The smell of cigarettes in the apartment is one of the persistent and difficult to eliminate. If you smoke often in a living room, in the toilet or in the kitchen, then the specific aroma is literally absorbed into the surrounding objects.
Simple folk recipes and special technical means will help you cope with the problem and restore freshness. We’ll tell you in this article how to quickly remove the smell of cigarettes from your apartment.
Available means
Folk recipes will help especially well in cases where people do not smoke constantly in the room, and the smell from cigarettes has not had time to be firmly absorbed into the environment. You can start with the simplest method - ventilation.
Ventilation
If the problem with the smell appeared after just smoking in the room, you can use ventilation . To do this, open all windows.
If possible, it is best to create a draft for at least half an hour, allowing air currents to carry away the unpleasant odor. If it is not possible to create a draft, you can turn on the fan to maximum.
Cinnamon
Cinnamon is a spice with a mild, pleasant aroma that almost everyone likes. To treat a smoky room you will need several sticks.
Procedure:
- Turn on the oven in the kitchen.
- Set the maximum temperature.
- Wrap the cinnamon sticks in foil and place inside the oven.
- Warm up for a quarter of an hour.
- Open the oven door.
- Open the doors of all rooms.
An alternative is to simmer the cinnamon sticks on the stove for half an hour. Do not lower the lid onto the pan.
Bay leaf
A bay leaf will help you quickly get rid of the cigarette aroma . For the air purification procedure, you will need an empty ashtray.
Several leaves are placed in it and set on fire. At the same time, the laurel itself should not burn, but only smolder, emitting smoke.
With an ashtray in hand, you need to slowly walk around the entire apartment so that the laurel smoke drowns out the smell of cigarettes. After treatment, the room is ventilated.
Smoldering leaves should not be left unattended, and upon completion of work they must be extinguished.
Vanilla
Vanilla flavor is liked by most people, and it can also be used to remove the aroma from cigarettes. For processing you will need a basin, vanilla powder and a towel.
Work order:
- Fill a basin with cold water;
- add a vanilla bag;
- stir;
- Dip a large towel in water;
- leave it to lie for 2 minutes;
- squeeze out;
- hang a towel in the room where you previously smoked.
A heavily smoky room will require re-treatment.
Borax
To eliminate the unpleasant odor, you will need dishwashing detergent and borax.
Preparation:
- Fill a basin with 6-7 liters of water.
- Add ½ cup of borax.
- Pour in 1 tsp. dishwashing gel.
- Stir.
The resulting solution is used to wipe surfaces in a smoky room.
It is also necessary to walk over upholstered furniture with a rag soaked in the solution, avoiding it from getting too wet. After this, go over all surfaces again with a cloth soaked in clean water.
Citrus
Citrus zest contains a large amount of essential oils and has a distinct strong aroma. The crusts are placed on plates and placed indoors.
If the smell from cigarettes is not stagnant, the aroma of citruses will quickly overcome it. This method will help you get rid of the old smell in a few days.
Vinegar
Table vinegar has the ability to neutralize aromas due to the acid it contains.
For processing, vinegar is diluted half and half with water . This solution is used to wipe surfaces.
The next step is to wipe the surfaces with a cloth soaked in clean water. Completes the cleaning - ventilation.
Essential oils
There are several ways you can use to scent a room. One of them is to use an aroma lamp. Pour a small amount of water into its bowl and add 5-7 drops of essential oil.
Once the candle is lit, the essential oils begin to evaporate , filling the room with a pleasant aroma.
If there is no aroma lamp, then a few drops can be applied to a cold electric light bulb, and then turn it on.
The “cold method” is also suitable:
- pour 1 liter of water into a basin;
- add 5 drops of essential oil;
- dip the towel;
- squeeze out excess water;
- hang a towel in a smoky room.
In the cold season, when heating radiators are running, a damp towel can not just be hung, but placed on the radiator.
This will make the essential oil evaporate even more intensely. It is recommended to use natural essential oils.
Wet towels
If you need to act very quickly, and you don’t have any special means at hand, you can take more terry towels and wet them well. The damp cloth will absorb aromas from the air. After this, the towels will need to be washed.
Soda, vinegar and ammonia
An effective way to eliminate odor in an apartment is to use a mixture of baking soda, vinegar, ammonia and water. To work you will need:
- water – 3 liters;
- soda – ¼ cup;
- vinegar - ¼ cup;
- ammonia - ½ cup.
All components are mixed. The resulting solution is used to wipe surfaces.
Ventilation is the best prevention of cigarette smoke pollution
The measures described above are used in advanced cases when the premises have been contaminated with tobacco smoke for many months or even years.
Meanwhile, there are simple ways to prevent contamination. If the problem is neighbors smoking in the entrance, then you need to look at the front door - find the cracks through which smoke enters the house. Rubber seals are usually used to seal the door. This will not only get rid of the unpleasant “entrance” smell: the sound insulation will increase, and the cold will stop coming from the door.
What to do if there is smoking in the house every day? It is enough to ventilate the apartment after each cigarette smoked. This will not allow the components of tobacco smoke to be absorbed into things and coatings - particles of resins and oil will leave the room along with the “old” air.
This decision seems obvious to a non-smoker, but for a smoker it is not so simple. If you smoke 10-15 cigarettes a day, you will have to ventilate almost every hour. This is not entirely convenient - it’s easier to leave the windows open at all, so as not to open and close them many times a day.
Unfortunately, this is difficult to achieve in urban conditions. There are at least four reasons for this.
- Dust . In Russia, the vast majority of urban apartment buildings are located near intra-block roads. In summer, road dust reaches the 4th floor, and if the windows are open, it will settle on all surfaces of the room;
- Smog. Not all residential complexes in Russia have underground parking. Most apartment buildings are characterized by spontaneous parking lots under the windows. The result is high levels of air pollution from exhaust gases;
- Noise. Children in the yard, passing cars, drunken groups, cutting the grass - all these and other sources of city noise make it impossible to fully relax in the apartment;
- Climate . In most Russian regions, real summer with consistently high temperatures lasts 6-8 weeks, after which the weather is no longer conducive to open windows. Only those who are fond of extreme hardening will be able to ventilate frequently at sub-zero temperatures. For everyone else, this risks hypothermia and colds.
A vicious circle arises - to prevent the smell of tobacco from remaining in the apartment, you need to regularly ventilate, but this is problematic due to dust, noise, smog and cold.
Technical room air purification
In a house where a smoker lives, technical means to eliminate the smell of cigarettes would be useful. Their use will allow you to solve the problem as it arises:
- Ionizer . When the ionizer operates, smoke particles become heavier. However, they do not remain in the air for a long time, but settle. The work of the ionizer should be complemented by wet cleaning.
- Air conditioner . To clean the air from the aroma of cigarettes, an air conditioner can be used, which has a separate function for this. You can supplement the effect of the air conditioner with wet cleaning.
- Hood . A kitchen hood will quickly remove the cigarette smell. In order for the smell to go away faster, you should select the “turbo” or “maximum” mode.
- Humidifier . A humidifier not only increases humidity, but also promotes the settling of tobacco smoke particles. To ensure comprehensive cleaning, it is also necessary to wipe all surfaces.
- Air purifier . Purifiers with a filtration system remove unpleasant odors from the room. Many well-known companies produce devices, including Mitsubishi, Panasonic and others. Units may have a different set of functions. The basic principle of operation is to pass air through the filter system. When choosing a device for home use, you should keep in mind that the filters will require regular replacement.
Even high-quality household purifiers do not completely clear the air of all harmful substances, but significantly reduce their concentration.
Methods for removing cigarette smell from an apartment
If a smoker does not go out onto the balcony or onto the street with a cigarette, but smokes right in the house, this inevitably leads to the appearance of a persistent unpleasant odor in the house. It is felt especially clearly by non-smoking household members and guests, but sometimes the smoker himself can feel it, for example, after returning from fresh air. In this case, the question arises of how to remove the bad aroma and return freshness to the house.
In general, ways to remove the unpleasant stench from tobacco can be divided into 2 categories:
- home remedies - using aromatic seasonings and spices, essential oils, absorbent substances;
- by specialized means - using aerosols created specifically to eliminate or muffle the smell of cigarettes.
All tobacco control options can be effective. However, there is one caveat: if you smoke in the apartment constantly, then the tobacco will remain within the walls of your home. No home or professional product can clean the air in an apartment if the rooms are constantly filled with tobacco smoke.
Attention! It is not enough to simply ventilate a heavily smoky apartment and treat it with aromatic substances or aerosols. Tobacco settles on walls, surfaces, and pieces of furniture; to get rid of the smell of tobacco in a room, you will need to treat literally the entire apartment with cleaning products.
How to neutralize aroma from wallpaper?
It will not be enough to simply ventilate a heavily smoky room. Cigarette smoke is firmly absorbed into surrounding objects, and wallpaper suffers more from this.
If the wallpaper can withstand wet treatment, it is worth going over it with a sponge dipped in an aqueous solution of vinegar.
If the wallpaper is old, with a lingering smell of cigarettes, you can simply replace it with new ones by carrying out cosmetic repairs.
Household chemicals
A radical way to get rid of tobacco stench at home is to resort to chemicals. To say goodbye to cigarette stains in the kitchen, toilet, bathroom or loggia forever, take: half a glass of ammonia, a quarter glass of baking soda and the same amount of vinegar, 3 liters of water.
Remember! You need to wear rubber gloves when preparing the solution.
Then mix everything, wipe the floor and decorative elements. This product should help eliminate the remaining suspended smoke particles in the apartment.
This composition can negatively affect wooden coverings. Before using it on hardwood floors or cabinets, test it on a small area of the surface to be cleaned.
How to get rid of the toilet?
Removing the smell of cigarettes from the toilet has its own nuances. Despite the absence of carpets and upholstered furniture, the smell of cigarettes can remain in such a room for a long time. This situation is especially common in toilet rooms with poor ventilation systems.
Adviсe:
- If an exhaust system is built into the vent, it should be turned on.
- If the toilet is combined with a bathtub, then terry towels and bathrobes left on the hook will have to be washed, as they absorb odors very well.
- You can add a fresh apple cut into several pieces. This fruit is capable of absorbing odors.
If the situation with smoking in the toilet repeats from time to time, then you can prepare for it in advance:
- Get a spray to neutralize odors. You can buy it in household chemical stores.
- Install the hood.
The toilet premises do not meet all the requirements for a smoking area.
We use absorbents
For those who cannot resist a bad habit, but do not want smoke and ash to eat into the surrounding interior, absorbent granules should be used. They are placed in ashtrays where they absorb odors well. After which virtually no traces of tobacco remain, such as residue or stench. With their help, you can also protect carpets by placing a small amount of granules on them.
Recommendations
Expert advice will help you cope with cleaning the air from cigarette smell quickly and efficiently:
Ventilation is the easiest way to remove odors. If possible, it should always be used when cleaning.- For rooms where people smoke frequently, the best option would be to use special cleaning equipment - hoods, air conditioners, etc.
- It may not always be possible to quickly remove the smell. For rooms with carpets, books, and upholstered furniture, removing the aroma from cigarettes will take a lot of time.
- Do not use multiple recipes at the same time in an attempt to mask odors. The result can be an unpleasant cacophony of aromas.
You will find a lot of useful and important information about removing various unpleasant odors from objects and surfaces in this section.
Wet towels
One of the most popular ways to get rid of any stench. If you want to freshen up a smoky room, soak a few terry towels in water and hang them around the perimeter of the room. In a short period of time, the rags will become saturated with “nicotine” and at the same time work as an air humidifier.
You need to keep the damp towels until the stench disappears. Afterwards, they will definitely need to be washed. Read more about this method here.
Valuable advice
- When using vinegar indoors, be sure to ventilate the apartment. Accumulated vapors can harm your health.
- There is no better way to get rid of smoke and burning than damp towels left for several hours.
- An alternative to cleaning vacuum cleaners is baking soda. To clean carpets, sprinkle it on the problem area. After 15 minutes, vacuum the stain.
- Coffee, salt and rice mask the stench very well. Place them in fabric bags and place them around the room.
- Don't forget about the existence of anti-tobacco absorbents.
If nothing helps the apartment, and the stench constantly makes itself felt, all that remains is to make a major overhaul by re-pasting the wallpaper and updating the ceiling.
Cushioned furniture
As for the upholstery of upholstered furniture, you should:
- Prepare a solution containing 5 liters of water with the addition of essential oil with your favorite aroma (10 drops are enough).
- Use an old sheet to soak it in the prepared water.
- Spread it on the sofa, tap it with a beater.
- This will cleanse the chair or bed from the hated residue of tobacco.
The remaining items need to be dry-cleaned; the smoke could have penetrated so deeply that the washing machine could not cope with it.
Treat the remaining surfaces with detergent or resort to folk tips that help deal with the stench just as well.
