Thursday, April 16, 2015

Smelly Smoke Houses

As a non cigarette smoker, you may not realize or believe people still smoke in their homes.  I've even spoken to smokers and some have stopped or never did light up in their home or even car. But trust me, over the years I've shown many smoke filled houses. 

While house hunting, have you ever walked in to a house and couldn't bear the smell? Maybe it's even turned you off from looking at the rest of the property. Honestly, it shouldn't be a deal breaker (maybe a negotiating tool though!) if you know what can be done to eliminate the smell. 

Smoke stays in furniture, clothes, window drapes and rugs. Once the home is vacant of those items, the smell honestly may not be too horrendous. 
I've researched some tips on getting the smell out of a home after it's empty:
  • Walls Scrub your walls with a mixture of ammonia or vinegar and water.
  • Carpet Spread a dry carpet cleaner with granules on your carpet and let it sit for an hour. When done, vacuum it up [source: Heloise]. 
  • Furniture Simply sprinkle baking soda on your furniture, and allow it to sit for a while, soaking up the smoky smell. Vacuum up the baking soda after a few hours, and the smoky smell should be gone [source: Reader's Digest].
  • House Place several bowls of white or cider vinegar, which have the strongest scent of all vinegars, throughout the house. The vinegar odor will permeate the house, and the smoke odor should be gone in less than a day. If you want to speed the process, soak a towel with vinegar and wave it around the room [source: Readers Digest].

Wiki also has a step by step tutorial:

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