RSS Feed
How to Get Rid of Cigarette Smell
(1 votes, average: 5 out of 5)
Loading ...
This article is split into two main sections, the first is written for people who are currently smokers and wish to minimize the odor associated with the habit. The second is written for people who do not smoke and are trying to remove cigarette smells from home, furnishings, and objects.
Getting Rid of Cigarette Smoke Smell for Smokers
While researching this topic, I asked a relative for some practical advice to rid my house of cigarette smoke. Their answer was immediate and to the point: QUIT SMOKING! Who isn’t tired of hearing that one? The truth is that cigarette smoke permeates into our furniture, our carpets, our walls, our windows, and just about every other nook and cranny in our homes. Us smokers are generally unaware of the smell. The same problem exists in our cars. There are large numbers of people who are allergic to cigarette smoke, or suffer some very serious breathing issues when they come into contact with it. Even the lingering smell of cigarette smoke left in a home or a car by its previous occupants is not just noticeable, but may be close to intolerable to a non-smoker.
So if you’re not ready to kick the habit just yet, let’s explore some methods of controlling the cigarette smoke in our environments. Who knows, the next person to bask in your odor may be a hot date or prospective employer and if they don’t smoke, a noticeable odor will definitely make an impression.
Get the Smoke Out!
If you smoke inside, devise a system that pulls the smoky air outside of your home so it doesn’t have time to set on your surroundings such as smoking in front of a window fan that is set to expel air from the room. Despite the people who feel second hand smoke is a health risk even if you are smoking outside in a wind storm, the smoke needs to be trapped inside an enclosed area to deposit its odor.
Make a Smoker’s Lounge
If you have any rooms in your home which are seldom used, consider making one your smoker’s lounge and furnish it accordingly. This room will wreak, but it will also keep you from stinking up the rest of your home. Better yet, set up shop on your porch or patio to keep the stink out of your house entirely.
Purify the Air
There are tons of air purifiers on the market that claim to remove cigarette smoke and odor from the air before it gets a chance to turn your windows yellow. Many of them call themselves “ozone” based air cleaners. They run the gambit from crap to somewhat effective, but even the best ones only work in the room where they are placed. If you only have an occasional smoke then a good air purifier might be just what you are after, but for daily smokers these will only drain your wallet along with your electricity.
Mind Your Butts
A single ashtray can stink up a room almost as quickly as a lit cigarette. You can fight this menace by placing an absorbent substance in your ashtrays. This works both inside your home, and in your car. Baking soda works wonderfully, just pour enough in your ash tray to submerge your butts and use it to extinguish and bury the tip of your cigarettes when you are finished with them. This is not going to solve the problem 100%, but it will help. It will not only help diminish the smell of an ashtray full of extinguished butts, but will also draw some of the smoky odor out of the surrounding air. It is certainly a lot cheaper than putting an “ozone generating, state of the art titanium based corona and ultra violet light” air cleaner in every room of your house. Even if you can plug one into the cigarette lighter of your car, you’re still going to need to unplug it to light your next cigarette. Ashtrays with air-tight lids will also do the trick.
Your Clothing and Your Breath
If you find yourself in a situation where you really need to keep your person free of cigarette smoke smell, but you want to light up regardless then here’s what you do. First, smoke outside facing away from the wind, upwind from any other smokers in the vicinity, if you have an overcoat with you, wear it. This will keep most of the smoke away from your clothing. After you’ve finished your stogie, remove your coat and stand out in the wind a little longer to flush your person with fresh air. If it’s not particularly windy, take a brisk walk. As for your breath, the best you can do is brush your teeth, gargle with a strong mouthwash, and follow that up with the strongest mint you can handle.
Fall in Love with a Fellow Smoker
You might as well face it. Your body, your clothes, and most of all your breath are going to smell like cigarettes. Also, your teeth are going to turn a bit yellow. Cigarette smoke can be removed from the body and your clothing with normal washing. You can use whitening toothpaste, brush three times a day, use lots of mouthwash, and visit the dentist daily for professional teeth cleaning and this will remove all traces of cigarette smoke from your body, your clothes, and your breath… until about ten minutes later when you light up your next Marlboro.
Cigarette smoke smell can be reduced, and it is a polite thing to try, but as long as you smoke, the problem of their lingering odor will exist, and non-smokers will be unhappy with it. Oh well.
Getting Rid of Cigarette Smoke Smell for Non-Smokers >>
Pages: 1 2
I don’t have a tip, but a problem. I recently moved into an apartment where there is no doubt the previous owners were smokers. initially when i saw the place, it was clean, convenient, and affordable. it had the new paint smell so i figure it would go aways when i moved it a week later. well, guess what, that paint smell was actually the nicotine.
i’ve asked the apt.management about perhaps helping me with this issue. i asked to be moved to another unit, but was told there was nothing available, and asked if they can changed the carpet. not sure how much longer i can take of this smell. everything smells, my sofas, clothes…etc… urgh! this is so frustrating cuz i have 5 yr old son that smells like Newports…yuck! i’ve tried everything, even pine sol’d the walls, nothing!
how long does smoke smell stay in an apt? and i can smell it circulating in the vents too, how do i get that out? help, im desperate!
i just quit smoking after 30 years no pills no cttim down
i tryed so may times this time i just quit!!!
and my apartment smells so bad iam just about ready to move
ive tryed all this stuff all it does is make your house smell
like some thing eles for awhile then the oder comes back
Getting Ciggarette Smell Off Of Walls/Ceilings/Moldings:
I was a smoker for many years and had to learn the hard way about why smoking in your home is such a terrible idea.
For those who have been trying desperately to get that smell off the walls, ceilings and moldings, and despite scrubbing with everything you can find or that people have suggested, the surfaces are shiny clean but the smell still lingers, here’s why:
The Tar and Nicotene permeates the pores of the pain or wallpaper. You will never get it all out, no matter how hard you scrub or what chemical you use - there will always be some left over, embedded deep inside and ready to seep out to take the place of the layer you just scrubed off.
Washing with anything will also activate older, dry and inert mollecules of Tar, which will often itensify the smell - backfire!
This is also true if you paint over it. You can’t just put on a fresh coat of paint and hope it will go away. Within about a year, the tar from underneath will have permeated through the pores of the fresh coat and your nasty smell is back again! Maybe not as bad this time, but if you’re sensitive to it any amount is terrible.
TSP is a good temporary solution, it cleans a bit deeper and will get rid of the smell for about a month or so, but it also doesn’t to a complete job. Plus, TSP is a Phosphate (Tri-Sodium Phosphate). It’s highly toxic, volitile and dangerous. You will need to use careful safety precautions to use it, you can’t just wash it down the drain, you have to contact your town to safely dispose of used or extra chemical (usually costing you a disposal fee) and if you have pets you shouldn’t use it at all or you can risk killing them.
The only real solution here is to use a special Sealer/Primer before you paint, then paint over that. This will seal all the Tar and Nicotene residue under the Primer and keep it from seeping through your new paint.
WM Zissner makes an excellent Sealer/Primer that is specially formulated for exactly the purpose of sealing in Tar and Nicotene stains and odors. It’s an oil-based primer, but it can be used over any original surface, even if the original paint was Acrylic. You also don’t need to sand first, it has excellent adhesion without sanding. Best of all, while it is an oil based primer, it dries in one hour allowing you to start painting the same day. You can also use any kind of paint as a top-coat, even acrylic. This primer is available at any major Hardware store or Paint Supply store.
Another tip:
A friend of mine, not a smoker, recently bought a new house from a couple who were smokers. They never smoked in the house, so it didn’t smell. But, after my friend moved in, they found that the closets had a strong odor that transferred to their own clothes! It reeked every time they opened the closet door.
No matter what you do, as a smoker your clothes will always have some taint of Tar. That will transfer into the closets you keep our clothes in. As a new buyer, always check the closets. If they smell when the rest of the house doesn’t, have it written into the offer that the sellers must seal and reapaint the closets before closing. If you’ve already bought and have the same problem, you can follow the advice for painting your closets, above.
Keep in mind, it won’t be enough to repaint just the walls. You will have to paint the ceilings, cabinets, doors, moldings and window sashes as well. If you have wood floors, you may need to re-varnish. If you have carpet, try a deep steam cleaning with some vinegar in the mix, but you may need to get new carpets to completely get rid of it. And don’t forge your closets.
[...] Odor | How To Do Things.com How do you get the smell of cigarette smoke out of walls and fabric? How to Get Rid of Cigarette Smell How to Remove Cigarette Smoke Odor — Heloise Hints - [...]
I dont have a tip, just a question. What would work best for getting this smell out of a matress and box springs? My husband and I just bought a very nice used set for hardly any money and it is really bad, we smell like smoke when we get out of bed, we have only used it two nights. I really hate to throw money away since we are both currently unemployed and money is tight, any suggesttions are welcome! Thanks in advance for your help.
the apartment we moved in to is infested with smoke. the smell is endless and everytime we come in it smells like someone just got done lighting up. we have tried vinegar in bowls across the apartment, washed the walls ceiling to floor wall to wall with vinegar, used the baking soda on the carpet, gone through several bottles of deodorizers, and tried airing out the house. nothing is working. i am out of ideas!!
I use plain ol’ 20 Mule Team Borax in my bucket of woolite and hot water inside smoke “scented” cars that I detail. Works fantastic and is simply simple. On leather upholstery, I just use a yummy smelling leather cleaner. My favorite is Meguiar’s.
This page will tell how to get smoke odor out of your clothes..
In fact, it tells you many ways on using vinegar..
http://www.vinegarbook.net/vinegar_book_odors_page_2.shtml
okay so it’s not really a tip.. it’s more of a question… someone once told me that if i sprinkle the carpets with baking soda and the furniture that it will help get rid of the smell of smoke from the room & the air, too… they said that it will draw it in…..
Also, i read somewhere that vinegar is also another good way to get rid of the smell cus it draws it in……
Will feebreeze also work, too.. i mean if i use baking soda on the carpets & furniture… and if i also use vinegar…
please comment.. ty
oh, can you use vinegar to get rid of the smell of stinky clothes???
It’s not really a tip but I was woundering if anyone knows if the vinager in a bowl really works with the smoke smell and if so then would that bowl and anouther bowl with baking soda work….I just really need to find a way to get rid of the smell with out going outside (which is not an option in my case) and well of course I am not yet ready to quit smoking so…if any one can help me please email me with ur suggestions at lilcogger_gurl@live.ca thank you