Comments on: Removing Cigarette Smoke Odor From Couches

By: JenJoyHenry

JenJoyHenry — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 17:43:49 +0000

Smoke is one of the hardest smells to eliminate. After my chain-smoking in-laws left, I tried a few things, but I found this odor eliminator that worked really well that was recommended to me by my neighbor. It works great and is safe around the kids because it is environmentally friendly. You can find it at http://www.biocidesystems.com/roomshocker1.html

By: Brent

Brent — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 03:07:26 +0000

There is NO easy way to remove cigarette odor from upholstery! There are many home remedies out there, but they do NOT work very well! You will end up spending money with NO result! You need to have your furniture steam cleaned by a professional carpet cleaner. This really is the only thing that works very well! Your upholstery acts like a sponge for the cigarette smoke. It must be extracted! If not, you can only cover up the smell fo some time. Hope this helps.

By: Leslie Todd

Leslie Todd — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 01:19:53 +0000

I did try fuming the chest of drawers the photos were in. It also smelled very badly of moth balls. I used small plastic dishes with a paper towel soaked in bleach and put one in each drawer. I went back to the house two weeks later and it is much better.

By: Leslie Todd

Leslie Todd — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 19:30:53 +0000

Thanks, I’ll try that on a few and see. I can scan the originals or photograph them, but I get a headache just looking at them.

By: Dr. Richardson

Dr. Richardson — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 17:52:22 +0000

The Mothball oder is Naphthalene, a cyclic aromatic hydrocarbon, and that would explain why baking soda would not be working. In industry to remove it they would kelate the Naphthalene with a chlorine based cleaner, however this would almost certainly wreak the photos. Perhaps leaving some bleach in a container were it can fumigate the photos? Just don’t allow a direct contact or it will wreck the photos. Regarding the cigarette smoke the sodium bicarbonate treatment sounds like it should work.
Good luck

By: Kathy

Kathy — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 23:53:49 +0000

I would agree with the previous posters about baking soda. I bet if you sprinkled baking soda on the cushions & sealed them in a plastic bag for a few hours, then vacuumed it out, it would help a lot. Maybe add a couple of drops of perfume or essential oil to the baking soda as well. Good luck! That stinks (pardon the pun)!

By: Leslie Todd

Leslie Todd — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 04:57:04 +0000

We’ve been removing cigarette smoke from things from my mother-in-laws house lately. Washable things do best with the Febreze odor remover for laundry. For any other smell I use Out (a pet odor remover). My brother is removing the smoke smell from the couch with his ozone machine. It’s a professional machine used by people who clean up after fires, etc. If the do it yourself stuff fails I’d get someone with an ozone machine to do the job.

I’ve been using baking soda to try to remove the odor from the family photos she had stored with moth balls. It’s not working so well.

By: Deputy's Wife

Deputy's Wife — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 19:22:59 +0000

Would baking soda work? I use baking soda to pull out a bad urine odor out of my carpet when we moved into this house. I had to do it several times, but sprinkle it (dry) over the area. Let it sit for an hour, then vacuum.

It was inexpensive and it worked!