Banish Unwanted Carpet Odors With This Handy Bathtub Essential

Carpet odors can be very hard to get rid of, simply because each individual fiber absorbs the smell, and vacuuming can't get rid of the stench as well as you might hope. Steam cleaning, on the other hand, takes hours to dry — basically making your space off limits for the entire day — and can be back-breaking work you do yourself or extremely costly if you hire a deep cleaning professional. Thankfully there's an easy and affordable cleaning hack to transform the smells lingering in your carpet from sour to sweet, and all it takes is a bath bomb.

Bath bombs are made from a combination of ingredients that varies by manufacturer but frequently include some amount of baking soda, cornstarch, and citric acid, in addition to their scent profile. Baking soda and cornstarch are both famously good at absorbing odors away from stinky areas, and that is exactly what they do here, drawing long-set aromas out of the carpet fibers. Meanwhile, citric acid neutralizes the underlying causes of many unsavory scents like bacteria and mildew. Combined, these additives create a powerful deodorizer, at which point the scent of the bath bomb itself can replace the former bad smells.

Much like the old deodorizing powders that first came out in the 1930s, to deodorize your carpet with bath bombs, you first want to crush them into a powder. The crushed bath bombs can then be sprinkled over the expanse of your carpet, but just to be safe, you should either use a dye-free version or one whose color already matches the color of your carpet. This reduces the risk of any discoloration on your floors.

Once the bath bomb has been sprinkled onto your carpet, let it sit for an hour to absorb and neutralize whatever odors are lingering deep within. It's after this waiting period that you can run a vacuum over the area, thoroughly lifting up all the remnants of the bath bomb. As the heat of the motor and the exhaust of the vacuum run, they will further activate and disperse the more pleasing aromas of the bath bomb around your room.