Think Twice Before Putting Baking Soda In Your Fridge To Fight Odors - Here's Why

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Baking soda is part of the two ingredient miracle cleaners that truly clean (almost) everything. It's all over the internet as an easy household item to clean ovens, grout, washers, shower doors, and on, and on (the list truly seems endless). There are good reasons baking soda is so popular, though. Baking soda, or sodium bicarbonate, is a mild alkali and when used with water it can cause grease and dirt to dissolve. When used in powder form, its texture is abrasive, which helps lift dirt and grime. Another popular use for baking soda is to get rid of bad smells (not just mask them), which leads to folks putting it in their fridge to fight odors. Since most strong smells come from substances that are either too basic or too acidic, baking soda is especially effective in deodorizing them as it brings the molecules to a more neutral state. Other huge pluses to baking soda? It's safe, inexpensive, and usually already at hand.

So, with all of these well-known positives, why wouldn't it be a good idea to banish bad smells inside your refrigerator with this easy solution? Well, it's not so much that baking soda isn't a good idea — it's just that it's possibly not the best idea. While baking soda works well to neutralize many food odors, not all smells from your fridge are from spoiled food. Plus, baking soda won't actually get rid of the source of the smell. If you have stubborn smells in your fridge, you may need to turn to a different solution.

Activated charcoal undergoes a heat or chemical treatment that makes it porous, and this porosity allows it to absorb all manner of odors. When placed in the fridge, activated charcoal can bind to molecules, ions, or atoms and remove them, effectively absorbing and eliminating many sources of odors. The process charcoal goes through to get to its "activated" state also reduces the size of its pores, increasing its surface area. In fact, one teaspoon of activated charcoal has the same surface area of one football field. (Mind. Blown.).

These properties of activated charcoal make it a better choice to eliminate all types of food odor over baking soda. Like baking soda, it is a relatively inexpensive option that is readily available online, like Amazon's Vergali activated charcoal bags, or in local stores like Walmart. To use it to eliminate odors in your fridge, simply place a tray or bowl of activated charcoal powder in an area it won't get knocked over. Though activated charcoal can potentially work for over a month, if you've been battling frequent smells, your fridge probably needs a deep clean. If you combine these odor-eliminating hacks with a deep clean every few months, you'll likely have a fridge that never smells!