Get The Pungent Smell Of Onion & Garlic Off Out Of Your Kitchen By Using Coffee Grounds

How quickly the delicious scents of onion and garlic can turn on you after you've cooked your food. Strong scents like these can linger long after the dishes are done — leaving your cooking space smelling less than fresh. If you've tried all the easy tips and tricks to deodorize a smelly kitchen and still come up with, well, onions and garlic, you may need to try using coffee to help rid the room of the smell. 

Coffee may be your go-to for morning energy, but you should also keep it around to help neutralize odors. Since they contain nitrogen, they help to absorb and remove bad odors from everything from your refrigerator to your actual cooking space. Not only is it a natural solution that helps keep chemicals out of your space, but you can even reuse old coffee grounds for this hack to make the most out of your money. The other good thing is that you don't need to buy the super expensive brand since generic coffee grounds will do the same job as higher end options.

There are several ways that you can put your coffee grounds to work as a deodorizer. The first is by simply adding them to a bowl, glass, or even open Tupperware container. You want as many of the grounds as possible to be exposed, so make sure that whatever you use has a wide mouth to allow maximum absorption by the coffee grounds. As they do lose their potency, you will want to swap out older coffee grounds for new ones every few weeks in order to ensure they continue to absorb unwanted scents.

You can also make a separate tub to place inside your refrigerator or even your pantry, as these are also common areas where strong scents can linger. Since many believe that you should keep onions out of the fridge, simply place your coffee grounds next to wherever you store them for optimum absorption. Also, make sure to put your onions and garlic in sealed containers or bags so they don't do the opposite and absorb the coffee. Funnily enough, an unusual way you can use onions around the house include as an odor neutralizer. This means it could pull in the taste of your coffee which might make for a strange cooking experience.

Keep in min that you can also use already brewed coffee grounds for your deodorizing kitchen container. However, you might need to dry out your freshly used grounds first. To do this simply take your baking sheet and add a light layer of the used coffee grounds. You don't want the layer too thick, so you might need to use several different sheets, or bake multiple rounds. Preheat your oven to anywhere from 150 and 200 degrees Fahrenheit, and bake your grounds for at least 20 minutes. It can also help to give them a mix halfway through to ensure all the grounds are being evenly dried out. Allow your baked coffee grounds to cool before adding them to your kitchen deodorizing container. Used grounds may need to be switched out more frequently than fresh, however, they should still be able to help remove onion and garlic scents from your space.

You can also use coffee grounds on your hands to remove the smell of these foods after you've cut them. First wash your hands with soap and water, then grab a handful of the grounds and rub them like a scrub before rinsing thoroughly. This is a good solution to removing any scents from your various foods that have transferred. Not only does keeping a bowl of coffee grounds out in your kitchen give you a natural alternative to chemical deodorizing, but it is also a highly sustainable method that allows you to utilize ingredients more than once.