11 Convenient Ways To Get Rid Of Refrigerator Odour

Last Updated on 31 January, 2023 by Darshan Chana

Have you ever had your fridge start smelling weird all of a sudden? That’s a very common refrigerator problem and an unpleasant one at that. It’s even worse when the smell is particularly strong, as that means it’ll stay for a while. However, you can skip the wait and immediately remove such smells. I’ve written this post to share some of the best ways to get rid of refrigerator odour.

Trust me, doing so is super easy and most of the tips only need things you’ll literally have in your hands reach. For extra convenience, I’ve added ways to stop the smell from appearing again as well. Let’s get started.

Ways To Get Rid Of Refrigerator Odour

1. Baking Soda

Baking Soda is one of the most convenient and cheapest ways of removing smells from a fridge. You need to put the Soda on a tray and leave it in the fridge for a whole night. That should get rid of the smell, but you can keep it in longer if the smell doesn’t go away entirely.

2. Coffee Grounds

If you drink coffee (not the instant kind) often, then you can grind some of your beans and use them as a way to get rid of smells. Once you’re done grinding the beans, you can spread them on the shelves of the fridge. Keep them in for a night, and the other odours will go away. The coffee’s scent will stay for a bit, but it’ll go away quickly. Do note that you need to use fresh coffee grounds and not used ones.

3. Activated Charcoal

Whilst the earlier methods are easier to pull off with their availability, you can still get activated charcoal fairly easily. They’re sold in pet stores. Get some, and follow the same procedure I’ve described earlier. The only difference is that you need to keep the charcoal in the fridge for a couple of days rather than one night for it to be effective.

4. Essential Oils

Essential oils or extracts are great for making any place smell good in general. You can use them in refrigerators as well. Get some of the vanilla ones, and soak them up with cotton balls. You can then leave the balls inside for 24 hours, and the bad odours will go away.

5. Cat Litter

This one may sound odd, but I can say from personal experience that it actually works. As long as the litter doesn’t have any scent, you can put it into your fridge and leave it there for a while to get rid of other bad odours.

6. Potatoes

You can also use potatoes to make your refrigerator smell pleasant again. Get a potato, peel it up and then leave it in the fridge. Keep it there, and your fridge won’t smell unpleasant anymore since the potato will absorb the scents. Just be sure to replace it with a new one every 2-3 days and to throw away the old one.

7. Clovers And Lemons

You can combine clovers and lemons (or oranges) to replace the bad smell inside a refrigerator with a more pleasant one. Cut the lemon or orange in half, insert some cloves into the cut part, and leave it all inside the refrigerator. You won’t have to deal with any smells after that until the citrus dries out.

8. Oatmeal

Oatmeals are also absorbers. Like potatoes, you can store them in a fridge in a ceramic bowl to eliminate bad odour.

9. Vinegar

You can use vinegar, but you need to be a little more careful with it as it has a fairly strong scent. A teacup full of it should be able to get rid of most scents inside a medium-sized refrigerator.

10. Newspaper

If you spend your morning reading newspapers, you can also use the old papers to make your fridge smell better. Stuff pieces of the paper into the refrigerator’s shelves and drawers, then keep the door closed for 2-3 days. After that, bring the paper out and give the fridge a good wash with water mixed with vinegar. Make sure to add exactly 1 cup of white vinegar to every gallon to ensure you get proper results without any side effects.

11. Check The Internal Components

When the dual-evaporator system starts to malfunction, a fridge can start to smell. This system is supposed to contain smells in each compartment so that one won’t be affected by the other. For instance, it stops the smell of raw meat in your freezer from reaching the main compartment. Get the fridge checked by a technician to see if it’s working and have the issue fixed.

These are some of the best ways to get yourself a fresh fridge. If your fridge smells unpleasant even after all that, it might be a good idea to give it a full clean. Once you’re done with that, you can go a step further and do more to prevent the bad scents from gathering inside your fridge.

Preventing Bad Odours In The Fridge

Here are a few quick tips to keep bad odours away from your fridge.

Keep your food in airtight containers.
Keep the temperature down all the time to prevent bacterial growth.
Always keep track of the leftovers- this one is very important. Remove these leftovers as soon as they expire.
Avoid keeping any sort of raw meat in the main compartment, as there’s a chance that the scent might linger for more time.
Ensure that a good amount of baking soda stays in the fridge, even if you’re done using it to get rid of smells. It can be effective for as long as three months.
Use special deodorisers made for refrigerators.
Always keep the fridge organised to allow good air circulation.

Follow all of these, and you’ll never have to have your face blasted by unpleasant smells whenever you open the refrigerator doors.

Last Thoughts

There you go; these are all the best ways to get rid of refrigerator odour. Most of these tricks are pretty effective- once you try them out, you can have your fridge smelling fresh like it was on the first day you bought it. And if your fridge is fairly old and you’re planning to get a replacement in the future, I’ll share a tip. Some of the best refrigerators on the market actually come equipped with deodorisers to prevent any smells from gathering. If you get one of these fridges, you no longer have to do anything like this again.

That’s all I have for now. I hope I’ve helped you out. Good luck, and see you in the next post.

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Sourav Roy

Chief Editor at Homeliness

Sourav Roy understands the inconveniences people go through after buying a product based on the little information they find or based on what an overeager shopkeeper tells them about it. So, to save them the trouble, he dedicates his time to Homeliness, working with an experienced team to test and review new products, picking out the best on the market.