What, you may ask, do garlic and coffee have in common? Not much, except they’re both edible and they both have a strong smell. The more important question, though, is not what they hold in common, but what they do not. And that is a pleasant smell. Coffee has it; garlic doesn’t. At least expired garlic doesn’t.
Let me explain. The other day, I was getting more and more irritated by the foul pungent odor that emanated from my refrigerator every time the door was opened. Every time said odor hit my nostrils, I did a quick search through the refrigerator contents in an attempt to find the culprit and came up empty-handed. Finally, I had enough, and declared war on The Foul Pungent Odor. Armed with cleaning agents and microfiber cloths, I went shelf-by-shelf through the entire fridge, removing anything even remotely suspect and scrubbing every visible and not-so-visible surface. I had gone through the body of the fridge without any success in removing the odor, when I realized that I smelled it most strongly when my nose was closest to the door. Directing my attack at the contents on the door shelves, I quickly discovered the culprit: an open jar of crushed garlic that was apparently rotting away, because WOW. It. Stank. And not like nice fresh garlic, no, not at all. More like dead rotting garlic. Ewwwwwww. I threw it away immediately and emptied the trash immediately, then proceeded to scrub down the shelf where the offending item had been. Still, a slight odor remained. I was about to put a bowl of baking soda - that age-old refrigerator freshener - in the fridge when I remembered a tip I had recently read in a magazine.
Here’s where the coffee comes in. I had just fixed myself a nice pot of cold-brewed coffee and had about a cup’s worth of grinds I was about to toss down the disposal. Thankfully, I remembered that little tip before I actually disposed of them; the tip being to replace baking soda in the fridge as an odor neutralizer with used coffee grinds.
I don’t know how exactly coffee works as an odor neutralizer, but I know it works. When I used to work in retail at Yankee Candle, we always kept a small jar of coffee beans on hand. When people would mention that they were over-loaded by all the different fragrances they had sniffed, we’d hand them the jar of coffee beans and have them take a whiff. It cleared the nose kind of like sorbet cleans your palate. I imagine the same properties of coffee are put to work in this scenario. At any rate, it was a success, because in no time at all, my fridge was once again smelling as fresh as it ever does. Or at any rate, it smelled like nothing, which is good enough for me!
This is a QUICK way to keep odors at bay in the fridge - just as quick as the box of baking soda.
It’s just as EASY as that old favorite, too.
It’s CHEAP if you drink coffee. If you don’t drink coffee, well, then, not so much. In that case, better stick to the baking soda. However, if you DO drink coffee, it’s even cheaper than the old baking soda routine, because it’s essentially trash that you are re-purposing, meaning it’s free. Even if baking soda is only $0.50/box - free is still better than $0.50!
It is as HEALTHY as any other odor remover available. I can’t say as I’ve seen any chemical products aimed at refrigerator odors, so it’s not like you’re saving your refrigerator air from pollutants of any kind. However, it’s definitely non-toxic, so no worries there.
