Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Eureka. . .

Diapers stink. Diapers go into diaper pails. Ergo Diaper pails stink. It's a fact. Look it up.

In the beginning we had a diaper champ and it was good. Then a few months later the smell seeped into the plastic and now the diaper pail itself smells.

How do you stop them from making your house smell like a nursing home? How do you tame that horrible, horrible smell? I've tried everything. The order-absorbing air freshener at the bottom of the pail made it smell like flowers and diapers. The baking soda didn't do much except make it look like I was a magician when the white cloud came out as I changed the bag. The scented trash bags didn't do anything but cost me more money.

Then I got an idea. I was watching this new Food Network show, the Food Detectives. They did an episode that included a segment on smelly fridges. In it they mentioned getting an activated charcoal filter to soak up odors. I've always known activated charcoal could purify water (one cup has something like one whole acre of surface area), but had no idea it would do work on stink.

The problem is finding an activated charcoal air freshener like the one they had on the show. So I did the next best thing. . . I went to the pet store and got a plain box of activated charcoal. I then cut off the bottom part of another box to line the diaper champ (you could easily use a paper plate of bowl) and poured the charcoal in the liner.

I will not say that it is now completely odor free, but the difference is substantial. I'm hoping after a little time and a few cycles of changing the charcoal we'll be close to odorless in the diaper department.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

I just put ours out in our garage so we don't have to smell it. It just stinks out there then.LOL I swear the more table foods they eat the smellier their poops get. I tell Peyton he has swamp butt.LOL

Amy

Sarah said...

We also just take poopy diapers straight outside to the trash can. I quit using a diaper pail 2 kids ago-LOL. There's no way to completely get rid of the smell (it does just get into the plastic!)and I got tired of their room smelling like a dirty restroom :P Good idea with the charcoal though, I bet it helps!

caramama said...

Oh! That's an interesting tip! I'll have to try it, because these pails stink, and I'm way to lazy to bring the diapers out every time!

I'm Not Skippy said...

That's the factor for me CaraMama. I'm too lazy to walk a diaper out every time I change him. I'll keep everybody posted on the results in a few weeks.

Amy Anderson said...

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Jamie said...

Heh thats a good idea I will have to remember that And you can buy the fillable fish filter thingys that you just slide into the filters and you put the charcoal in that when the smell starts again so that might work too. We actually use one of those stainless steel trashcans that you can get at Bed, Bath & Beyond no stink can stick. You might also try filling the can with bleach water for overnight we used to do that at the pre school.