Goodbye, Mice: The Natural Way To Keep Them Away For Good Is In Your Kitchen

Whether you find them rather cute or shriek when you see them, mice are a major problem when they're in your kitchen — and they're more likely to make their way inside as temperatures drop in search of warm shelter. There are myriad solutions touted, but it can be hard to know what will be effective, and, importantly, what's safe, chemical-free, and cruelty-free too, as you only want to keep these creatures out. The answer is what's tried and true: natural deterrents. These are proven to work — you can trust they possess no health risks, and they keep mice away rather than killing them. Another major benefit is that these are often easy and free because you're just using things you already have in your kitchen. Case in point: cinnamon and vinegar both discourage mice from entering your kitchen, and both are likely already sitting in your pantry.

There are plenty of pantry staples effective in keeping pests at bay. But, with mice, you want to think about strong-smelling items. That's why cinnamon, with its spice, and distilled white vinegar, with its funky acidity, are key contenders here. Mice navigate to where they'll seek shelter and food sources largely by their sense of smell, so anything as overbearing to them as cinnamon and vinegar will bother them. Peppermint oil, eucalyptus, and clove can also do the trick, if you have them, but cinnamon and vinegar are common and impactful. Plus, they're easy to use by sprinkling or spraying.

To actually use cinnamon, the most basic approach is to sprinkle a bit anywhere mice could get in, like gaps between floors and walls, doorways, cabinets, and shelves. One of many creative ways to make use of cinnamon sticks is to leave little bundles of these fragrant rods in the same spots. Cinnamon oil is also effective and easy, and you can make your own if you don't have any. Simply infuse an oil like olive or coconut with cinnamon powder or sticks for a few weeks and strain. Then, you can use that oil to saturate cotton balls and place those, in some kind of open-top container in those problem areas. Alternatively, you could mix the oil with water in a spray bottle and apply it that way. 

Both the spray-bottle and cotton-ball methods work well with vinegar, too. You can also incorporate vinegar into your regular cleaning routine to further deter pests. There are different hacks for using vinegar to better clean your kitchen. If you mix vinegar into a natural, chemical-free cleaner, simply using it to then clean your floors and counters, it will have the added benefit of telling mice they don't want to hang around in your kitchen. In conjunction with cinnamon or vinegar, there are steps you can take to really ensure mice stay away. Most crucially, seal up those entry spots, keep any food in closed containers, and avoid letting your kitchen get too cluttered.