How To Get Rid Of That Gross Smell In Your Reusable Water Bottle

Reusable water bottles are an A+ thing to use — they’re portable, typically come in fun and cute designs, and help the planet. Not to mention, it’s so much easier to actually drink water and stay hydrated if you have one around, especially (exclusively) if it’s the kind with a straw, not a cap. But they come with one major setback: that gross smell on the inside when it’s been unwashed just a smidge too long. The one that’s a mixture of stale water, cat pee, and old sponge — no thank you.

When you clean a reusable water bottle, you’d think it gets rid of anything bad. Wrong. It’s really just one of the ways you find out that your water bottle smells. Then, you try to give it a nice deep clean, think it’s fine, fill it up, and go on your way. As you’re about to take a sip of water from your freshly “cleaned” bottle, you know it’s still not right. Sometimes the sponge you’re using is already dirty and leaves behind it’s own scent. Other times, your water bottle (likely metallic) just gets a smell stuck inside of it that you’d rather not deal with.

What else is there to do if you can’t clean out a bad smell?

Yeah, we definitely need this reminder. Our water bottle is giving us a dirty look right now.

We’ll wash it, okay?! We will go straight home and take care of it.

Attn: reusable water bottle users

This is your reminder to wash them and to scrub the spouts. We should all do this more often

— alexander supertramp (@liltunahalpert) May 10, 2018

Yup — you even have to clean out the straw part. Grab a straw cleaner and get going!

Hey there, you healthy person with a reusable water bottle, this is your reminder to go wash that thing.

— kat, your DM (@kazzbotz) June 26, 2018

Okay, we get it. We’ll add this to the top of our to-do list.

We’ve been there, Sara. You are not alone.

It’s more common than you may have thought.

Please wash your reusable water bottle before it begins to smell like a Splash Mountain log vessel.

— Jessica Kelly (@BackSideOWater) November 17, 2016

LOL. “Splash mountain log vessel.” Accurate.

We love these smell descriptions. They are making us feel slightly better about how our bottles smell.

Don’t worry — we have the perfect solution, Not Actually Gritty. Get ready to write this down.

Anyone have a suggestion for how to clean out a reusable (plastic) water bottle? Mine's not visibly dirty, just had a bit of a smell to it

— Fezzy is ready for a nap (@ItsAFez66) July 14, 2017

Hey, no judgement! Sometimes people forget…

Protein? What do you mean you left protein in your water bottle? We can’t even fathom the smell.

Luckily, for all of us reusable water bottle users out there, we have ways to figure out how to stop things like that disgusting smell (thank you, internet)!

You know the deal when you leave your dirty bottle in the sink a day too long.

Rinsing it does not, apparently, save you from dealing with an unpleasant-smelling water bottle.

Putting a slice of bread inside sounds like a great way to use up any slices that might go bad soon.

Pouring vinegar into the water bottle with the bread sounds legit.

Even though it seems counterintuitive to use vinegar to get rid of a bad smell, it’s actually a scent neutralizer! Pure genius.

After letting the bread and vinegar sit in the bottle for a while, it’s good to wash out. You’ll notice, after washing the water bottle, that there are no more icky smells to deal with.

Finally, there is a hack for the thing we all go through but rarely talk about (why is that?). We don’t have to suffer through nasty water bottle smells any longer, which is honestly the best news of 2019.