We all love popcorn and movies are just not the same without having one hand inside a bucket full of all that salty, cheesy, buttery goodness. Sure, it has an insane amount of unhealthy sodium but it’s one of the sacrifices that you just have to do because you know it will not be the same. But what happens after the movie night? If you are lucky, or unlucky enough to be hosting it, then you might be left to handle all the mess. The sauce stains, the crumbs, the rearranged living room are just some of the few things that you might have to take care of. Then, you notice a very unsavory sensation underneath your nostrils. You feel something so strong that you want to vomit and a familiar feeling of wanting to leave the house for a little while and go on a cruise so until the sensation goes away. You are unfortunately dealing with burnt popcorn smell.

Yes, the popcorn is a movie requirement and it will be so for a few more decades until we discover that corn is given the gluten treatment. But, the hassle that it brings after the party may make you ask if it is worth it at all. Never fear, however, as there are a lot of ways that you can deal with this. Firstly, just to get it out of the way, you can move to a different zip code and deem your residence uninhabitable. But that would be a tad bit of an overreaction. So, how to get rid of a burnt popcorn smell without having to start over a new life? We will do our best to make sure that your house has gotten rid of the popcorn smell.

How to get rid of a burnt popcorn smell by spraying the heck out of your home

Aerosol is your friend and you should not be afraid to use it. Today, there is a countless number of household products that you can choose from designed specifically to rid your house of any smell. Aerosol sprays are basically a kind of dispensing device that allows the chemicals that does the work to spread as fast and far as possible in a closed space.

So, which product should you get? Well, that would depend on your personal taste, and personal choice. As a matter of taste, there are products that leave a scent after it is being used. This means you should agree with the specific smell that it leaves, otherwise you would just be replacing an unwanted smell with another that you had to pay for. And as a matter of choice, you should look for the brands that you definitely trust. There are of course those that already dominate the household cleaning industry whose product names are starting to be synonymous to the generic name. But, you should not be wary as long as you know which effective ingredient you are looking for. Finally, make sure that if you are going to try a lesser known brand, make sure that it is approved by the local authorities.

First and foremost, not every scented aerosol spray will be able to get rid of popcorn smell. You might notice that the smell is particularly strong and does not seem like something that you can put violet petals over to cover up. What you need is a strong deodorizer that can properly remove that dark brooding smell from your microwave.

If aerosol spray is a bit too rich for your blood. Or, if you get that burnt popcorn smell way too often for you to buy a spray for each time it happens, you might want to consider some tricks that you can do using regular household items. In fact, the active stuff in these are the same agents that you want to look for in the aerosol product that you ought to buy.

If you are going the poor route, we suggest that you fight fire with fire. What we mean is using something that has the same kind of strong smell but you know will not hang around as long as the burnt smell. We are talking about the vinegar. So, how will you do this, simply follow these steps. You want to mix it with a bit of water so you will not have to use so much vinegar. Of course, it will depend on how terrible the smell is, and a bit more concentration would not hurt if you feel like it is necessary. As a baseline, one part vinegar to two parts water seems like a good place to start. Warm the mixture because you want to melt the particles that latched on to the walls of your microwave. This way, you can be sure that you are not just combining the smells of vinegar and popcorn but actually trying to get rid of one. And finally, find a cloth to dip to the mixture and wash the contaminated surface.

If you want to boost the effectiveness of the vinegar mixture, you can preface it with another household item that you probably already have – the baking soda. Sprinkle a few over the smelly region as if scouting for nearby enemies before applying the mixture and completing the cleaning process.

Another way you can use the mixture that was described above is by putting it inside a spray bottle and using it the same way that you use an aerosol. This way you get a bit more flexibility and you can keep it in storage for the next movie night gone wrong.

And finally, remember that you are fighting smell with smell here, after all is said and done, you have to clean the surface to effectively remove the smell.

How to get rid of a burnt popcorn smell by using the power of nature

We all know that plants breathe and fortunately for them they do not have any sense of smell. This time we are going to try to remove the popcorn smells that will linger for a longer time after you have thoroughly cleared up the initial bombardment of smell.

Plants have been inside the house for a while now. When cities started to become the beacon of societies, having gardens just was not viable anymore. This is where people, who could not resist their green thumb chose to continue owning plants sought for a way. And the popular choice was to have a bit of dirt put into pots and putting them inside the house near windows where it can still be hit by sunlight but will not require the same amount of real estate as a garden.

It is a well known fact that plants also respire as animals do. But unlike animals, plants will not compete with us for oxygen. In fact they do the complete opposite and increase the available oxygen for the rest of us.

This breathing mechanism of plants allow them to be able to clear up rooms from unwanted smells. The air will be able to flow even in closed spaces and this clears unwanted smell by cycling the air.

Aside from the ability of plants to create a mini ecosystem that remove odors, there are also plants that have pleasant smell that could overpower unwanted smell that you can get from a house. You, of course, have to ask plant experts to know what plants are suitable for these. You cannot simply just put roses all around your house. This is because, although roses are known for their pleasant smell, there is simply no way for a rose plant to survive inside the cramped spaces of the house.

The smell from burning popcorn will not automatically be fixed by any number of plants unless these plants sprayed aerosol. But, in the long run, it will be able to clear even the faintest smell that any type of product will not be able to remove. It is good to maintain a few plants inside the house especially in places where certain accidents can happen like in the kitchen or in the bathroom.

How to get rid of a burnt popcorn smell by changing microwaves

The title is a bit much, but what it says is the most drastic of versions of that you can do. What you should do however is to have a separate, cheaper microwave to use when you are making popcorn. This way, if a burnt smell of the food in question happens to rear its smelly head, then you can simply hide it away so no one has to get assaulted by its smell.

Finally, there are also microwaves which are self cleaning, this means that their walls are especially crafted to reduce smells. If you still have not bought a microwave, then you might want to buy one of these so you would not have to deal with burnt popcorn smell in the first place. They can be a bit expensive but popcorn is not the only smell that it can suppress.