How do you get the smell of smoke out?

[dipolley]

Good Morning Forums. As some know my Dad passed a couple of months back. He was a 2-pack-a-day man. While I have long since gotten rid of his Jeep, I have inherieted a bunch of his things. Camping equipment, cold weather gear, and everything you need for a Colorado winter. I can't get the smell off of any fabric. Leather, vinyl, and good old fashoined cotton. I have soaked the cloths over night, one jacket went through the washer 5 times before I finally threw it away. Even his leather boots just reek. I have used viniger in the wash. Used APC, leather and interior cleaner, carpet and opolstry cleaner, everything I can think of short of buying an ozone machine and sticking everything in a closet.

 

Any ideas as to what I can do or use to get the smell of smoke out of these fabrics? I don't want to get rid of this stuff, it was my Dad's and it is all very nice, but I won't even bring it in the house it smells so bad.

 

Thanks in advance.

 

If you are curious what it smells like, get a pack of Marlboro Menthols, soak it in Jovan Musk, then light it on fire.

[THE Mook]

I would say to get an Ozone machine and lock all that stuff with the machine in a closed space like a closet or something.

 

Justin@SwanCreek has a nice machine, if he sees this thread, I am sure he will chime in on the benefit.

 

Mook

[Rich]

This is Rich's wife. Try to soak what you can in warm water and white vinegar and stuff that you can't soak, put dryer sheets inside the sleeves and between the clothes. Then put baking soda in the shoes.

If that doesn't work, I suggest washing the clothes with warm water and baking soda and putting the rest inside a sealed box with 4 or 5 open boxes of baking soda for about a week. Just take the lids off the baking soda and leave the boxes upright inside the box. Don't dump it out. When you wash the clothes, fill up the washer with the water and a small box of baking soda and dissolve it first in the water before you put in your clothes. Be sure to run it through the rinse cycle an extra time or two before drying to make sure you get it all out. That should do the trick. I had the same problem when my mother died and I had good results. I used Arm and Hammer........the cheap stuff didn't work as well. Good luck.

[cfiiman]

I'm new here but do know the answer to this as I bought a used Lexus suv that had the same problem.

 

First, use coffee grounds. Simply fill a can with whatever coffee you would like and leave it open in the car around the clock for a few days. I believe I remember picking up this tip from reading that funeral homes did it (morbid I know) but it works amazing. The coffee absorbs odors much like baking soda in a fridge and leaves a nice coffee smell if you like coffee, if you don't it is still better then smoke, yuck.

 

Secondly I use a spray called "ozium". You can pick it up most car stores. It was originally developed to sanitize the air in hospitals, and you simply spray it about 1-2 seconds inside you car with the fan/ a/c system on full blast to get it through the whole system (about 5 min).

 

Repeat these steps a few times and it will clear it up, good luck.

 

Edit= LOL, just re-read the op question and realized it was for clothes, sorry my explanation is for cars, I'll leave it in case someone else is looking for the info.

[XQIZT]

Sorry to hear about your dad. I know how hard that is.

 

Some time back, someone talked about putting a bag of charcoal in the back seat of a car to absorb odors. If you put all of the belongings in a small area with a bag, you might get the same effect. Let us know what works best.

[dipolley]

Thanks everyone. All the ideas are great and all have merrit. I think I am going to try a large contractor bag with the Ozium (it worked on his car before I sold it). After that I think the coffee grounds idea will be best, because that was all he drank and he would like that.

 

To Rich's wife: I did try the vinegar trick and it got me 60% of the way there. Good tip.