Smelly odors and teen bedrooms seem to go hand in hand! For those who do not have teenage boys or girls residing in their home, you probably are not at all familiar with the noxious smells that permeate from these bizarrely hormonal creatures. However for parents of teenagers, you know all too well the ups and deep downs of keeping your home smelling fresh and clean. It is a struggle. For this reason, we have gathered up the top tips to create a comprehensive guide to ditching stinky smells in a jiff.
Related: How to Get Rid of Pet Odors
How to Get Rid of Smelly Odors in Your Teen’s Bedroom
Keep Shoes Fresh and Away from Enclosed Closets
The absolute worst place to store sneakers is without a doubt the dreaded closed closet. It allows for no air flow that heats the environment making it ripe for shoe odors to permeate and grow. If you are lucky enough to have a garage, a basement or mudroom, these make for the ideal parking spots for the family’s footwear. You can also find recipes online for sneaker sachets that can be placed inside the shoes when not in use and controls the odors naturally.
Combat Rank Smells in Fabrics with Vinegar
Unfortunately, most parents of teens will know that ordinary laundry detergent doesn’t do much in the way of armpit odors. For this, you must pull out the big guns. Your most dangerous weapon in the fight against B.O. in clothing would have to be vinegar. Pure white vinegar being the best. Simply pour into a spray bottle after diluting and spritz that stink away in no time.
Fight the Battle of B.O. with the Proper Deodorant
It is important to recognize that not all deodorants are created equal. I’m sad to inform you all that natural deodorants will not work for everyone. Some of them work well for some people, but for tough cases of body odor they often don’t cut it. In this case, we suggest moving on to the traditional variety. But in rare cases in which you may find nothing seems to work, a doctor/pediatrician should be consulted. Did you know that extreme body odor can be a sign of an underlying medical condition?
Restrict Diets to a Degree
Caffeine exacerbates sweating and B.O. By limiting caffeine and other odorific foods such as fish, eggs, and legumes, you can minimize the collateral damage in your home. I’m not saying you have to cut it all out, but if your teen is prone to extreme body odor, cutting back on these foods may help avoid embarrassing situations.
When All Else Fails, Cover it Up
As you’re working on reducing the causing of smelly odors in your teen’s bedroom, you may still find times when you need to cover it up fast. For example, if they have friends coming over to hang out. Kids can be merciless, and you don’t want a smelly room to lead to bullying or low self-esteem. Covering the odor up with a room spray that’s designed to neutralize odors is your best bet. If you prefer to go the natural route, it’s pretty easy to make your room spray. Just add about 20 drops of essential oil to a 2-ounce spray bottle of either distilled water or witch hazel.
These are just a few tips to help get rid of smelly odors in your teen’s bedroom. The key, as you can tell, is preventing the odor-causing behavior in the first place.
There are some great tips in this blog post! Thanks for sharing!
Not looking forward to those teen smells lol Lucky for us I’m a Scentsy girl and we always have a warmer going in our house with scented wax melts!
These are great tips for everyone! My fiance is a chef so he always comes home with different smells (mostly onion and garlic) that permeates our room if he doesn’t wash them right away :P
Vinegar is truly amazing. We use a thing called sassy sauce with our little ones. It’s just vinegar and water but when they sass they get a squirt. Lol
Vinegar is really amazing. It has so many uses that a lot of folks are just not aware of. I use it for so many things.
Not looking forward to stinky teenage years! Fab tips, I will have to try making my own room spray!
I need to get the vinegar out stat then because my son’s shirts are stubborn!
Oh my goodness! My son’s room is gross.
These are all great tips for those stinky rooms teenager or otherwise.
Thank you for the tips. They are very helpful. My son will turn 13 years old in few weeks. Fortunately, he is a clean freak like his Dad. My only problem is my summer babe who’s 9 and so lazy to clean her room. She does cover her laundry basket with a towel and hide inside her closet.
LOL, I think every parent with teenagers with smelly rooms are standing at attention right now. Fortunately for me I have one child who was a girly girl so I did not have that problem. However I have nieces and nephews and I have come in touch with these dreaded scent….
This is such a wonderful tips, I agree with Robin, vinegar can help too.
I will keep this in mind for when my kids are older. Vinegar is great for so many things!
This would be perfect for my sister, her room smells so bad.
I don’t always have a teenager over because my step-son doesn’t live with us but I often have to wash his clothes multiple times due to BO and uncleanness. He also is allergic to quite a bit of things including milk which is surprisingly in shampoo, conditioner and soap so I have to be careful what I use.
I never knew that coffee and eggs cause BO. Why is that do you know?
OH! My son’s room is getting the funky smell! WHY! He doesn’t even smell bad – it’s just the bedroom.
Every mother’s challenge. I had a girl though and she was very much into perfumes, etc from a young age.
My kids are years away from the teens years, but I’m sure these will come in handy down the road. ;)
That makes a lot of sense. Teens especially the boys are pretty much the victims (or culprit) for smelly bedrooms. Sometimes it’s also the unwashed clothes that are piled up and the shoes as well.
I’m going to use these tips for my husband lol. No teens yet, but yeah… it smells like boy sometimes!
I just close the door. My teen is responsible for keeping his room clean. Thank goodness his is a clean freak
I used to have odors in my teenage boy’s bedroom too. I came across an unscented alternative being bamboo charcoal. Which comes in a pouch form in different shapes and sizes. A few brands out there, personally have been using Ever Bamboo, their shoe and room deodorizers are my fave.