Your Fridge Will Smell 10X Better When You Keep This Pantry Staple In It (Not Baking Soda)

No matter how hard you try, your fridge will end up smelling at some point. Whether it's leftovers you forgot about for a little too long, caked-on spills in corners you couldn't reach, or just the accumulation of scents leaking out from containers, even the cleanest fridges start to get funky. That's why it helps to take some protective measures before things ever get too bad. The classic DIY cleaning choice for this is baking soda, but it isn't the only option you have in your pantry that works. You can also deodorize your fridge with oats.

While that may seem strange, the same forces that make oats great for making oatmeal also help draw odors from the air, much like baking soda. Oats are very porous. They're essentially tiny little grain sponges, and readily absorb and hold onto moisture. That draws humidity out of your fridge, which helps to perpetuate smells. It also means oats will absorb the volatile compounds in the air that cause bad smells.

Oats are also great for sticking in your fridge because, like baking soda, they have no smell of their own. So you aren't just covering up smells, you're really eliminating them. Oats won't eliminate odors as quickly as baking soda, but they're great for keeping in your fridge to absorb moderate smells before they become something worse. And since they're so affordable, there's little downside.

Because you are looking to draw moisture from the air, you should stick with dry oats in your fridge. Beyond that, any unflavored kind should work fine. For the best results, the oats should get as much air exposure as possible, so pour them into a shallow bowl with a lot of surface area. Place them out of the way in the back of your fridge, where they will be equidistant from most of your food. And within 24 hours, your fridge should smell noticeably fresher. You can leave the oats in your fridge for up to two weeks before replacing them.

The one downside to oats as a deodorizer is that they aren't as effective against strong smells. For that, you should start by doing a deeper clean of your fridge to eliminate the smells at their source. The most effective mixture for doing this is equal parts water and white vinegar. If you want something you can leave in your fridge that will absorb stronger smells over the long run, try using activated charcoal. Its very high surface area ratio means it can pull odors out of the air even more effectively than oats or baking soda. The downside is that it doesn't come nearly as cheaply as the other options. But for most fridges, a bowl of oats should more than do the trick.