Freshen Up Your Home with Activated Charcoal

The list of not-so-nice things about living indoors is short… very short. From refrigeration to A/C to electricity, we humans have figured out how to live comfortably. One thing that plagues us, though? Odors. Turns out, the indoors isn’t so great for ridding our air—or belongings—of lingering odors.

Options for dealing with this problem seem endless, and you’re either in the cover it up or get rid of it camp. And while covering odors with perfumed sprays works in the short term, all that must from simply living is gonna come back. So, yeah, that reality places the Coop Dream Team firmly in the get rid of it camp!

In come our charcoal deodorizers. We’re obsessed. They’re a big step up from all those DIY home deodorizers—from baking soda in the fridge to zip lock baggies of kitty litter (yes, kitty litter) in tennis shoes.

What is activated charcoal?

Charcoal is having quite the moment. Activated charcoal (not to be confused with charcoal coals you’d use for grilling up steaks) is a superfine and odorless powder created by superheating natural sources of carbon, most commonly wood. It’s known and used for its toxin-absorbing properties.

Activated charcoal is extremely absorbent. “The ‘activation’ process strips the charcoal of previously absorbed molecules and frees up bonding sites again,” according to Medical News Today. “This process also reduces the size of the pores in the charcoal and makes more holes in each molecule, therefore, increasing its overall surface area. As a result, one teaspoon full of activated charcoal has more surface area than a football field.”

How activated charcoal works

Okay, so now that you’re an expert on activated charcoal, let’s talk about its filtering and odor absorption power. Since the molecules have such a huge surface area, they’re able to bind to other molecules floating around in the air. So, in essence, they suck odors and any other impurities out of the air and become trapped inside the filter.

Coop’s deodorizer options

We’ve designed two types of odor-absorbing charcoal products. The first is our Natural Refrigerator Deodorizer, which we specifically designed to pull out odors and excess moisture from your fridge. What makes this little brick better than a box of baking soda? First, charcoal is a way better deodorizer. Second, our product is designed to last for two years, making it ultra sustainable.

Activated charcoal needs to sit in the sun periodically to “recharge”—we recommend taking the bag out of its case and setting it in the sun for a few hours once a month. Once your deodorizer has reached the end of its life, you can dump the contents of the inner bag into your indoor plant pots!

Our other product is a hangable deodorizer bag. We’ve designed these in three different sizes depending on where you want to put them. And the options are endless.