Persistent Bad Smell in Your Home? Here's How to Get Rid of It

Anyone who has ever dealt with a persistent unwanted odor in their house will tell you that it's pretty difficult to enjoy your time at home if the environment doesn't smell good. A bad smell that persists after you've tried to clean your house will elevate your stress levels, and the problem will be even worse if you're trying to sell the property because no one wants to pay the full market price for a home that smells bad. 

Whether you're trying to sell your home or just want to make it more livable for yourself, what you need is a systematic plan for removing the source of the smell and then cleaning all of the areas where the odor has spread. It might sound easier said than done, but we think you'll be very happy with the result if you follow this method.

Find and Eliminate the Source of the Odor

Before you even begin thinking about cleaning your house, you need to identify and remove the thing that's causing the bad smell. Until you do that, the odor is going to continue recirculating through your heating or air-conditioning system and permeating your entire home. It's likely that you already have some ideas as to what's causing the odor. Maybe it's even a combination of things. If you're not sure where the smell is coming from, though, here are some ideas to help you get started.

• If you smoke in your home, stop. Either go outside when you want to use nicotine or switch to a smell-free method of nicotine consumption like pouches.
• If you're the type of person who enjoys herbal refreshment, get some smell-proof bags for your stash or switch to vaping. Rokin Vapes is a company that has a wide selection of 510-thread batteries for herbal vaping.
• If you have pets, make sure that you're doing a good job of managing their odors. Empty the litter box more often and either clean or get rid of old pet bedding.
• Check your plumbing for leaks and fix any problems that you find. Leaky plumbing leads to mold growth, and a mold infestation doesn't just smell bad "“ it's also incredibly unhealthy. If you're dealing with a persistent musty odor on your home, consider buying a home mold test kit. Bear in mind that although the kits are inexpensive, you'll probably need to pay a fee to have your samples processed.
• Check your attic and basement for issues like dead rodents and sources of water ingress. 

Give Your Home a Thorough Cleaning

Once you've removed the source of the unwanted smell, it's time to get to work on cleaning your home. If you've ever smoked in your home or have had to remove something like a dead rodent, you're going to have a good amount of work on your hands. Here's a simple method for tackling the project.

• Start with the items that are soft and absorbent. Remove those items from the room that you're cleaning if possible and wash them.
  • Wash any curtains and drapes, preferably in a large machine at your local laundromat. If you've smoked in your home, try adding some white vinegar to your normal laundry detergent to neutralize the smoke odor. If the curtains still smell, it's probably best to replace them if you can.
  • Wash towels, sheets and blankets in the same way.
  • Take your furniture outside on a bright day and leave it in direct sunlight for a while. Be warned that sunlight can cause some upholstery to discolor or fade, but the ultraviolet radiation of the sun is very effective for neutralizing odors.
  • Use a steam cleaner to clean your carpets. If you've smoked in your home, consider adding white vinegar to the cleaning solution.
• After removing as many of the soft items from the room as possible, clean the walls and ceiling with warm water and paint-safe detergent. Once again, consider adding vinegar if you've smoked in the room. If the room has a hard floor, clean the floor in the same way.

Clean Your Home's HVAC System

After you've cleaned the rooms in your home to the fullest extent possible, cleaning your home's heating and/or air conditioning systems is the next step. In this situation, it would be wise to hire a professional unless you're a particularly handy individual because having your HVAC system cleaned professionally costs much less than repairing damage that you caused by doing something incorrectly.

• Replace the air filters. This is something that you can do on your own.
• Clean the evaporator coils. Generally, you'll do this by spraying a cleaning solution on the coils and scrubbing with a nylon brush. Since the coils are wet, the solution is usually self-rinsing. 
• Clean the ducts. This is a case where you'll almost definitely want to hire a cleaning crew.

Put Odor-Absorbing Materials in Hard-to-Reach Areas

Once you've finished cleaning your home to the best of your ability, you may still notice some lingering smells in places that are difficult to reach. This is why your local home improvement store carries bags of activated charcoal. Grab some bags and put them under your sinks, in your closets and in any other enclosed areas that might harbor musty odors. Activated charcoal is extremely absorbent and does an excellent job of removing unwanted smells. To maintain the effectiveness of the charcoal, take the bags outside and leave them in direct sunlight for a few hours once or twice per year.

Explore More Advanced Remediation Options for Tougher Odors

After you've done all of the things detailed in this article, you should find that your home smells much, much better than it did before. It's entirely possible, though, that you may still notice a bit of a lingering odor depending on what the original source of the smell was. In that case, it may be necessary to explore some more advanced remediation options. Here are a few things that might be worth considering.

• Buy a filter-based air purifier. This type of device works by using a fan to circulate the air in your home through an array of filters. Good air purifiers aren't cheap, but they do work. At minimum, a good air purifier should have a HEPA filter for removing microscopic allergens and an activated charcoal filter for absorbing gaseous odor-causing molecules. Ideally, it should also have a coarse pre-filter stage for trapping things like hair and dust. This increases the life of the more expensive activated charcoal and HEPA filters.
• Consider repainting your home's interior with odor-encapsulating paint. This type of paint creates an airtight seal that traps odor-causing molecules and prevents them from circulating in your home.
• If nothing else seems to work, it might be worthwhile to rent an ozone generator and run it in your home for a few hours. Ozone neutralizes most odor-causing molecules by causing them to oxidize. Be aware that all people and pets need to be out of the dwelling while the ozone generator runs. Ozone can also potentially harm houseplants. If you're concerned about the safety of using an ozone generator, consider hiring a professional crew to do the job for you.