Five Ways Camphor Makes Your Home Fresher

In most Indian homes camphor lives in the puja cupboard and comes out once a day. That is a shame, because it is one of the most useful things in the house — natural, inexpensive, and good at several jobs that a whole shelf of products is sold to do.

Here are five, with quantities.

1. Keeping mosquitoes and insects away

Place two or three camphor tablets in the corners of a room, inside wardrobes, behind cupboards and under beds. Camphor keeps mosquitoes, moths, cockroaches and silverfish away, with no plug-in, no spray and no smoke.

It works by making a space unattractive to insects over time, which for a home you live in every day is a gentler and better approach. Replace the tablets every two to three weeks — once the aroma has gone, so has the effect.

2. Fresh wardrobes, sarees and woollens

This is camphor's oldest job in the Indian home, and still one of its best.

Put two or three flakes or a tablet in a thin cloth pouch and lay it between folded clothes. It keeps moths off, stops the musty smell closed cupboards develop, and leaves clothes smelling faintly fresh.

Use a pouch rather than loose flakes so nothing rests directly against silk or wool. For sarees and woollens packed away for a season, refresh the pouches about once a month.

3. Bathrooms and damp corners

An open jar with three or four tablets, placed high on a shelf, keeps a bathroom smelling clean. Camphor is particularly good with damp, closed-room smells, which is exactly what Indian bathrooms face through the monsoon.

It is not a perfume sitting on top of a smell. It simply leaves the room smelling dry and clean — and it costs a fraction of an air freshener.

4. In a diffuser, for a calm room

One Bhimseni flake in a diffuser leaves a room with a clean, cool aroma that most people find settling. Lovely in a bedroom in the evening, or in a room where you sit to read or pray.

One flake is enough for a whole room.

5. The kitchen

A small dish of camphor at the back of a counter or near the sink keeps ants and cockroaches away from the areas they most want to reach. Keep it away from food and from any flame.

How long does camphor last?

Camphor does not spoil — it slowly evaporates. A tablet left in the open simply gets smaller over time.

• In the open, working: two to three weeks
• In a cloth pouch in a cupboard: four to six weeks
• Sealed in its jar: years

Keep the main stock in its airtight jar away from heat and sunlight, and take out only what you are using. That is why we pack in sealed jars and why the bigger packs are such good value.

Keep camphor stored closed and out of reach of small children and pets, and never leave a flame unattended.

Camphor Tablets

Even-sized, clean-burning tablets from pine tree resin — the practical choice for around the home.

250g jar View on Amazon 500g jar View on Amazon 1kg — 500g × 2 jars View on Amazon

See the full range on Amazon.in →

Bhimseni Camphor

Pure Bhimseni flakes from camphor tree wood — finer aroma, ideal for diffusers.

200g — 100g × 2 jars View on Amazon 250g jar View on Amazon 500g jar View on Amazon 1kg — 500g × 2 jars View on Amazon

See the full range on Amazon.in →

Made by us, in our own plant

Shri Ganesh Premium Camphor is made at our own unit in Mancherial, Telangana, under M/s RPR Industries — making camphor since 2015, with ISO 9001, ISO 14001 and ISO 45001 certification.