You need to start with the basics first; Chances are, if you’ve gotten to the point of seeking help getting rid of sour house odors on the internet, then you need some serious cleaning. Set aside a day, or a weekend, specifically for cleaning.
If you don’t want to or can’t do it alone, ask for help from the people you live with. Perhaps you can also ask for the help of your friends. Bribe them with pizza and beer or kabobs and wine if necessary. Then, use the following suggestions to rid your house of odor and keep your living space fresh, scented, or at least breathable.
Elimination of sour smell from the house
* First dry the rooms and then clean your basement so that it is empty of anything that can retain moisture and wring it out there as well. Remove the cardboard boxes.
* If you have a ducted forced air heating and cooling system in your home, have the ducts checked. Homes that are decades old can have mold, heavy dirt build-up, and other unpleasant things that can cause odors. Your ducts may also be rusty by now so you may need to change them.
The newer ducts available on the market today are much more energy efficient. You’ll save air conditioning costs this summer if you get new ductwork. You can also hire a duct cleaning company to inspect the ducts you have right now. Some have a camera that can show you what is in your ducts. Be careful who you mess with! Use a reputable company and check with the Better Business Bureau. Ask them for references. Some just clean a little and spray a deodorant. The budget to clean the ducts can be hundreds of dollars less than buying new ones.
* Check your carpets. Sometimes carpets are steam cleaned unprofessionally and a lot of water remains. This causes mold and a related musty smell.
Remove your rugs and lay down hardwood or similar flooring with rugs that can be cleaned outside the home and dried before returning to the area. If your rugs are ten years old, it doesn’t hurt to remove them.
* You may have some form of mold growing on your carpet or behind your wallpaper. Create a bleach solution (1:10 to start, then up to 1:4 if that doesn’t work) and gently wash all walls and mops. Rent a hot water carpet cleaner and put a bleach solution in the reservoir instead of the soap they try to sell you. Add a drop or two of dish soap, but don’t add more. It is the water that cleans, not the soap. Adding too much soap will actually make the mat dirty because it doesn’t rinse out and the soap sticks to the dirt.
* Although chlorine bleach is very noticeable in discoloring many things, you can risk using it for heavy-smelling jobs, even on dark carpets. If you’re still in doubt, there’s always oxygen bleach. It kills “everything” that may be causing an odor and cleaning with hot water also helps allergies.
Keep babies off rugs, as breathing in chemicals of any kind is especially bad for them. If the smell comes back faster than you think it should, get a dehumidifier.
* Never use a dehumidifier where you have an open window or it will dry out the immediate atmosphere of your home. An air conditioner actually works even better because of the filtering system it has, but if it’s too cold where you live to keep using one, then stick with the dehumidifier.
* To remove that not-so-fresh smell from your linoleum or hardwood floors, simply mix a 3:1 solution of warm water and white vinegar in your mop bucket and get to work. Remember to break a window or two. Vinegar has a nice clean smell, but it’s strong.
Products to eliminate the sour smell of the house
* Buy a large pump of Febreze as it works on everything. Smelly hampers, sticky wagons, sleeping bags that reek of campfire… whatever the smell, Febreze can put it down. You can get it in most supermarkets.
Another idea is to use a citrus odor neutralizing spray; It’s so effective that estheticians use it in salons to eliminate perm odor.
* An ozone generator or airborne hydrogen peroxide device can also work, but they tend to be expensive and may not get to the root of the problem. Covering or filtering odors is always more expensive than removing their source.
* If you want something a little cheaper, you can try Ozium Air Freshener – it’s the best way to keep the air in your home or workplace clean and smelling fresh. Ozium doesn’t cover up the odors associated with sour-smelling houses, it eliminates them!
Ozium, the original air purifier, is a chemical agent that actually removes unpleasant odors and reduces bacteria in the air. Ozium actually cleanses the air through glycol action. Ozium’s glycolized formula acts directly on the particles that cause bad odor in the air.
* Electrostatic air filters are good for getting rid of dust buildup, but they can be bad if they don’t work properly. Electrostatic air filters work by ionizing the air that passes through the filter, collecting dust from the air by creating an electrostatic field, much like a comb collecting particles after passing through dry hair fast enough.
Why are electrostatic dust collectors bad for you? If they don’t work properly, they can produce ozone, which is a respiratory irritant. So be sure to do your research before investing in one of these air filters.
* Try Renuzit, in any scent. If you can, try to find the Super Odor Killer scent. The fragrance in SOK (introduced in 1972) is not easily identifiable, because SOK uses a mixture of leftover perfumes when fragrance manufacturers were producing too much for another company’s orders.
This blend is not only good at masking a variety of odors, but can be used lightly at higher fragrance levels without overwhelming the user. Country Kitchen’s popular and most available scent will also suffice.
* Fresh Wave has a variety of all-natural, non-toxic, and eco-friendly laundry, upholstery, flooring, and venting products that are designed to attract, capture, and neutralize sour household odors.
Prevention of sour house odor
* The best way to prevent sour house odor from building up is to clean as you go. Put things away as soon as you finish using them. Throw things away as soon as you know you won’t be using them. Daily maintenance is the key to a breathable and livable home.
Have presence of mind when it comes to cleaning. Create a small space to donate and recycle things and clean it up as soon as it fills up. Limit your storage space and “junk” drawers so you don’t have a chance to dump the clutter in a closet and forget about it.
* People will tell you that the best way to get rid of mold, a major contributor to home odors, is to use an ionizing air purifier to help remove contaminants and mold spores from the air. Well, they’re half right.
An air purifier isn’t a bad idea to prevent mold growth, but those ionizing air filters can cause health problems if not built correctly. Sometimes, if an ionizing air filter isn’t built right, it will blow out ozone which, scientists will tell you, is good for the atmosphere and bad for your lungs.
Serious complications can arise if you are using the wrong air purifier. Choose wisely and make sure you buy from a reputable company.