I'm always shocked by how stinky my trash can becomes from one moment to the next—from fairly inoffensive smells to almighty stenches in a matter of days depending on what I’ve thrown out. And, at this time of year, there’s a lot of discarded food waste from leftover meat to past-their-best vegetables. Quickly, the trash can becomes a household chore that forces you to empty it more than you want, because the smell will follow you around, well, like a bad smell.
While I've followed these 5 easy ways to deodorize my trash can, what I was really after was a new scent altogether. Fortunately, a stinky trash can is no longer my enemy. After finding a TikTok hack, with just two simple steps, I’m now enjoying the scent of candles and flora, rather than a wafting trash smell every time I open the lid. Here’s the hack in action:
@theamateurcleaner ♬ Island - Miley Cyrus
With nearly half a million followers, user @theamateurcleaner reveals this incredibly effective way to keep your garbage smelling fresh with just cotton wool and oils. Yes, we didn’t know garbage and fresh could exist in the same sentence together either. Before we get into the how, we just want to state that while the video shows using Pine-Sol being used to soak a cotton pad to place in your trash can, we’d recommend using essential oils instead. Why? Well, there’s a lot more choice and most essential oils come with added benefits, which we’ll jump into below.
To follow the hack, simply soak a cotton wool pad with a few drops of essential oil and drop it into the bottom of your trash can. While you can place it in the trash liner whenever you add a new one, you’ll reap more reward from putting it directly in the can under the liner as it won’t get contaminated and stifled by the rubbish you put on top of it.
For anyone wondering how often you need to change it, someone in the comments asked this very question, to which TheAmateurCleaner replied, “You can go by smell! Everything you change the garbage check the smell!” Cost-effective and low effort, we're a fan.
What are the added benefits of using essential oils?
Aside from fighting the odor in your trash can, essential oils also have benefits that extend far beyond just bringing a nice smell. There's 7 ways to use essential oils around your home, and eliminating the smell of your trash is only one of them. For example, tea tree oil and citrus oils have antibacterial properties, mint oils will in fact help to deter rodents away (which is especially great if you’re using a mint oil soaked cotton wool in your outdoor trash), and finally neem oil and lemongrass oil are both great at solving the problem, how to repel insects like mosquitoes.
Many essential oils also have calming benefits such as lavender and chamomile, or there's peppermint that will even help unblock your sinuses. It’s entirely up to you which essential oil you use to scent your trash and what benefits you would get the most from, but any smell is better than garbage.
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