Hydrogen peroxide is the plastic smell fix

Ordinary dish soap won’t fix a smelly plastic lunch box—soak it in hydrogen peroxide overnight.

Plastic is porous enough to soak up oils and sulfur compounds from things like curry or tomato sauce, and soap doesn’t break those down. Baking soda paste works for mild smells, but for the stubborn ones, you want an oxidizer. The 3% hydrogen peroxide you keep in the medicine cabinet is perfect. Pour in a few tablespoons, swish it around so it coats the whole inside, close the lid, and leave it overnight. Next morning, wash it normally and rinse very well.

If you’re out of peroxide, a dilute bleach soak (a tablespoon per liter of water) also works, but rinse until the bleach smell is totally gone. Sunlight is a bonus step: leave the container in the sun for a few hours after cleaning, the UV breaks down the leftover molecules.

Your food should taste like food, not last week’s stir-fry.