Healthy Home Expert Lisa Beres Offers Tips to Remove Odors in the Home Naturally without Chemicals
Homeowners go to great lengths to ensure their home looks, feels and smells clean. But if you’ve become accustomed to the scents of your own home, how can you really know if it’s odor-free? Homes trap all kinds of smells — last night’s salmon dinner, dirty gym clothes in the laundry basket, the cat’s litter box and more — but now you can stop odors from lingering.
The Filtrete Odor Reduction Filter is the most effective1 odor-reduction filter at removing odors throughout the entire home — such as those from cooking, tobacco smoke, pets, mildew and cleaning chemicals — while also helping to improve the air quality in the home. In fact, it is 65 times more effective1 than other carbon filters at removing odors from the air passing through the filter.
Healthy home expert, Building Biologist and author Lisa Beres shares simple solutions to naturally create and maintain a fresh home:
Source: Kitchen refrigerator
Solution: Forgotten leftovers can cause a foul odor in your fridge. Clean the fridge drawers and shelves by adding a few drops of natural dish soap to a bowl of baking soda and stir until it creates a thick paste. This will remove odors as well as stains left behind from food. Also store an open box of baking soda inside the fridge to help eliminate odors before they start, and replace it with a fresh box at least every three months.
Source: Pests and repellents
Solution: Pesky ants and other insects can make their way into your kitchen pantry when they’re on a mission to find food, but dousing them and your kitchen’s surfaces in toxic repellent isn’t a healthy solution for the home or the family. Instead, set a line of coffee grinds, lemon juice, cinnamon or cayenne pepper around doors and windows to create an effective barrier they won’t cross.
Source: Cooking
Solution: Prevent unappealing cooking odors, such as fish, from spreading and lingering throughout the entire home by upgrading to the Filtrete Odor Reduction Filter. It traps odors and gases from the air passing through the filter and helps keep the home fresh for families and houseguests. Synthetic air fresheners, candles and incense only provide temporary relief from odors by masking them in one particular room but will do nothing to remove the odors from the entire home.
Source: Damp towels
Solution: Wet towels from a shower, a trip to the gym or a day at the pool can be a breeding ground for mildew to develop if they sit too long without drying. To rid towels of the mildew smell, first wash them once in hot water with a cup or two of white vinegar. Then wash them again with a natural or eco-friendly laundry detergent. Finally, dry the towels in the dryer on high heat. To avoid mildew and associated smells in the future, hang towels up right away to ensure they dry thoroughly.
Source: Pet odors
Solution: Furry companions are considered family members to many — 72 percent of American households today own either a dog or a cat2. Reduce the unpleasant smell of pet dander by bathing and grooming your pet weekly and establishing pet-free zones in the home, such as the bedroom.
Source: Candles and air fresheners
Solution: Instead of trying to mask the odors with store-bought air fresheners, create your own air freshener by combining 10 drops of an essential oil — such as lavender or eucalyptus — with two cups of water. Many air fresheners may sway you with the scents of fresh cut grass, warm vanilla or tropical fruits, but they can contain synthetic chemicals, such as formaldehyde, which can irritate eyes, skin and throats3.
About Lisa Beres
Lisa Beres is a healthy home expert, Building Biologist and recognized consultant in the green movement. With her husband Ron, she is the co-founder of RonandLisa.com. She is also the author of the children’s book MY BODY MY HOUSE and co-author of Just GREEN It!, Learn to Create a Healthy Homeand The 9 to 5 Greened: 10 Steps to a Healthy Office.
About 3M
3M captures the spark of new ideas and transforms them into thousands of ingenious products. Our culture of creative collaboration inspires a never-ending stream of powerful technologies that make life better. 3M is the innovation company that never stops inventing. With $30 billion in sales, 3M employs 84,000 people worldwide and has operations in more than 65 countries. For more information, visit www.3M.com or follow @3MNews on Twitter.
3M and Filtrete are trademarks of 3M.
1 Based on comparison of organic vapor capacity versus other national retail furnace filter brands
2 The Humane Society of the United States: http://www.humanesociety.org/issues/pet_overpopulation/facts/pet_ownership_statistics.html
3 Environmental Protection Agency: http://www.epa.gov/kidshometour/products/airf.htm
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Hunter Public RelationsStephanie Golden, 212-679-6600, ext. 301sgolden@hunterpr.comor3MRobert Brittain, 651-733-7034rbrittain@mmm.com
