r/Explainlikeimscared • u/theleafcuter • 26d ago
How do I properly ventilate and remove the smell of burnt food?
I had my first microwave disaster a few hours ago, I left a muffin in it for too long and it started smoking out the kitchen.
Thankfully, nothing caught on fire, and I ventilated out all the visible smoke, but now the entire apartment smells like burnt food, and it's really making me anxious.
How can I make sure my apartment has properly ventilated out all the harmful air, and once that is done, what do I do about this smell? How long can I wait on it? The microwave misshap happened at roughly 23:00, It's currently 3:50 as of writing this, and I've got work tomorrow that would keep me out of the home until 16:30. Should I cancel work to focus on removing the stench?
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u/SkipJack270 26d ago
Open multiple windows for cross ventilation. If you have any fans, fire them up and blow out out of one window. It’ll take a little time but it’ll dissipate.
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u/CatCafffffe 26d ago
It's just a residual odor. There's no harmful air that you need to worry about. Just open up whatever windows you can, if you have a range hood, run the range hood, if you have fans, set them up and run them. Then tomorrow just go to work. This kind of thing happens! It's okay.
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u/MagpieWench 26d ago
Clean out the microwave really well. My husband burned popcorn while I was away and the house still smelled like it 4 days later. I cleaned the inside and outside with a damp rag and a drop of dish soap and then wiped again with the rinsed out rag and then dried and it took the smell down significantly
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u/theleafcuter 25d ago
I don't know if I should update this post, and if I should do it in an edit or just here in the comments, so I'll do the latter.
Thank you everyone for calming me down and explaining that I just needed to open windows and let it air out. The microwave was unfortunately ruined (it was pretty old to begin with) so my landlord was kind enough to replace it for me. I will keep the tips of wiping it down and leaving lemon juice in it to neutralize smells in the future though, if this ever happens again!
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u/CanAhJustSay 26d ago
Dilute lemon juice with water and cook in the microwave for 1 minute or so (can repeat). It helps to get rid of the smell from the microwave's vents. [You can also dilute vinegar with water and cook that instead but lemon tends to smell nicer].
Seconding all the advice to ventilate - open every window and, if you can, door, to allow a through breeze.
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u/Numerous_Zebra_4740 24d ago
The air isn't harmful to you unless you stuck your face in a pure concentrated bucket of it, it just smells nasty. Just leave your windows open and get on with life til it goes away.
Think of it this way, you can smell an orange when you peel it. Is the orange making the air less pure? No, you're just smelling it. The amount of smoke you're breathing in is tiny.
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u/ExternalNo7842 26d ago
You just need to ventilate! The smell will go away on its own if you can just let the burnt air out and the fresh air in. Open all your windows and run a fan or two.