If there's one thing you can say about bleach, it does a great job at killing germs, removing stains, sanitizing, and deodorizing your home surfaces. Unfortunately, sometimes you might have let it sit for too long or used a stronger concentration than expected because bleach certainly has a distinct aroma and it's lingering in your home.
So if you've been cleaning with bleach and its unpleasant harmful odor is lingering, there are some easy steps you can take to get rid of the bleach smell after your cleaning antics. Here's how to get rid of bleach smell in house:
1. Open The Windows
The first thing that you can do for not only how to get rid of smell of bleach but for any type of smell is to pop open the windows. With any luck, the circulation of fresh air into the room while the odorous fumes are sent out should get rid of the bleach smell in a matter of hours.
Better yet, create cross ventilation by opening multiple windows which is a natural phenomenon that allows wind or fresh air to flow directly through the space upon entering and exit through an opening on the opposite side of the building due to differences in air pressure.
While the fresh air can help remove the bleach smell, you're probably here either because you need instant relief or because popping open a window didn't help you despite having the air flowing for several hours. Bleach fumes aren't good for anyone to have to put up with so we understand where you're coming from.
One way to go about it is to use a deodorizer spray to neutralize odor molecules from bleach. Just make sure that the deodorant is made from natural plant oils instead of volatile organic chemicals which could result in some other adverse reactions.
3. Use A Fan
If you don't want to go full chemical yet and instead still want to hold out hope for wind and air power before calling it quits, consider using fans along with opened windows. Place your fans strategically to not only generate but also enhance air circulation.
Determine which window produces the most wind and place a fan there facing inward, this will pull in even more air through the window into the room. If you have opposite-facing windows then place a second fan facing outwards in the second window to push out the old air from the room.
Sometimes the smell of bleach can linger due to its chlorine components permeating the surface pores, furniture, and upholstery fabrics in your room. You can try and get rid of this by doing some steam cleaning as the steam helps reach the deep-seated chlorine particles and dislodge them.
Steam cleaning is generally considered fool-proof and a thorough steam cleaning will allow you to extract even the smallest of particles from the materials in the room. Don't forget to steam-clean hard surfaces as well because they can also hold onto the bleach odor.
5. Apply Odor Eliminating Gels
If the odor still persists after you attempt power ventilating the room with fans then you can use a number of odor-absorbing products to freshen up the air to get the chemical bleach smell in house. Odor-eliminating gels are a great low-maintenance option that can absorb and destroy odor molecules.
Simply place the odor-eliminating gel containers around the room with the permeated bleach air. Once you’ve evenly placed either the containers, the bleach molecules in the air should bind to the gel as the gel evaporates slowly.
Sometimes it's not just the room that's contaminated with the smell of bleach but your hands as well. An easy way to solve how to get bleach smell on your hands off is to simply use baking soda which is a common household chemical.
The list of odors that the baking soda can eliminate is simply limitless and it's a great option to have if it's too cold to facilitate a cross breeze. Not only does it work wonders for ridding your hands of the smell but it can also remove the smell from the room in as little as 30 minutes on average.
7. Place A Bowl Of Vinegar
If you are unfortunate enough to not have baking soda in your home and it's really urgent for you to remove the smell, you can try this next trick. Place bowls of vinegar in the room, and while some people can also find the aroma of vinegar unpleasant, it dissipates way quicker than the smell of bleach.
This makes white vinegar a great odor neutralizer for bleach smells and you can either set the vinegar in the room for 8 hours or you could boil vinegar in the room or spritz vinegar into the air from a spray bottle. If you can't bear to put up with the smell of vinegar consider trying some other method.
On the off chance that you also happen to own an air purifier then you can turn on the air purifier to get rid of the bleach smell from the room. Like any odor, the odor of bleach is linked to the presence of particles that an air purifier is capable of filtering out.
It is important that your air purifier is equipped with HEPA filters as otherwise, the smell will simply start leaking out of the purifier once it traps the stinking air. The purifiers not only neutralize the particles but also improve the indoor air quality.
9. Use Activated Charcoal
If you want something more powerful than baking soda then using activated charcoal is a good option. Not only are they quite easy to use, they also pose no risk of making a mess by simply placing them in a breathable container or sachets across the rooms.
Activated charcoal undergoes a special process that creates tiny pores which dramatically increases its surface area and allows them to trap and handle a much larger range and quantity of strong and persistent odor molecules. After using the charcoal, place them in the sun for a few hours to deodorize them.
If you're having guests over and can't beat the bleach smells quickly enough, you can try masking them instead. One of the best ways is to create an aromatic simmer pot on the stove with cinnamon, vanilla extract, and citrus or apple peels.
Fill a pot three-quarters full of water, and on medium heat, boil it with some peels of orange or apple along with cinnamon sticks. Once the water comes to a boil, turn down the heat to low and simmer the pot to slowly release the refreshing aroma around your house while making sure to add water as needed every half hour.
11. Place Coffee Grounds
The bleach odor doesn't just get into your rooms, if you spend too much time working around bleach then the smell of bleach can even get stuck in your nose despite being outside far away from any bleach sources you making google a fervent "how to get rid of bleach smell in nose".
The easiest solution simply put is to smell coffee beans or dry coffee grounds, this trick is often used in perfume shops to clear your nose between smelling different scents. Coffee grounds can also absorb and neutralize odors so place them in open containers or bowls and distribute them in the bleachy room.
If you don't want to go through the hassle of creating a simmer pot then spritzing essential oils from a bottle can do a similar quick fix. Since the smell of bleach can be quite strong, we won't recommend diluting the oils as it may weaken the masking effect.
Alternatively, instead of spritzing essential oils, you could use a diffuser to slowly diffuse the oils into the room air over a long period of time which also allows the aromatic compounds of the oil to penetrate the upholstery and carpets which could help mask the smell more effectively.
13. Squeeze Citrus Peels
Aside from making simmers and potpourri, you could also use the citrus peels to mask the smell of bleach in your hands by squeezing out the oil contained in the citrus peels and spritzing them over your hands, room, and clothes.
Since they have a pleasant and refreshing fragrance, they can eliminate the bleach smell from the clothes pretty well. To use citrus peels to mask the room odor place fresh peels in bowls or containers, the peels should release the aromatic oils as they dry.
Why only rely on a fragment of lemon if you can use the whole lemon? If you have whole unused lemons then squeeze them out and rub the juice on your hands to neutralize the smell. It doesn't need to be a lemon since limes or grapefruit works as well.
Lemon or citrus juice in general works due to their natural acids which eliminate odors and sterilize surfaces. If you have the time you can rewipe the bleached surfaces with lemon juice to get rid of the bleach smell once and for all.
15. Apply Scented Dish Soap
If baking soda or other measures don't work for you then another top solution for how to get bleach smell on your hands is to wash your hands with dish soap and warm water. Dish soaps are made to get rid of a wide variety of substances and smells so is it any wonder that they can get rid of bleach too?
Make sure to get everything including between your fingers and under your fingernails where bleach could linger. Sometimes you may need to wash your hands twice to finally be done.
If our above solution for "how to get bleach smell out of clothes" does not convince or work for you, then try dryer sheets. Dryer sheets are lightweight fabric softener sheets put in the dryer to lessen static electricity and give fragrance to the clothes.
Other than using them to rid your clothes of the smell, you can also put them around the offending room to combat the bleach odors where they can release their fragrance into the air and mask the odor.
17. Apply Cat Litter
I know this sounds weird but hear me out, cat litter has gone through extensive R&D to create the perfect material for cats to urinate and defecate in without stinking up your homes while also absorbing and trapping odorous particles.
All this makes the cat litter the perfect material to absorb and trap the bleach odor by placing them in an open container or bag in an area with bleach smells. This is helpful if you don't have access to vinegar or activated charcoal and helps save you money if you already own a litter bag.
Various manufacturers have started to produce ozone generator air purifiers to shock and blast mold and mildew to remove them along with various other things such as airborne particles, chemicals, mold, viruses, bacteria, and some odors. So getting an ozone generator isn't a weird ask but also a great versatile long-term investment.
Ozone is a highly reactive gas and breaks down organic and inorganic molecules that cause odors, including bleach. Ozone can be harmful to people so make sure to only use the generator when no one is around, luckily ozone particles have a short life and quickly degrade to regular oxygen.
19. Put Scented Candles
Another cheap and simple solution that you can do to solve the odor problem is to use scented candles. This is a two-fold solution as the scented candles release pleasant fragrances that mask or eliminate unwanted smells through the release of aromatic oils.
But it can also create air circulation by creating a convection current where the hot air flows to a cool place while the cool air comes to fill the vacuum. Make sure to have the windows open when you burn the candles as they will burn up the oxygen and leave only bleach fumes in a poorly ventilated room which can be dangerous.
If you don't like the idea of needing to brave the risk of using up all the oxygen in a room leaving only bleach fumes then you can settle for using incense sticks which have the same effect of masking the terrible odor through the release of aromatic smoke derived from various herbs, resins, and essential oils.
Incense sticks use far less oxygen, and have no risk of house fires. Rather than just masking the scent there are also some incense sticks available which are not only made of odor masking but also odor-eliminating compound components.
21. Use Hydrogen Peroxide
If you are truly desperate for a measure that completely neutralizes bleach instantly to get the bleach smell in room without wanting to waste your time with any potential measures then using hydrogen peroxide is the chemically approved way of neutralizing bleach as long as you follow all the safety tips.
Get a 3% concentrated hydrogen peroxide solution and mix 1 part hydrogen peroxide with 10 parts of water, do not skip this part as it reduces the rate at which the heat is produced in the reaction which results in salt, oxygen, and water after coming into contact with bleach.
A safer way to chemically neutralize bleach is to make use of ultraviolet rays i.e. sunlight, however, considering that you're on this blog natural sunlight must have been of little use to you in your particular situation. Consider purchasing a UV lamp to break down and neutralize the chlorine bleach compounds in the room.
Ultraviolet light is a type of electromagnetic radiation that makes it powerful enough to split apart chemical bonds, thus you can reduce 90% of the bleach chlorine content in as little time as two hours.
When cleaning with bleach, it is very important to know not to mix bleach with any other chemicals, cleaners, or household products due to the fear of creating harmful fumes. Many household cleaners such as multi-purpose, window, toilet bowl, or even simple vinegar contain acid which can result in chlorine gas when mixed.
Aside from not mixing them if the bleach hasn't dried up sufficiently, using other cleaners after cleaning with bleach might also result in these chemicals being mixed with bleach. Always check on the FDA website whether any product is reactive with bleach.
Dilute Bleach Before Using
Aside from not mixing chemicals when it comes to bleach, it's also better to use diluted bleach instead of straight bleach which will always have a much stronger odor. Nothing calls for straight bleach anyway since diluted bleach can still do the job just fine.
A good metric is to mix about ⅓ cup of bleach per gallon of water. This also leads to less strong odor and persistence of bleach and makes the bleach cleaning solution a lot more safer to use.
Although the majority of household bleaches indeed incorporate chlorine, it's not the chlorine that smells. This pungent smell is because of a certain chemical reaction that takes place which decomposes the proteins on cleaned surfaces with the aid of bleach.
Thus, as long as the room isn't completely closed off they can dissipate naturally in a few hours. Plus, the more regularly you clean with bleach, the less strong the scent will be as there will be less protein buildup on bleached surfaces.
