What To Know About The Essential Oil Hack That Helps Mask Unwanted Odors In Your Carpet

Raise your hand if you've ever vacuumed your carpet or flooring and felt disappointed at the lack of freshness afterwards. Sure, the dust and dirt is gone, but your floors don't smell any better, and your home may even smell a little musty. While some of this may be because you need to clean your vacuum, sometimes your surfaces just need a little extra to get that really clean, fresh scent. The trick of adding baking soda to carpets is one option, and mopping with cleaners that leave a nice aroma afterward can help hard flooring. But there's one essential oil hack that could give your home an extra boost whenever you run the vacuum. All you need are a few cotton balls and some essential oils. By covering the cotton in your preferred scents and either sucking them up into the machine or adding them to the dust canister, the cotton will release the scent due to the air flow from your vacuum, allowing it to permeate the space. 

Because cotton balls can soak up so much moisture for their small size, they will hold onto the essential oils for multiple uses after you've added them to your vacuum. The vacuum will push the essential oil scents out into your rooms as you work, but they will linger longer, thanks to their potency. However, as with any home hack, it's important to observe any potential risks to your machine. Introducing excess moisture can affect the parts within, so there is a chance for damage, depending on the machine and how you apply the hack.

Essential oils are a common ingredient you should be using to clean your floors, but they can also freshen the air as you work! Start by adding one or several essential oils as a mixture to your cotton balls. Some people use only one or two and rip them up. There are different ways to approach this hack, one being adding the essential oil to the cotton balls and then throwing them on the floor to vacuum up, and the other being to add them to your dust canister. Because the vacuum is pushing air around and heating up your oil-saturated cotton balls, the aromas will seep into the room and remain for longer. The reason this works so well is that the essential oils act as a neutralizing agent within your vacuum, adding a fresh scent while also combating the musty smell that some vacuums can produce.

One of the biggest perks of this hack is that you are using non-abrasive and gentle chemicals to freshen your home. Rather than adding your essential oils to cotton balls, you could also try cotton pads, or try placing the oils directly onto your filters. Not only is this a vacuuming hack that can leave your floors smelling fresh for days, but it's an easy alternative to more expensive methods like steam cleaning.

While many people rave about this hack, others note that it could be detrimental and even cause your vacuum to break. Scrolling comments on any posts dedicated to using cotton balls and essential oils will have a mix of both pros and cons. Companies that produce essential oils may have a list of materials you should avoid applying them to, and if your vacuum contains any of these materials, it's best to skip this. 

Many vacuums are made with acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene, or ABS plastics, that make up their canisters, and you can also find polycarbonate in them, which means your machine could be harmed by using essential oils. It's always a good idea to check that your vacuum does not contain plastics like polyethylene, polyvinyl chloride, or polystyrene, as the oils can degrade these. Should you still want to give this hack a try, it might be worth adjusting the amount of oils you are using. Consider trying one cotton ball ripped up, and saturated but not soaking with essential oils. A little can go a long way to make your home smell fresh, so do a few tests to find your ideal combination of cotton and oils!