She Shared Her Mom’s Best Room-Freshening Trick, and Now I’m Copying Her

It seems that the older I get, the more I dislike air fresheners. It’s nothing personal — it’s just that the vast majority of them are too strong, too artificial, and tend to leave me with a headache.

But of course, I want the spaces I’m in to smell nice and eliminate odors, and I think I’ve just learned about the easiest and most pleasant way to make that happen: using a bar of soap in every room. 

In a video by Wyoming-based content creator Caroline Goguen, she explains that one of the best hacks her mom ever taught her was to “put little bars of soap in sachet bags, stick them in your drawers, hang them in your closet, tuck them next to sweaters.” She adds that it “makes your clothes smell so fresh all the time.”  

Plus, the dainty white oval in its sheer, pearly drawstring bag just looks nice. And if that’s not your aesthetic, bar soap comes in so many colors, shapes, and scents — so you’ve got options.

Not only is this a great way to keep your clothes smelling fresh, but its also a great way to keep any area of your home odor-free. Goguen and her mom aren’t the only ones to use this hack, either. Back in 2011, a writer for the blog Lifehacker explained that when he was 12 years old, he acquired a scented bar of soap and forgot about it in his bedroom. Within days, he noticed his room “started to smell really good,” and months later he realized it was the soap’s doing. 

Ever since, he’s kept bars of soap all around his home, adding that it’s much cheaper and longer-lasting than air fresheners and is “especially effective in drawers and closets because the space is smaller and closed off.” People in the comments chimed in, in agreement: “I keep a bar in the bottom of the kitchen garbage can, under the bag. It really helps make it smell fresher,” one commenter on the old article wrote. So before you grab your spray air freshener or light a candle, consider looking under your kitchen cabinet sink for some bar soap.