6 Easy Hacks To Make Your Bathroom Smell Fresh and Clean — and 2 Tricks That Don’t Work

It’s no secret that the bathroom is one of those rooms that gets the most foot traffic. With so many frequent trips in and out, it gets dirty — and smelly — more quickly than other areas of our homes. But no matter! With a few easy and inexpensive tricks up your sleeve, you’ll learn how to make your bathroom smell good without having to do a deep clean every week.

Add a pleasant scent to your toilet paper roll.

According to Tom’s Guide, one of the easiest ways you can make your bathroom smell good is by adding a few drops of essential oil to your toilet roll. To do, simply get your favorite essential oil and place the dropper on the inside of the roll. Squeeze out a few drops onto the cardboard core, spinning the toilet paper roll to evenly distribute. Every time you or a guest uses the toilet paper, it should release a pleasant whiff!

A word of caution: Be very careful where you place the essential oil. Essential oils can cause irritation when they come in contact with your skin, especially if they’re undiluted. You don’t want to cause any irritation when someone takes a piece of toilet paper to wipe!

You can also use an air spray, such as Home~Pourri’s Air and Fabric Odor Eliminator (Buy from Target, $9.99).

Place dryer sheets in your bathroom cabinet.

I love the smell of dryer sheets, and I’m always looking for an excuse to bring that fresh, clean scent into my home! To liven up the smells in my bathroom, I like to tape a dryer sheet on the ceiling of the sink cabinet, in a corner where it’s hardly noticeable. I change it out every one to two weeks, whenever the scent starts to fade.

If you prefer to not tape anything to the walls of your cabinet, you can simply store your dryer sheets in their original box underneath the sink.

Freshen up your toilet brush.

You may not realize it, but your toilet brush is often the cause of a lot of foul bathroom smells! The fix? After every toilet scrubbing session, pour (or spray) a good-smelling cleaning product on your toilet brush. (I even spray it with a little bleach from time to time.) This will help sanitize the brush and keep things from getting pungent. Just be sure to hold the brush over the toilet bowl while you do this to catch any droplets.

Get a toilet spritzer.

By now, we’ve all heard of Poo-Pourri. But if you don’t have a little bottle living above your toilet just yet, it’s time to try one. These septic-friendly spritzers keep smells to a minimum when we have to go. The trick to using them is to spray the water in the toilet before you go. This creates a coating on the surface of the water, which will trap in any smells.

For a scent we love: Try Jasmine Fresh Air and Mint (Buy from Target, $9.99).

Looking for a different brand? We like the Pretty Potty Spray in Cherry Blossom Scent (Buy From Squatty Potty, $9.99).

Spray down your shower curtain after every use.

You may not realize it, but another common reason your bathroom starts to smell moldy lies on your shower curtain. And not only is the look of mold off-putting, but it can cause allergies and asthma. To prevent it from growing in the first place, spritz a Daily Shower Spray (Buy from Grove Collaborative, $2.99) on your curtain and around your tub after every shower or bath. There’s no need to rinse off this spray, and will keep things smelling good between deep cleans.

Change bathroom towels and mats frequently.

We only use our bathroom towels to dry our hands, so we don’t need to change them often, right? Actually, we do. Bathroom towels and mats get dirty quickly, and they also trap bad smells in their thick cloth and material.

To prevent your towels from holding onto unpleasant smells, swap them out at least once per week for fresh ones. This will also keep your hands clean each time you dry them.

Two Hacks That Aren’t Worth It

A few other hacks for making your bathroom smell good are floating around on social media, but we need to debunk them. One of them, for instance, involves pouring fabric softener down your toilet, which supposedly releases a fresh smell when it flushes. Don’t do this! While it might make things smell good, it’s not worth the damage it will do to your plumbing. No one wants to deal with a clogged pipe or a damaged septic system.

One more tip: If you have sensitive skin, don’t spray your hand towels with Febreze or any other scented spritz. The cloth will hold onto the smell keep it in the air for a long time. However, those scented particles could irritate your skin when you dry your hands.

By taking just a little extra time to add these changes to your routine, your bathroom will be guest-ready every day! And if you need a better regimen for deep cleans, check out these clever cleaning tips.

This article originally appeared on our sister site, First for Women.