Used coffee grounds — something many people throw out every day — were what finally got rid of a terrible smell in one homeowner's chest freezer. The odor had lingered even after attempts with bleach, sunlight, and baking soda.
Here's what to know
In a Reddit thread, the original poster on r/CleaningTips said the garage chest freezer stopped working while they were away for nine days in August. Even after they "bleached it twice, ran it empty, left the lid open in the sun for the better part of a week," they said the smell was still there "the second you lifted the lid."
An 80-year-old neighbor suggested sealing a shallow pan of dried used coffee grounds inside the freezer for four days. The poster said they followed that advice and replaced the grounds once halfway through.
They said the smell had disappeared entirely: "It's gone. Not masked, gone." As a test, they later had their husband open the freezer without explaining why, and "he said, 'what am I smelling for?'"
In the replies, another Redditor said coffee grounds had solved a different odor problem too, writing: "Yup. I bought an old cabinet with musty smell. Nothing worked, tried coffee grounds... voilà."
Before trying the coffee-ground method, the poster said they had already spent "about forty dollars on sprays and those charcoal bags" — only to fix the issue with something left over from the coffee maker.
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What can be done?
Their process was simple: dry the used grounds, put them in a shallow pan in the freezer, close the lid, leave it for four days, and swap in a fresh batch halfway through.
A commenter added that the method may work even better with unused grounds: "If you use fresh, unspent grounds it's even better!"
For more low-cost swaps to cut cleaning costs, check out the TCD Guide page on natural cleaning products. Reusing ingredients you already have can save money and reduce waste when a simple fix does the job.
Where can I learn more?
Plenty of other stubborn smells have been tackled with the same kind of low-cost household ingredients. These stories cover fixes for garbage cans, washing machines, homes, and cars.
• On TikTok, a cleaning pro used one household ingredient to make garbage cans smell better.
• A cleaning expert used baking soda and vinegar to knock odors out of a washing machine.
• One expert said not all air fresheners fight weird household smells the same way.
• A driver tried a simple vinegar hack to clear lingering funky smells from her car.
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