Cigarette smoke can be a tough smell to get rid of. When someone smokes, everything they touch and wear smells like cigarettes. Many people would agree this smell isn’t pleasant. Not only do smokers have the smell of smoke stuck to their skin, they track it through their clothes and the car they drive.
The process can seem daunting when deodorizing the cigarette smell of your house, but if you follow these simple tips in this article, you will be well on your way to a cigarette-free-smelling house.
Read on to learn how to get cigarette smell out of the house!
How To Get Rid of Cigarette Smoke in Your House
There are many ways to avoid and help you with cigarette smell in your house. It’s always important to lay down ground rules as the homeowner when guests or someone who lives with you is a smoker.
It’s not shocking that you want your house not to smell like cigarettes, especially if you plan to be selling a flood-damaged house in the future. If you live in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, there are cash home buyers in Wisconsin, including us since we buy houses Oshkosh homeowners are selling. You won’t need to worry about the long process of selling, as we will tell you how much it will cost to sell your home.
Here are some handy tips to remember when figuring out how to fix the cigarette smoke smell.
- Air out your house
- Turn on all your fans
- Sweep, mop, and vacuum
- Use ammonia
- Steam clean your carpets
- Clean all glass and mirrors
- Spray smelly smoke infested rooms with Febreeze or something similar
- Set out bowls of activated charcoal
- Set up a dehumidifier
- Simmer white vinegar or lemon peels in water
- Deep clean upholstered furniture
- Lightly mist any fabric that’s hard to clean with Febreeze Fabric Spray
- Mop finished floors
- Change your air filters in your AC and heating units
- Invest in an air purifier
- Purchase essential oil diffusers, scented candles, or scented plugins
- Empty all ashtrays and stop smoking in the house
While this list is extensive, only use the tips that apply most to you and your house. It’s essential to put ground rules in about no smoking in the house because this is the number one reason your house smells like cigarette smoke.
Appleton Professional Cleaning Services
The above tips are very temporary and time-consuming if the repeat offender keeps coming in with cigarette smoke clothes. The next best and the more permanent option is to hire a professional cleaning service in the Appleton area. There are many reasons to hire a professional. Here are those reasons to consider.
- Professional cigarette smoke removal companies have reputable ways of removing smoke from your living area.
- Odor eliminator is always entirely taken care of, and there’s not a hint of cigarette smoke residue.
- They have professional and heavy-duty sources to eliminate the cigarette smoke smell.
- Professional cigarette smoke removal companies have years of experience dealing with this specific smell.
- They own the best tools to completely get rid of the putrid smell.
- They can use very aggressive removal methods, including wet fogging, thermal fogging, and ozone shock treatment.
Remove Smoke-Stained Furniture
If your specific issue with the cigarette smoke smell is that it lingers mainly on the fabric of your furniture, there are many home remedies and tools to help get rid of this smell embedded in your furniture. Here are some ways to safely remove the cigarette smoke smell from the fabric of your furniture.
- Some things to use when you have filmy buildup in your furniture’s fabric. Here is a home remedy that can help solve the problem. Use a cup of white vinegar mixed with a quarter-gallon of water for the more complex hard surfaces. After being wiped down with this solution, use a towel or let it air dry before using the furniture.
- Use a fabric refresher. For furniture that’s fabric-based, this kind of method is best to remove and clean the cigarette odor out. A home remedy for fabric refresher is recommended to have two parts water and one part vinegar. If you can easily wash the fabric in the washer, follow the care directions and add a cup of vinegar to ensure the cigarette smell gets removed completely.
- Fresh air quality is a temporary solution but is very simple if the cigarette smell isn’t very strong. This air freshener method should only get used if the cigarette smell isn’t lingering in different areas of the home.
Repaint Smoke Smelling Rooms
Another issue when it comes to rooms that smell like cigarette smoke is that the smell also sticks to the walls. To get rid of this smell stuck to the walls, you need to do some deep cleaning and consider repainting the walls.
The repainting will also block out the smell from before, but you need to clean the walls first with cleaning supplies before you can repaint them. Here are some steps to repainting your smoke-ridden walls and rooms.
- Dry cleaning: you need to use something called dry cleaning sponges. These are also called chemical sponges. They don’t have any chemicals in them but just have a harsher material to get dirt and soot easily into the pores of the sponge.
- Wet cleaning: the best cleaning product for wet cleaning is TSP or Trisodium Phosphate. TSP usually comes in powder form, so you must mix it with warm water when following the directions on the box. After you have wiped down and cleaned the area with TSP, take a sponge with just water to get rid of any excess solution that was left over.
- Priming: you can’t just apply paint directly to the smoke-stained walls. Even if the odor is gone from the deep cleaning, the walls are ridden with nicotine stains. You need to use an excellent stain-blocking primer before painting.
- Painting: now that you’ve cleaned and primed the area, it’s ready to be painted over. You will need at least two coats of paint for most paints. This method will leave your room cigarette smoke-free and prepared to sell your house in the future.
Clean Rugs and Carpets Multiple Times
If you have a cigarette smoke smell in your house, this is a crucial step in getting rid of the smell. Granted, you don’t clean your carpets and rugs as often as you should. You should be using vacuums and getting your carpet steam cleaned from time to time to keep the smoke odor out and always look the best.
Depending on how deep the cigarette smell infiltrates your carpets, there are several methods to clean them. Here are a few tips on how to clean your carpets and rugs.
- Get rid of the dust and dirt
- Spot clean stains
- Vacuum and treat visible stains
- Make a DIY water-vinegar cleaning solution
- Apply and wait
- Clean with baking soda and salt
Keep Windows Open Frequently
Even though opening your windows to get rid of the cigarette smoke smell seems like the last result, there are many benefits in general to this. Here are some reasons you should leave your windows open every day.
- Your home can smell better with fresh air.
- It helps with your mental health and a positive attitude
- Save money in the summertime
Conclusion
Although learning how to get cigarette smell out of the house seems challenging at first, you can always just take your time going step by step with the tips we recommend. There’s no rush in finding the best option for you to get rid of the smell.
Don’t forget that doing nothing about the smell can make it difficult in the future for your house to sell. Get it out while the smell is still manageable.