How to Identify & Eliminate Common Household Odors

What’s That Smell? Indoor Air Quality Solutions

Coming home to a bad smelling odor can be frustrating, unpleasant, and sometimes, dangerous. While you’re probably not thrilled to tackle another home project, taking steps to identify and eliminate the odor in your home now could stop it from getting worse and more difficult to treat later. The first thing that you’ll need to do is identify what’s causing your odor. Once you do that, you can take steps to eliminate it. Here are some common household problems that could be causing your home to smell.

Mold

If you own a home, it’s likely that you’ll develop mold at one time or another. Mold develops as a result of excess moisture build up and can occur in any room. Mold is commonly found in basements due to the surrounding ground moisture. It can also develop in the walls throughout your house if you have a leak in your plumbing or roof.

What does it smell like? Moist room, wet socks or wet paper.

What does it look like? Black, gray, green or pink spots or patches. It can also be fuzzy in texture.

Rotting Food

Yuck! The smell of rotting food can be awful, which makes it easy to identify. If your odor is coming from your refrigerator, garbage disposal, dishwasher or trash can, rotting food could certainly be the culprit. If the smell is coming from your fridge or trash can, you can simply find the food that has gone bad and dispose of it outside your home. If the odor is coming from your disposal or dishwasher, you could have a drainage issue with your sink plumbing.

What does it smell like? Sewage, sour, old dying plants in water.

What does it look like? Depends on the food. It could have white or green mold spots. If it was a solid food item, it could be watery, moist and soft due to rot.

Pets

If you already have a pet, it’s likely that you’ve identified the odor that you’re smelling and just need to solve it. If you don’t have a pet, but recently moved into a house where the previous owners had a pet, you could be discovering pet odors that have been left behind. Cats and dogs are typically the source of odors because they’re the largest domestic pets with access to most rooms, unlike small caged pets like hamsters and guinea pigs. Pet odors could be all-encompassing or targeted to a specific area, such as where a cat litter box used to be.

What does it smell like? Cat or dog dander. Cat urine (pungent and sour).

What does it look like? You may find animal hair or white flakey dander around the house or you could see urine stained areas that are tan, yellow, or light brown. If the smell is coming from a tile floor, look out for stained grout lines.

Smoke

For non-smokers, the scent of smoke can be very overwhelming and bothersome. Smoke odors can take over your home and even be absorbed by carpets and drywall after years of exposure.

What does it smell like? The scent of a used ash tray or old cigarettes. Musty.

What does it look like? You might notice that your walls have a yellowish tint or you may not see any visible signs of smoke.

How to Eliminate These Odors

If you’re struggling with any of these odors, the good news is there is a way to treat them. One product we’ve found to be extremely effective is ClenAir Odor Block Indoor Air Quality Neutralizer. This product works on all the odors that we talked about and more, including bacteria, chemicals, sewer gases and skunk odors. There are various application methods based on your particular odor issue. If your odor is all-encompassing, you may want to use the HVAC application. If your order to specific to one area, you may want to use an odor tub. All ClenAir products are easy to use and affordable. Don’t wait, visit our website for ClenAir and begin solving your odor issue today!