Clever tips and natural home remedies to combat and permanently remove a stinking musty odor in the basement. We have collected the best tricks against moisture, bad smell, and mold for you.

Who doesn’t know this typical musty scent that a vaulted cellar likes to leave behind? Moisture, construction defects, lack of ventilation, mold – the smell can have many causes. You should get to the bottom of them and then use our tips to eliminate the problems.

Combating the causes to remove mold odor

Basements are the storage rooms in everyday life, but ultimately every second basement owner struggles with a musty smell. With these old house recipes and housewife tips, you can quickly get the problem under control. Depending on the extent and cause, different remedies help particularly well.

1) Vinegar against mildew odor

One of the main causes of damp basement walls and the rather musty smell is excessive humidity. A proven and successful household remedy helps against the smell: commercially available vinegar. You certainly have this at home. Handling is also easy.

Just put a glass or two of vinegar in a room. You will soon notice a change: the commercially available vinegar has the advantage that the musty smell is absorbed and removed after just a few days. Then you should ventilate the room properly so that the vinegar smell disappears again.

2) Salt against moisture

It is optimal if you use vinegar together with another household remedy: salt. It absorbs moisture and thus fights the cause of the musty odor. Three to four bowls filled with salt already help. Once the salt has become soaked with moisture, it must be replaced.

3) Cat litter against moisture

Cat litter also serves this purpose. Three to four larger containers are ideal for larger rooms. They easily replace electronic devices. The success is visible within a few days and ultimately even saves money. Once the litter has become soaked with moisture, you should replace it. As a rule, however, this is not necessary for normal room size.

4) Coffee against the musty smell

The acknowledged favorite drink of the Germans and probably the best-known pick-me-up has one outstanding property: coffee is an odor killer that quickly achieves the desired effect. So you can take it down to the basement after your morning treat and counteract the bad smell.

Place four to five teaspoons of coffee powder on a plate, place it directly in the room and the brown powder will do the rest. The air is cleaned after one or two days. Expensive chemicals and air fresheners, which usually only cover up the smell, are not necessary. The musty smell is gone.

5) Dehumidifier

If the actual problem has not yet been resolved, rough tools will help. For example, dehumidifiers literally suck up the moisture in a room. They also agree on larger vaults. There are many offers here. Depending on requirements, machines can also be borrowed from the local hardware store for larger issues.

Mold: A health threat

The musty smell can also be an indication of mold. Mold spores find a perfect breeding ground in damp rooms. The mold should definitely be removed. Affected furniture that is stored in the basement should be disposed of as soon as possible or dried thoroughly, for example in the sun.

An effective mold eliminator is an alcohol. The alcohol removes the water from the mold spores, as well as from the human body, and thus destroys the mold quickly and reliably. It is an ideal household remedy against mold caused by moisture.

You can also use vinegar as a home remedy instead if you have mold. You can read about the best way to do this and what other home remedies are effective against mold in the linked article. Sometimes, however, only professional mold remediation can help as a last resort. With the mold, you also remove the musty smell in the basement at the same time.

Avoid musty smell

If you ventilate regularly and ensure even air circulation, you won’t have any problems with mold and odors of the worst kind in the end. The following rules should be observed, especially for basement rooms: In summer, always air at night or in the early hours of the morning. If there is no window, it is essential to ensure regular air circulation by means of open doors.