional in these cases where the smell persists without use.
The methods mentioned above are simple DIY tips on how to get rid of bleach smell. Try them right away to get rid of the bleach odor!
FAQs on How to Get Rid of Bleach Smell
How do you get rid of bleach fumes in your house?
Open your doors and windows and point fans at specific areas of the house where there is a heavy bleach odor to improve air circulation.
Use room fresheners and scented perfumes to counter the bad odor of the bleach. You can also use a cup of activated charcoal or baking soda so that it absorbs the bad odor of bleach.
What is the best thing to absorb odors?
The best thing to absorb odors is a cup of baking soda or activated charcoal. Place a cup of either of these two products in a corner of a room.
If your entire house smells of bleaching powder or another bad odor, then place a cup in each room and wait until the odor is absorbed.
Eventually, you can air out the rooms and spray a mild room freshener to get rid of bad odors.
Takeaway
While bleach is a great cleaning agent, it has an inherent bad odor that can be harmful when inhaled a lot.
To get rid of it from a room, you can use a good room freshener and improve air circulation.
Remove it from your clothes by rinsing them with a solution of warm water plus baking soda. To get rid of it from your hands, wash your hands with dishwashing liquid or lemon juice.
These are some quick and easy methods on how to get rid of bleach smell.
50 Brilliant House Cleaning Tips That You Must Know
How to Clean Shower Grout Mildew
