This tiny Febreze Small Spaces air freshener solved odor woes in all three of my small bathrooms

Bathrooms are whiffy by nature but these Febreze Small Space air fresheners absolutely came out trumps when my bathrooms started kicking up a stink.

The pong wasn’t human-made in my newly-built home, but over a few months, we had three different plumbing and ventilation snafus, leaving me in particular, with my hound-like nose that can truly smell salt in water, suffering from the smells until I gave the Febreze Small Space air fresheners from Amazon a try.

Previously, I'd tried many of the best air fresheners out there, including aerosols, reed diffusers and candles, but in the end, this min but mighty nifty little home fragrance solution claimed my top spot by stamping out troublesome odors in my bathrooms in seconds.

This Febreze Small Spaces air freshener neutralized my smelly bathrooms

Before trying home fragrance solutions, rest assured I deep-cleaned my small bathrooms within an inch of their tiled lives, bleached the drains, poured strong chemicals designed to banish drain pongs and even tried bio-engineered deodorisers.

Whilst some helped, non banished the stench whilst we awaited different plumbing solutions, until out of desperation for some respite, I smacked a few dollars on these babies and bingo! It worked! 

The stinky bathroom problems

In our very little downstairs loo, the toilet itself has some kind of constant water trickle into the back of the bowl. This meant the water in the cistern was low and sometimes, caused a bit of a pong. Ironically, it was supposed to be an eco-toilet that uses the bare minimum water needed for the job.

Whilst we waited for the plumber, the rubber seal on an outset pipe was letting air into the system, or something to that effect, and pushing stinky gutter smells into the house instead of wicking them away. Yuck.

Meanwhile, upstairs in my otherwise lovely neutral small bathroom, that same gutter smell was coming up the shower drain in the small en suite off the primary bedroom, while in our family bathroom, my sensory-sensitive tween daughter hated the sound of the ventilation fan so we kept hers off.  

In all of the bathrooms, windows were open and closed throughout the day to whip away any lingering humidity but that sulphurous smell ebbed and flowed like a terrible yellow cloud, seeping out around the rooms.

Every time I went into one of the bathrooms, there was one stench or another that afflicted my nose and as a person who can smell even the minutest of odors at 100 paces, I will confess the bathroom situation was making me properly grumpy. 

What I tried to resolve the bathroom odors

I live with my husband and between us, we were opening and closing windows for hours a day which helped to dissipate the smells when they arose but didn’t resolve them.  

In case it was my post-covid hair loss clogging up the shower waste pipe, I used five bottles of drain unclogging solution (much like the Drano Max Gel drain unclogger available on Amazon) over the course of a week. It did nothing for the smell but it did wonders for how quickly water drained away.

Downstairs, I placed strong lavender diffusers in the small entryway that shared a door with the loo, and aerosol sprays for use by us humans, but the diffuser wasn’t strong enough, and the aerosol felt suffocating and I hated the liquid spray-off hitting my family’s skin. Our two cats poofed up at the sound every time, too.

Candles were a nice option if someone was having a bath but not practical or safe to burn for odor control. I even used my best candle, the pricey three-wick De-stress Neom candle but really it felt like it was simply masking the smell a bit, not resolving it.

What finally worked: Febreze Small Spaces

Then, one night, I logged onto Amazon, looked for air cheap air fresheners that came in a multipack, and took a punt on the Watermelon Febreze Small Space air fresheners (I live in the UK where these are called Febreze Bathroom Air Fresheners).

Given that we were shelling out cash for multiple plumbers in the hope of a permanent fix, my budget was pinched and the Febreze multipack worked out just over $2 per bathroom in my small newly-built home. 

I bough a bulk pack of six, as the manufacturer’s guidelines said the 7.5ml (0.2oz) battery-free diffusers lasted up to 50 days (the US version promises 150 days which tracks as the product is bigger stateside), and hoped for the best. After all, it said the two-in-one home fragrance product fights odors and freshens.

They arrived next day and took about five seconds to setup. No batteries, no plastic to cut through, I just had to pop one out of the cardboard holder, click the button on the back and watch the liquid fragrance seep out instantly into the surrounding structure, ready to gently waft through the air.

I popped one in each bathroom, and whizzed through my bathroom cleaning checklist. It was about about 10 minutes later that I realised the entire house smelled like watermelon. No bathroom stink, just fruity, summer vibes.

Hurrah!

What to shop

I swear the Febreze Small Space air freshener packed some kind of whiff wizardry into its two-inch frame because those pesky bathroom smells were completely wiped out.

Not only that but the fragrance was deeply pleasant, not overwhelming, hands free once setup, and lasted at least a month in each space and made my home smell good. It was perfection.

After the plumbers fixed the waste pipe seal outside, stopped the other toilet trickling, and replaced the trap in the en suite, the source of the smells thankfully were resolved, but I’ve carried on adding these to my cart every month or so.

They’re budget-friendly, come in multipacks that work well for my household and can be hidden behind my plants or freestanding bathroom mirrors so they do not even have to be seen. 

Plus, the nice fragrance wafts into our primary bedroom, the upstairs hall and downstairs entryway and guests often ask what air freshener we use — even the fussiest ones who do not like artificial smells. A winner all around in my book!

Once you've tackled bathroom smells, learn how to make your home smell good, delve into our expert take on the long running debate on candles vs diffusers and find out if air fresheners are toxic.