The Ingredients That'll Naturally Deodorize Your Home Every Time You Vacuum

Odors naturally hang out in your home over time, but since you live there every day, you can become unaware of their presence. To compensate for our tendency to become desensitized to the smells around us, it's important to be proactive in deodorizing when we can. Thankfully, there is an easy way to do this each and every time you vacuum, and it only requires mixing some baking soda with organic teas or herbs.

Teas are derived from plant leaves and generally have a much stronger aroma than taste. As such, their mere presence can enhance the mood of a room. Depending on the strain, a tea's aroma can be soothing, energizing, or even evocative of certain memories. Likewise, the scents that herbs lend to recipes are as powerful as their flavors. And it's these very olfactory boosts that form the key to this cleaning hack, which you can put into motion with a vacuum cleaner.

If you have dried teas and/or herbs in your pantry, along with some baking soda, you can mix together a homemade room deodorizer that can be used every time you vacuum. Simply add ½ cup of baking soda and 2 teaspoons of your herbs to a resealable bag, then close and shake to blend thoroughly. You can also use dried flowers like lavender or chamomile, and you can add a few drops of essential oils to tackle the stronger smells.

Sprinkle this mixture all around the floor you're preparing to vacuum and let it sit for up to an hour. Not only will your teas, herbs, or florals release their aromas, but baking soda naturally absorbs odors, too, allowing any set-in smells to be drawn out and replaced by more pleasant ones. Then, when you vacuum up the mix, the heat of the machine will further activate your desired scents, while the exhaust helps disperse them into the air, giving your carpet a refresh in addition to the whole space. It's an easy way to make your home smell good and lets your vacuum do double duty.