Smoking in your home

I'm not going to talk about the dangers of smoking to you or the dangers of a fire starting.  I want to talk about what cigarette smoke does to your home.

If you are a smoker and you smoke in your home or if you moved into a home that had smokers have you ever paid attention to your walls?  To your ceiling? To your upholstery?    You white wall will be yellow, your ceiling will be yellow and your upholstery will absorb the cigarette smell.

The holidays are here which mean having family and friends in your home. The worst thing for non-smokers are the smell of cigarettes....or ashtrays.  

You can rid your home of the smell and yellow tinting on walls and ceilings but it will take a lot of work.

You can open windows, use candles, Fabreze, Lysol or air fresheners for a short term solution to ridding the smell.

For the long term solution it is going to take a lot of elbow grease!  To clean walls and ceiling grab the bleach.  Don't forget to open the windows!!  Use one part bleach to six part water and start scrubbing.  Once you are done guess what...you are not done!  Now add one part vinegar to one part baking soda to eight parts water and do it again.  

Furniture is a whole different beast.  It will determine what your furniture is made out of to determine the best way to clean it.  For fabric grab the steam cleaner and have fun. There is nothing more difficult than steam cleaning your furniture.  Drapery and curtains will need to be taken down and washed.  Baking Soda, Baking Soda and Baking Soda but be careful and make sure your draining system can handle baking soda.  

Wood furniture can be cleaned with a good safe lemon oil while leather furniture need Orange TKO to do the trick.  

Carpet needs Baking Soda spread over the ENTIRE carpet and left on for 24-48 hours than vacuumed up.  Leave no spot uncovered. Pay attention when vacuuming as the baking soda will tend to clog up the vacuum and you will need to dump often.  This works if the smoke has only penetrated the carpet fibers...if it is long term than it will have penetrated the padding and this solution will not work in the long run.  If it has penetrated the padding remember that steam cleaner you used on furniture....get to work because that is the only way to clean your carpets of the smoke smell.



Remember to use a steam cleaner that removes MOST of the water put into the carpet. Most steam cleaners on the market today say they do only to find out it takes days for your carpets to dry.  If this happens the smell will come back. 

I don't know about you but this process of eliminating smoke odors is very time consuming and expensive.  The thought of "scrubbing" the walls and ceiling.....sorry you couldn't pay me enough to do that.

If you find yourself in need of ridding your home of that cigarette smoke smell and discoloring and you are in Southern Colorado I highly recommend Trujillo Cleaning Company (formally Trujillo's Steam Clean).  If you are not in Southern Colorado and this seems like a lot of work find a local professional to take care of this for you.

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