Babies are bundles of joy. Their diaper pails are bundles of funk.
Welcome to the world of parenthood. This journey will be filled with snuggles, giggles, tears, and the age-old game of pretending to eat your baby’s toes. This new chapter also comes with the age-old question. How can someone so cute create such a powerful stink?
If you’re looking at the dirty diaper pail and wondering if you’ll have to live with this smell for (at least) the next eighteen months, we’ve got you covered.
In this blog, you’ll learn how to naturally eliminate diaper pail odors. We also have tips for preventing diaper pail funk from building up in the first place. The natural remedies on this list may soon become a part of your nursery essentials.
6 Natural Odor Removers for Diaper Pails
- Baking Soda
- Essential Oil Spray
- Eucalyptus Balls
- Salt
- Carbon Filter
- Fresh Wave Odor Removers
Baking Soda
You probably already have some baking soda in your pantry for this quick-and-easy solution to dirty diaper smell. It can eliminate stale odors in your fridge, so why not the diaper bin? Here are three ways to use baking soda for odor control.
- Sprinkle baking soda in the bottom of your diaper pail before placing a new bag inside.
- Add some baking soda every time you throw in a dirty diaper.
- Making a cleaning solution with baking soda. Wet a microfiber cloth and add a few drops of dishwashing liquid and a sprinkle of baking soda. Work it into a lather and wipe down the interior of your diaper pail. Rinse with warm water and then dry it with a fresh microfiber towel.
Essential Oil Spray
Spray away soiled diaper smells with natural, powerful essentials oils.
- What you’ll need: To create your own essential oil spray, you’ll need your essential oil(s) of choice, a spray bottle, and vodka or water. Essential oils like lavender, eucalyptus, and peppermint are great for their natural deodorizing ability.
- Start mixing: If you’re using vodka, add ½ tbsp to vodka and fill the rest of the way with water, leaving room for essential oils. If you’re just using water, you can now add about 20 drops of your essential oil(s).
- Start spraying: Now tighten the cap and shake well to mix up your solution. Open your diaper pail and from 6-8 inches away, spray your essential oil spray inside. You can also spray inside the room to remove any lingering odors.
Eucalyptus Balls
Eucalyptus balls are a natural, straightforward solution to tackle diaper pail odors. Soak a few cotton balls in eucalyptus oil and place them at the bottom of your pail. You can also position these balls between bags if you're double bagging.
Eucalyptus, known for its antibacterial and antifungal properties, helps effectively deodorize the pail and maintain a fresher environment.
Salt
Don’t be salty about the dirty diaper smell in your house. Just grab some regular table salt.
Start by adding half a cup of salt to the bottom of your pail when it’s empty. As the salt absorbs lingering odors and residual bacteria, it helps control smells from escaping the pail. After washing and drying the pail, consider adding fresh salt to keep the odor-fighting effects going strong.
Carbon Filter
Carbon filters are everywhere these days, and they can also be your secret tool for diaper pail odor elimination. Designed to fit atop diaper pails, carbon filters are great at absorbing and locking away strong smells. Whether you're using a Diaper Genie or another pail, these filters neutralize sharp odors from your baby’s diapers.
Fresh Wave Odor Removers
With Fresh Wave odor removers, there’s no mixing, stirring, or DIYing required. Our products use natural ingredients to stop odors at the source, without masking them in chemicals and perfumes that could be harmful to you and your baby.
How to Use Fresh Wave to Remove Diaper Odors
- Add Packs and a Pod to the diaper pail lid. Packs are small sachets of odor-removing beads that work to continuously remove smells from small spaces. They absorb odors for 15-30 days. You can stick the Pod to the inside lid of your diaper pail and insert a Pack. This will absorb odors and prevent them from escaping the pail. Simply open the Pod and replace the Pack whenever you notice diaper odors returning.
- Spray an Odor Removing Spray inside the diaper pail. Every time you add a diaper to the pail, you can spray our odor removing spray inside to control the smell. When you clean the diaper pail, you can also soak the interior with our spray to remove odors that have built up on the surface. Dry the pail with a microfiber towel, and use the spray as needed around the room.
- Keep a Gel near the diaper pail to absorb odors 24/7. Gels can easily be stored on a shelf or end table in your nursery to continually absorb odors. The gel evaporates as it absorbs and neutralizes odors in the room. With this “set it and forget it” method of odor control, you can free up your hands to spend more time bonding with your baby.
Our products are plant-based and non-hazardous, making them safe to use around babies and kids. They are scented with natural plant oils, not harsh chemicals. As they remove odors, the scent fades away, leaving your nursery smelling fresh.
4 Tips for Preventing Diaper Pail Odors
We’ve covered different ways to control diaper pail odors that have already happened. These are some easy tips for preventing the smell from building up in the first place.
- Empty diapers into the toilet. Your baby isn’t potty-trained yet, but the toilet is your best friend in preventing diaper pail odors. Whenever your little one has made a big number two, take the diaper to the toilet and dump their waste inside, then flush it away. Voila! That’s way less smell going inside the diaper pail.
- Use odor-removing trash bags. Dog poop bags are a magic addition to your diaper pail routine. Many dog waste bags have odor-control built into them, so you use this feature to your advantage. Wrap your baby’s diapers in dog waste bags before adding it to the diaper pail for next-level odor elimination.
- Choose a diaper pail that prevents odors. Diaper pails like the Ubbi diaper pail and Diaper Genie use different materials and technologies to prevent odors from building up and lingering in your nursery. Fresh Wave and other natural remedies are a perfect companion to these advanced diaper pails.
- Empty the diaper pail regularly and clean often. We recommend emptying the diaper pail every 2-3 days and giving it a deep clean every 1-3 months. Create a natural cleaning solution of warm water and a neutral soap to clean out the diaper pail, then dry it completely with a microfiber towel. Fresh Wave products can add the finishing touches of odor control to your cleaning routine.
Stay Fresh with Fresh Wave
With these tips and natural remedies, you should have everything you need to control diaper pail odors. You’ll be able to create a fresh and safe space for your little one, and you’ll be able to save yourself from the stress of big smells.
At Fresh Wave, we have all kinds of odor-stopping solutions for the babies and kids in your life. Give them a try and let us know what you find.
