Smoking cigarettes can be a smelly affair. Over the last 20 years, more and more public places have put a stop to public smoking. As these bans continue to become more stringent, it leaves fewer options for smokers to find a relaxing place to light up. The prospects have become limited to the streets, public smoking areas outside buildings and one's own home. These restrictions have been put in place for good reason; smoke itself is damaging to both the people and structures around us. But if you're wondering how to get the smoke smell out of your house, you're not alone.
At home, you're more than likely free to smoke when and where you please. However, this doesn't exempt you from the smoke's effects on the surfaces it comes into contact with. While you might be able to enjoy a cigarette from the comfort of your bed or couch, you might not like the odor that the smoke leaves behind. Figuring out how to remove smoke smell from your house is necessary for those who want to protect their homes. Next to stains, smoke odor is one of the most significant issues with smoking indoors. Finding the right smoke odor eliminator isn't always the most straightforward task, either.
In this article, we'll look at several candidates that can become your new favorite smoke odor eliminators. Whether you need to figure out how to get rid of the smoke smell in your house for your landlord, you want to make your place as clean as possible or you're worried about being able to prevent the odor altogether, one of these is sure to do the trick.
A Few Helpful Smoke Eliminators To Help With Odor
Removing the smoke smell from your house's walls (or ceiling, carpet, fabric, etc.) is no easy task. Cigarette smoke produces smoke molecules encapsulated in microscopic bits of oil and tar, which adhere wherever they land. In most cases, elbow grease and soap aren't going to cut it. In many cases, the smoke may have permeated too deeply into your carpet, drapes or furnishings to get rid of it altogether.
If these odors can be removed without replacing the items altogether, supplement your elbow grease with some of these smoke odor eliminators to get the best results.
Natural Smoke Odor Eliminators
Natural smoke odor eliminators are products you can use that don't rely on chemicals to help clear your home from the smell of smoke. You may even have these products lying around your house already!
Vinegar
Pet owners and parents are no strangers to the fact that vinegar can work wonders against strong odors. It's a non-toxic, natural smoke eliminator that neutralizes odors rather than masking them. Scrubbing down (washable) walls, floors, furniture and such with white vinegar can do a great job at clearing rooms of any unpleasant smells. For smoke damage, it can also be helpful to boil the vinegar and let the steam waft through the air, or leave a few bowls of vinegar around the room for a few days.
While vinegar cuts through odors, it does have a pretty strong smell of its own. Thankfully, this odor won't stick around once you remove the substance from the room, but if it bothers you in the meantime, try mixing in some pleasantly scented oils.
Baking Soda
Baking soda is another common household item that acts as a natural smoke odor eliminator. Rather than masking smells, baking soda has unique properties that absorb odor. Sprinkling a bit (or a lot) of baking soda on floors and furniture can help remove some of the odor. Leave the baking soda to sit and soak in the odor for at least two hours, and then vacuum it up. Leaving out bowls anywhere from 24 hours to several days can also help soak in odors.
Baking soda is more likely to help on furniture and carpeting and less on walls, however. Again, a severe smoke damage problem is going to need something a little more intense.
Activated Charcoal
More than just a millennial food trend, activated charcoal has plenty of benefits that goes beyond gastronomical aesthetics. To understand how to remove smoke from your house using activated charcoal, let's look at its properties. Activated charcoal contains carbon molecules that can chemically trap smells and clear them from the air. Like baking soda and vinegar, activated charcoal is also a natural smoke odor eliminator.
Also, like baking soda, leaving bowls of activated charcoal around a room for at least 24 hours can help remove unwanted odors. This, of course, isn't a truly deep cleansing solution either.
Non-Natural Smoke Eliminators
These smoke eliminator products are chemically created to help rid your house of smells for the cleaning process.
Febreeze
If you’ve caught the odor before it has permeated too deeply into the walls of the room, you might need to mask and absorb the smell rather than purge it from the surfaces. Febreze and other smoke odor eliminating products contain a compound that absorbs odors while also perfuming the area. While this won’t fix smoke damage and won’t get smoke odors out of the walls, if your odor problem hasn’t gotten too dire, this might be a way to cover it up.
A note: Febreeze is not an effective way to do a deep cleanse. You should use it solely for catching odors early on.
Smoke Odor Eliminator Machines
Smoke odor eliminator machines are machines you can buy or rent to aid in your deep cleaning process to rid your house of smoke smells.
Steam
Steam cleaning can be highly effective on walls, floors and upholstery coated with smoke smells. The heat of the steam melts the hardened tar and oils that have adhered to your home's surfaces, making it easy to wipe them away. You can purchase a steamer or rent one at a reasonably low price. Mist your house's surfaces lightly to begin removing the smoke smell from your home, then wipe them away. Combining the steaming method with vinegar makes for an incredibly effective smoke eliminator process. Be sure not to oversaturate your surfaces with steam; the heat can damage fabrics and sometimes even melt drywall.
Ozone Generator
Once smoke has permeated deep enough into a surface, figuring out how to get rid of the smoke smell in your house won't be as simple as using a few helpful chemicals and giving the walls a healthy scrub. A step up for serious problems can be to use an ozone generator. Unfortunately, these machines aren't cheap. You'll want to rent one or hire a professional to make sure the process is carried out appropriately. This will also require you to evacuate the place for a while.
To truly remove smoke smell from your house means getting rid of smoke particles. Rather than absorbing them, ozone generators destroy these particles, virtually eliminating the odor. This is a more thorough and intense solution to lingering smoke odors.
That being said, even ozone generators can't eliminate all levels of smoke odors. If the smoke has permeated surfaces, carpets, etc., from years of neglect, then even these powerful machines aren't going to be able to get to all of the smoke particles. In these severe cases, replacing the contaminated surfaces might be the only option.
An Odorless Alternative
Maybe your room hasn't been infested with a lingering smoke odor yet, or perhaps it hasn't gotten all that bad. Whatever the case might be, if you're more worried about making sure this lingering smoke damage doesn't become a problem, but you still want to be able to smoke in the comfort of your home, there is an odorless, stainless alternative: vape.
People don't really wonder how to get rid of vape smell, and for a good reason. While cigarettes are banned in most public places, vapes are not. This is because vaping doesn't harm the people around you or damage the walls and ceilings in your home — and it doesn't leave an odor. Instead of smoke, you're just breathing out vapor, after all.
Blowing big bubblegum-scented clouds in a public space is annoying – don't do that – but it isn't harmful. In the comfort of your own home, reaching for a vape rather than a cigarette is a great way to be able to enjoy the same pull without running the risk of damaging your walls or ceiling or being cursed with lingering smoke odor afterward. For this and many other reasons, you might consider visiting your favorite smoke shop to pick up a mod or a vape pen for yourself — and save your room from smoke damage while you're at it.
Free Smoke Vape Shop is Here to Help Remove the Smoke Smell From Your House
While more serious cases of smoke damage require in-depth solutions, Free Smoke Vape Shop has smoke odor eliminator products to help you catch early cases. If your home is free of smoke damage and you're just looking to catch a cigarette in the comfort of your own home, check out products like our Smoke Odor Eliminator Spray or Smoke Odor Eliminator Candle that can help you catch smoke particles before they become adhered to your surfaces and mask the smell, leaving the rooms in your home smelling great.