Photo: Jenson (Shutterstock)
From the garage to the kitchen to your kids’ bedrooms, smelly trash cans abound in your home. But you might already have the perfect solution—in your bathroom. While there’s no substitute for thoroughly cleaning out garbage cans or diaper pails regularly, you can—and should—still stay on the smell offensive: with some toilet deodorizer gel.
This hack appears pretty often on TikTok: You use a deodorizer gel, like the Lysol Click Gel Automatic Toilet Bowl Cleaner ($4.47 for six applications), on the interior of your garbage can. (Scrubbing Bubbles produces a similar product with the same amount of applications at the same price point, so you’re bound to find a scent you like somewhere—there are even off-brands that give you 60 applications across five scents, all for $18.99.)
Ideally, you’ll have a garbage can with a lid on which you can stamp three or so applications under, but if you don’t have a lid, you can put them in the bottom or on the sides, underneath the bag. Here’s a TikTok from CleanTok influencer @The_Spin_Cycle demonstrating how to place just a single application under the side of the bag.
(In the comments of that TikTok, one user said they sprinkle scented kitty litter in the bottom of their garbage bags to absorb wetness and odors. Consider that a bonus hack.)
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These gels are designed to slowly wash away with every flush of your toilet, but since they’re not in your toilet here, they can last for months, degrading much more slowly. When you notice them getting dried-out, simply replace them with a fresh scented stamp.
Keep in mind, however, that these can stick to your bags, so if you don’t have a lid on your can, consider putting the gel stamps somewhere inside that the bag doesn’t touch as often, like the bottom corners of the bin.
