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Recipe 88 of 100 · The Country Cleans Mix Book

How to Get Smoke Smell Out of a Room, Curtains and Couch

After the First Fire

Smoke lives in three places: the air, the hard surfaces and the fabric, and you have to do all three. Set shallow bowls of plain white vinegar out overnight with the windows open. Wash walls and ceiling top to bottom with 4 cups warm water, 1 cup vinegar and 1 tablespoon dish soap. Work dry baking soda into curtains and upholstery, wait 4 hours, vacuum. Then a light mist of 1 cup 70% rubbing alcohol and 1 cup water, tested first.

Smoke Smell Removal for a Room or Fabric recipe card: 2 cups white vinegar, in bowls, 1 cup baking soda, dry, 1 cup 70% alcohol + 1 cup water
What it fixesCigarette, cigar and campfire smoke soaked into walls, curtains, upholstery and jackets.

You need

Mix it

  1. Pour plain vinegar into two or three shallow bowls for the room. Nothing added.
  2. Mix the warm water, 1 cup vinegar and dish soap in a bucket for the walls.
  3. Combine the rubbing alcohol and water in the spray bottle for fabric. Label it, because it looks like water and it is flammable.

Use it

  1. Open every window and set the bowls of plain vinegar around the room overnight. Vinegar vapor neutralizes airborne smoke compounds while you sleep somewhere else.
  2. Wash the walls and ceiling with the bucket solution, top to bottom, then wipe with clean water. Smoke residue is a sticky tar film and it sits highest on the walls, so do not skip the ceiling.
  3. For upholstery and curtains, sprinkle dry baking soda over the fabric, work it in with your hand, wait 4 hours, then vacuum it out completely.
  4. Test the alcohol spray on a hidden seam and wait 10 minutes. If no color transfers to a white cloth, mist the fabric lightly until barely damp, never soaked.
  5. Let it air dry with a fan running. Alcohol carries the smell molecules out as it evaporates. Repeat once on heavy cases.
Dale's noteSmoke lives in three places and people only ever treat one. Air, hard surfaces and soft surfaces. Do all three in the same weekend or the untreated one reloads the other two within days.
Don'tDo not spray the alcohol mix near a gas stove pilot light, a water heater, a candle or a space heater. Alcohol vapor is flammable while it is evaporating, and never use it on leather because it strips the finish and cracks it.
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