There is not one homeowner on Earth who wants their guests to take a whiff of their home and wrinkle their nose in disgust. “My house smells musty, but why?” you may ask yourself, slightly embarrassed. Even if you clean your house regularly and take out the garbage, the reality is that occasionally a house smells musty—or stale, or dank, or myriad other things—and there’s no chance that a scented candle can undo the olfactory damage.
Often, if your house truly reeks, the only thing you can do is hire a professional “to actually address the root of the problem,” says Tim Tracy, a national sales trainer for foundation services and water management company Groundworks based in Virginia Beach, Virginia. That means the damp small in your basement or crawl space is more than a malodorous inconvenience. “Black mold is particularly dangerous,” Tracy adds, pointing out that if left untreated, it may lead to health issues caused by mycotoxins.
But because you’re nothing if not a DIY’er, AD rounded up top ways to fight back when your house smells musty—including the causes and what may work as a fix to help things pass the sniff test.
Even the most beautiful Berber rug won’t take you on a magic carpet ride when it smells off.
The cause: “Mold, mildew, and other fungal growths feed on dead organic materials, such as cotton and wool,” Tracy says. “The scent you smell is the off-gassing of that material being broken down by mold.”
The fix: If a piece has had water damage, “it’s really difficult to make it not smell again,” Tracy says. But one of the best fixes for a stale rug has been used for literally centuries is the sun. Just haul the rug outdoors on a dazzlingly bright sunny day and let the UV rays evict the dreaded bacteria and fungus.
If your carefully curated wood closet and that antique wardrobe you discovered at Brimfield Flea Market aren’t exactly fresh, that doesn’t mean that your clothes are destined to pick up the antediluvian scents.
The cause: Grand-millenial style? Chic. Grand-musty smells? Not so much. Over the years, mildew may have formed in the wood panels—not something anyone likes having around.
The fix: Lining drawers or cabinets with dryer sheets can work in a pinch, but it may also be worth investing in Murphy Oil Soap wood cleaner. It has five-star rating on Amazon for a good reason, and it has been used for more than a century to give wood goods a new (fresh!) life.
Basements already have a bad rap for a place where yucky smells accumulate, so don’t let a dank-scented one stay that way for long.
The cause: “All basements need some type of dehumidification system, because the temperature differential below ground can cause condensation and moisture buildup,” Tracy says.
The fix: If your basement looks as bad as it smells (think peeling walls and efflorescence), a professional may be needed to counteract all the damage that wetness has caused in your subterranean spaces. If the basement or crawl space is in good shape, look for a dehumidifier with a drain hose so you don’t have to worry about emptying the tank every other day, especially during the humid months. To deal with the odor itself, folks swear that DIY hacks, like bowls of baking soda and white vinegar, can help mitigate the unfavorable bouquet of scents, especially in small spaces, like a cabinet.
Raiding your freezer for snacks is always a do. But you know what’s not appetizing ? That stomach-churning scent of freezer burn.
The cause: Ice should smell as fresh as an Antarctic breeze. This is one reason why freezer burn’s odor, a chemical reaction that reeks like decaying bacteria and that can happen when the freezer temp rises above 0 degrees, is so fundamentally off-putting.
The fix: Deep clean the freezer by first removing everything, then wiping it down with baking soda and warm water. Defrost it, and then clean it again with a mix of white vinegar and water.
Maybe you moved into a house formerly owned by a chain-smoker, or ordered an antique chair online, only to find it had been used as a smoke break HQ by its previous owner.
The cause: The thirdhand smoke that occurs in upholstered pieces, and even your walls, is more than just unpleasant; it can be dangerous, especially to children, because it may include toxic substances such as naphthalene and formaldehyde.
The fix: The Thirdhand Smoke Resource Center says you can apply TSP (trisodium phosphate), a degreaser, to your walls. This can remove accumulated residue on certain surfaces, although it won’t fix what lurks within the walls, so it may not solve the issue altogether. That antique chair that smells like it just got home from a weekend in Vegas? Use a vacuum with a HEPA filter to go over every crevice multiple times. You can also spritz the fabric with a white vinegar and water solution, which is alkaline enough to neutralize the smell. For furniture of the Mad Men era, consider giving it a fresh coat of paint and prepping it with an odor-blocker like Kilz Restoration Interior Primer before you adorn it. Would Green Smoke from Farrow & Ball be too… on the nose?
Originally Appeared on Architectural Digest
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