How to Get Cigarette Smoke Out of Upholstered Furniture
If you're a chronic smoker, you probably don't smell the smoke in your house, but your guests probably do. If you don't want to be the "butt" of everyone's jokes when they're talking about their last visit to your home, then it's time to start working on getting that pesky cigarette smoke smell out of your furniture. This process may not completely rid your home of the odor (especially if you continue to smoke in the house after cleaning it up), but it will greatly reduce the problem. Does this Spark an idea?
Things You'll Need
- Baking soda Handheld vacuum Handheld steam cleaner Rug shampooer with attachment Febreze
Instructions
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Sprinkle baking soda on the furniture and let it sit for a few hours or more before vacuuming it off with a handheld vacuum. Baking soda is a natural deodorizing tool. It's all right if some of the baking soda is left behind because it will sit in the fibers and continue to deodorize the furniture.
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Steam clean the upholstery with a handheld steamer. Hold it about 4 to 6 inches from the fabric surface when steaming, and go over the upholstery a few times. The hot steam gets deep into the upholstery to kill odor and help bring it out of your fabrics.
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Shampoo the upholstery with a rug shampooer that has a brush attachment, preferably a rotating brush to really work the odor out of the fibers of your upholstered furniture. Insert a mixture of carpet cleaner, Febreze or a similar odor-eliminating liquid, and hot water.
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Spritz your upholstered furniture with a Febreze type of product after you have finished cleaning it. The Febreze spray helps to replace the odor with a fresh scent, at least temporarily.
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Tips & Warnings
Open the windows in your house to let fresh air in when you're deodorizing your furniture and other smoke-drenched items. If your upholstered furniture is old and reeks of rank cigarette smoke, sometimes it's best to just throw it in the trash and start over. Designate a fairly empty enclosed room in your house with a window as the "smoking room" so that your upholstered furniture won't suffer, or ask the smokers in your household to smoke outside. Consider buying an air purifier to capture smoke before it has a chance to permeate your upholstery. See "Resources" for a suggested purifier.
